1 Samuel 18:11

18:11 and Saul threw the spear, thinking, “I’ll nail David to the wall!” But David escaped from him on two different occasions.

1 Samuel 19:2-11

19:2 So Jonathan told David, “My father Saul is trying ¹  to kill you. So be careful tomorrow morning. Find ²  a hiding place and stay in seclusion. ³  19:3 I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are. I will speak about you to my father. When I find out what the problem is, ⁴  I will let you know.”

19:4 So Jonathan spoke on David’s behalf ⁵  to his father Saul. He said to him, “The king should not sin against his servant David, for he has not sinned against you. On the contrary, his actions have been very beneficial ⁶  for you. 19:5 He risked his life ⁷  when he struck down the Philistine and the Lord gave all Israel a great victory. When you saw it, you were happy. So why would you sin against innocent blood by putting David to death for no reason?”

19:6 Saul accepted Jonathan’s advice ⁸  and took an oath, “As surely as the Lord lives, he will not be put to death.” 19:7 Then Jonathan called David and told him all these things. Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he served him as he had done formerly. ⁹ 

19:8 Now once again there was war. So David went out to fight the Philistines. He defeated them thoroughly ¹⁰  and they ran away from him. 19:9 Then an evil spirit from the Lord came upon ¹¹  Saul. He was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, while David was playing the lyre. ¹²  19:10 Saul tried to nail David to the wall with the spear, but he escaped from Saul’s presence and the spear drove into the wall. ¹³  David escaped quickly ¹⁴  that night.

19:11 Saul sent messengers to David’s house to guard it and to kill him in the morning. Then David’s wife Michal told him, “If you do not save yourself ¹⁵  tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!”

1 Samuel 19:15

19:15 Then Saul sent the messengers back to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me on his bed so I can kill him.”

1 Samuel 20:1

Jonathan Seeks to Protect David

20:1 David fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came to Jonathan and asked, ¹⁶  “What have I done? What is my offense? ¹⁷  How have I sinned before your father? For he is seeking my life!”

1 Samuel 23:15

23:15 David realized ¹⁸  that Saul had come out to seek his life; at that time David was in Horesh in the desert of Ziph.

1 Samuel 25:29

25:29 When someone sets out to chase you and to take your life, the life of my lord will be wrapped securely in the bag ¹⁹  of the living by the Lord your God. But he will sling away the lives of your enemies from the sling’s pocket!

Psalms 63:9-10

63:9 Enemies seek to destroy my life, ²⁰ 

but they will descend into the depths of the earth. ²¹ 

63:10 Each one will be handed over to the sword; ²² 

their corpses will be eaten by jackals. ²³ 

Psalms 71:24

71:24 All day long my tongue will also tell about your justice,

for those who want to harm me ²⁴  will be embarrassed and ashamed. ²⁵ 

Matthew 2:20

2:20 saying, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.”

[19:2]  ¹ tn Heb “seeking.”

[19:2]  ² tn Heb “stay in.”

[19:2]  ³ tn Heb “and hide yourself.”

[19:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “when I see.”

[19:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “spoke good with respect to David.”

[19:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “good.”

[19:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he put his life into his hand.”

[19:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “and Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan.”

[19:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “and he was before him as before.”

[19:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he struck them down with a great blow.”

[19:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “[was] to.”

[19:9]  ¹² tn The Hebrew text adds here “with his hand.”

[19:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “and he drove the spear into the wall.”

[19:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “fled and escaped.”

[19:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “your life.”

[20:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and he came and said before Jonathan.”

[20:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “What is my guilt?”

[23:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “saw.”

[25:29]  ¹⁹ tn Cf. KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “bundle”; NLT “treasure pouch.”

[63:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “but they for destruction seek my life.” The pronoun “they” must refer here to the psalmist’s enemies, referred to at this point for the first time in the psalm.

[63:9]  ²¹ sn The depths of the earth refers here to the underworld dwelling place of the dead (see Ezek 26:20; 31:14, 16, 18; 32:18, 24). See L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 167.

[63:10]  ²² tn Heb “they will deliver him over to the sword.” The third masculine plural subject must be indefinite (see GKC 460 §144.f) and the singular pronominal suffix either representative or distributive (emphasizing that each one will be so treated). Active verbs with indefinite subjects may be translated as passives with the object (in the Hebrew text) as subject (in the translation).

[63:10]  ²³ tn Heb “they will be [the] portion of jackals”; traditionally, “of foxes.”

[71:24]  ²⁴ tn Heb “those who seek my harm.”

[71:24]  ²⁵ tn Heb “will have become embarrassed and ashamed.” The perfect verbal forms function here as future perfects, indicating future actions which will precede chronologically the action expressed by the main verb in the preceding line.