Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 19:11-17
Here is, I. Saul's further design of mischief to David. When David had escaped the javelin, supposing he went straight to his own house, as indeed he did, Saul sent some of his guards after him to lay wait at the door of his house, and to assassinate him in the morning as soon as he stirred out, Sa1 19:11. Josephus says the design was to seize him and to hurry him before a court of justice that was ordered to condemn him and put him to death as a traitor; but we are here told it was a shorter way they were to take with him: they were ordered to slay him. Well might David complain that his enemies were bloody men, as he did in the psalm which he penned at this time, and upon this occasion (Ps…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Samuel 19:11
Saul sent messengers unto David's house, to watch him, and to slay him--The fear of causing a commotion in the town, or favoring his escape in the darkness, seemed to have influenced the king in ordering them to patrol till the morning. This infatuation was overruled by Providence to favor David's escape; for his wife, secretly apprised by Jonathan, who was aware of the design, or by spying persons in court livery watching the gate, let him down through a window (see on Jos 2:15).
Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 19:12
Let David down through a window - As Saul's messengers were sent to David's house to watch him, they would naturally guard the gate, or lie in wait in that place by which David would come out. Michal, seeing this let him down to the ground through a window probably at the back part of the house; and there being neither entrance nor issue that way, the liers in wait were easily eluded.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 19:12
So Michal let David down through a window,.... In like manner as Rahab let down the spies from her house in Jericho, when the king's messengers were in quest of them, Joshua 2:15; and as the disciples let down the Apostle Paul at Damascus, to preserve him from the designs of the Jews upon him:
and he went, and fled, and escaped; he departed from his house, and ran with all the haste he could, and escaped the messengers that had beset the house, and were waiting for him.
