And Michal took an image and laid it in the bed, put a cover of goats’ hair for his head, and covered it with clothes.
Parallel translations
- WEB Michal took the teraphim, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats’ hair at its head, and covered it with clothes.
- KJV And Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats’ hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth.
- BSB Then Michal took a household idol and laid it in the bed, placed some goat hair on its head, and covered it with a garment.
- NASB And Michal took the household idol and laid it on the bed, and put a quilt of goats’ hair at its head, and covered it with clothing.
- NLT Then she took an idol and put it in his bed, covered it with blankets, and put a cushion of goat’s hair at its head.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Michal places a household idol in the bed, with goats' hair at its head, covered with clothes, to make it appear David is sleeping there.
Overview
Michal stages a decoy to delay the assassins, using a teraphim (a household image) found in the home. The presence of such an idol hints at the imperfect spiritual state of even David's household. The narrative records the deception without commending the idol, focusing on God's providential preservation of David through the night.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Gen 31:19Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father’s.
- Judg 18:14Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered, and said to their brothers, “Do you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and an engraved image, and a molten image? Now therefore consider what you have to do.”
- Judg 18:17The five men who went to spy out the land went up, and came in there, and took the engraved image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image; and the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war.
- Judg 17:5The man Micah had a house of gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.
- Hos 3:4For the children of Israel shall live many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without sacred stone, and without ephod or idols.
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Christ at the center
The rise of the anointed king after Israel's failed first choice points to the true Anointed One (Messiah means 'anointed'), the shepherd-king after God's own heart from Bethlehem.
How 1 Samuel 19:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.