7. As they played, they sang,“Saul has killed thousands of his enemies.But David has killed tens of thousands!”
8. The women’s song upset Saul, and he became very angry. He thought, “The women say David has killed tens of thousands of enemies. But they say I killed only thousands of enemies. The only thing left for him to have is the kingdom!”
9. So Saul watched David closely from then on. He was jealous of him.
10. The next day an evil spirit from God entered Saul with power. And he prophesied in his house. David was playing the harp as he usually did. But Saul had a spear in his hand.
11. He raised the spear and thought, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David got away from him two times.
12. The Lord was with David but had left Saul. So Saul was afraid of David.
13. He sent David away from him. He made David commander of 1,000 soldiers. So David led them in battle.
14. He had great success in everything he did because the Lord was with him.
15. Saul saw that David was very successful. And he became even more afraid of David.
16. But all the people of Israel and Judah loved David. This was because he led them well in battle.
17. Saul said to David, “You’re a brave soldier. And you fight the Lord’s battles. Here is my older daughter Merab. I will let you marry her.” Saul had decided, “I won’t have to kill David. The Philistines will do that!”
18. But David said, “I am not good enough for this honor. And my family is not important enough for me to become the king’s son-in-law.”