7. The women sang, “Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed tens of thousands.”
8. This song upset Saul and he became very angry. Saul thought, “The women give David credit for killing tens of thousands of the enemy, and they give me credit for only thousands. A little more of this and they will give him the kingdom itself!”
9. So from that time on, Saul watched David very closely.
10. The next day, an evil spirit from God took control of Saul and he went wild in his house. David played the harp to calm him as he usually did,
11. but Saul had a spear in his hand. He thought, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” Saul threw the spear twice, but David jumped out of the way both times.
12. The Lord had left Saul and was now with David, so Saul was afraid of David.
13. Saul sent David away and made him a commander over 1000 soldiers. This put David out among the men even more as they went into battle and returned.
14. The Lord was with David, so he was successful in everything.
15. Saul saw how successful David was and became even more afraid of him.
16. But all the people in Israel and Judah loved David because he was out among them and led them into battle.
17. One day Saul said to David, “Here is my oldest daughter, Merab. I will let you marry her. Then you will be like a son to me and you will be a real soldier. Then you will go and fight the Lord’S battles.” Saul was really thinking, “Now I won’t have to kill David. I will let the Philistines kill him for me.”
18. But David said, “I am not an important man from an important family. I can’t marry the king’s daughter.”
19. So when the time came for David to marry Saul’s daughter, Saul let her marry Adriel from Meholah.