CHAPTER 18
1 And it was done, when David had ended to speak to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was glued together to the soul of David, that is, joined together by the glue of charity, that may not be broken, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
2 And Saul took David in that day, and granted not to him, that he should turn again into the house of his father.
3 And Jonathan and David made a bond of peace; for Jonathan loved David as his own soul;
4 for why Jonathan unclothed him-self from the coat that he was clothed in, and he gave it to David, and his other clothes, unto his sword and his bow, and unto his girdle.
5 And David went forth to all things, to whatever things Saul sent him, and he governed himself prudently; and Saul setted him over the men of battle, and he was accepted in the eyes of all the people, and mostly in the sight of the servants of Saul.
6 Forsooth when David turned again, when the Philistine was slain, and bare the head of the Philistine into Jerusalem, women went out of all the cities of Israel, and sang, and led dances, against the coming of king Saul, in tympans of gladness, and in trumps.
7 And the women sang, playing, and saying, Saul hath slain a thousand, and David ten thousand.
8 And Saul was wroth greatly, and this word displeased before him; and he said, They have given ten thousand to David, and but one thousand to me; what leaveth to him, no but the realm alone?
9 Therefore Saul beheld David not with rightful eye, from that day and afterward.
10 Soothly after the tother day, a wicked spirit of God assailed Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of his house. And David harped with his hand, as by all days before; and Saul held a spear,
11 and cast it, and guessed that he might preen David with the wall, that is, pierce right through him with the spear, so that it should pass into the wall; and David bowed [aside] from his face the second time.
12 And Saul dreaded David, for the Lord was with David, and had gone away from him.
13 Then Saul removed David from himself, and made him chieftain upon a thousand men; and David went out and he came in before the people.
14 And David did wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him;
15 and so Saul saw that David was full prudent or full wise, and he began to beware of David.
16 And all Israel and Judah loved David; for he went in and out before them.
17 And Saul said to David, Lo! mine elder daughter Merab, I shall give her for a wife to thee; only be thou a strong man, and fight thou the Lord’s battles. Forsooth Saul areckoned, and said, Mine hand be not in him, but the hand of Philistines be on him.
18 And David said to Saul, Who am I, either what is my life, either the family of my father in Israel, that I be made the son-in-law of the king?
19 And when the time came that Merab, the daughter of Saul, should have been given wife to David, she was given wife to Adriel the Meholathite.
20 Forsooth David loved Michal, the [tother] daughter of Saul; and it was told to Saul, and it pleased him.
21 And Saul said, I shall give her to him, that it be to him into cause of stumbling, and the hand of Philistines be upon him. Therefore Saul said to David, In wedding one of my two daughters thou shalt be my son-in-law today.
22 And Saul commanded to his servants, Speak ye privily to David, as if it were me unwitting, and say ye to him, Lo! thou pleasest the king, and all his servants love thee; now there-fore be thou [the] husband of the king’s daughter.
23 And the servants of Saul spake all these words in the ears of David. And David said, Whether it seem little to you for me to be the king’s son-in-law? Forsooth I am a poor man, and a feeble.
24 And the servants told to Saul, and said, David spake such words.
25 Soothly Saul said, Thus speak ye to David, The king hath no need to gifts for spousals, no but only to an hundred prepuces, that is, men’s rods uncircumcised, of the Philistines, that vengeance be made of the king’s enemies. Certainly Saul thought to betake David into the hands of Philistines.
26 And when the servants of Saul had told to David the words, which Saul had said, the word pleased in the eyes of David, that he should be made the king’s son-in-law. And after a few days,
27 David rose up, and went into Ekron, with the men that were with him, and he killed of Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their prepuces, and he numbered those [or them] to the king, that he should be the king’s son-in-law. And so Saul gave Michal, his daughter, wife to him.
28 And Saul saw, and understood, that the Lord was with David. Certainly Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved David,
29 and Saul began more to dread David; and Saul was made enemy to David in all days.
30 And the princes of Philistines went out to fight; but from the beginning of their going out, David bare himself more wisely than all the men of Saul; and the name of David was made full solemn.