Then Michal took a household idolMichal, the daughter of King Saul and wife of David, uses a household idol, or "teraphim," which were common in ancient Near Eastern households for divination or as protective talismans. This indicates that despite Israel's monotheistic faith, syncretism with surrounding pagan practices was prevalent. The presence of such an idol in David's house suggests the cultural and religious challenges faced by the Israelites. The use of the idol here is ironic, as David, a man after God's own heart, is associated with an object contrary to God's commandments.
and laid it in the bed
Michal's action of placing the idol in the bed is a strategic move to deceive Saul's messengers. This act of deception is reminiscent of other biblical instances where women use cunning to protect God's chosen, such as Rahab hiding the spies (Joshua 2:4-6). It highlights the theme of divine providence working through human actions to protect David, who is anointed to be king.
placed some goat hair on its head
The use of goat hair to mimic David's hair is a clever ruse to make the idol appear more lifelike. Goat hair was commonly used in the ancient world for various purposes, including clothing and tents, due to its availability and durability. This detail underscores Michal's resourcefulness and the lengths she goes to protect David, reflecting the tension and danger of the situation.
and covered it with a garment
Covering the idol with a garment completes the illusion of a sleeping person, buying David time to escape. Garments in biblical times were significant, often indicating status or identity. Here, the garment serves a practical purpose in the deception. This act of covering also symbolically represents the concealment of truth, as Michal hides the reality of David's absence from Saul's men. This narrative foreshadows the protective covering God provides for His chosen ones, as seen in the broader biblical narrative.
Persons / Places / Events
1.
MichalThe daughter of King Saul and wife of David. She plays a crucial role in helping David escape from her father's murderous intentions.
2.
DavidThe anointed future king of Israel, who is being pursued by Saul out of jealousy and fear of losing his throne.
3.
SaulThe first king of Israel, who becomes increasingly paranoid and seeks to kill David.
4.
Household Idol (Teraphim)A small idol or image used in the household, possibly for protection or divination, which Michal uses to deceive Saul's messengers.
5.
EventMichal's deception to protect David from Saul's attempt to kill him, showcasing her loyalty to her husband over her father.
Teaching Points
Loyalty and CourageMichal's actions demonstrate the importance of loyalty to God's anointed and the courage to act in faith, even when it involves personal risk.
Deception and EthicsWhile Michal's use of deception raises ethical questions, it highlights the complexity of moral decisions in life-threatening situations. It invites believers to consider the balance between truth and protection of life.
Idolatry and Cultural InfluenceThe presence of a household idol in Michal's home serves as a reminder of the pervasive influence of surrounding cultures and the need for vigilance against idolatry in our own lives.
Divine ProvidenceDespite human actions and schemes, God's providence is at work to protect and fulfill His purposes for David, encouraging believers to trust in God's sovereign plan.
Bible Study Questions and Answers
1.What is the meaning of 1 Samuel 19:13?
2.How does Michal's deception in 1 Samuel 19:13 reflect on her faith?
3.What does Michal's action reveal about family loyalty versus obedience to God?
4.How can we discern when to prioritize God's commands over human relationships?
5.Compare Michal's actions with other biblical examples of deceit for protection.
6.How can we apply the lesson of trust in God's protection today?
7.Why did Michal deceive Saul by using an idol in 1 Samuel 19:13?
8.What does Michal's use of an idol suggest about her faith in 1 Samuel 19:13?
9.How does 1 Samuel 19:13 reflect on the spiritual state of Israel at the time?
10.What are the top 10 Lessons from 1 Samuel 19?
11.Why would Michal possess a “household idol” (1 Samuel 19:13) in a culture supposedly devoted to the worship of one God?
12.Why did Michal help David escape from Saul?
13.In Genesis 31:19, what historical evidence supports the existence or importance of household gods (teraphim), and how does it reconcile with monotheism?
14.What are the family idols mentioned in the Bible?What Does 1 Samuel 19:13 Mean
Then Michal took a household idol• The narrative opens with an unexpected object in David’s home: “household idol” (teraphim). Such images, though forbidden (Exodus 20:4), still lingered in some Israelite households (Genesis 31:34;Judges 17:5), showing how easily compromise can creep in.
• Michal’s quick reach for the idol reveals her urgency. Saul’s murderous intent (1 Samuel 19:11) demanded immediate action, and the closest sizable form at hand was this statute.
• The scene highlights a tension: a wife loyal to her husband versus a king (and father) bent on sin. Loyalty to God’s anointed—David—takes precedence (Acts 5:29).
and laid it in the bed• By positioning the idol under the covers, Michal creates a decoy, buying David time to escape.
• Scripture offers other instances where deception thwarts evil authorities: the Hebrew midwives sparing infants (Exodus 1:17–19), Rahab hiding the spies (Joshua 2:4–6).
• Such acts are not endorsements of falsehood in general; rather, they illustrate courageous resistance to murderous tyranny while trusting God’s larger plan (Proverbs 24:11–12).
placed some goat hair on its head• Goat hair, likely from a woven cushion or fleece, gives the idol the look of a sleeper’s hair.
• The detail underscores Michal’s ingenuity. Quick, simple touches make the ruse believable, echoing other moments of disguise in David’s life (1 Samuel 21:13).
• The text reminds us that God often uses ordinary means—here, household items and a wife’s creativity—to accomplish extraordinary protection (Psalm 18:2).
and covered it with a garment• A cloak completes the charade, hiding obvious imperfections. Saul’s messengers, glancing at the covered form, assume David is sick (1 Samuel 19:14).
• This maneuver temporarily restrains Saul’s violence, paralleling later diversions God provides for David (1 Samuel 23:26–28).
• Yet the episode foreshadows the ongoing conflict: even clever coverings cannot mask Saul’s hardened heart (1 Samuel 19:15–17).
summaryMichal’s four swift actions—grabbing an idol, placing it in the bed, topping it with goat hair, and covering it—form a single, decisive effort to save David’s life. The verse exposes lingering idolatry in Israelite homes while showcasing God’s providence through imperfect people and ordinary objects. Above all, it affirms that the Lord sovereignly guards His chosen servant, maneuvering through the courage and creativity of those who stand with Him.
(13)
An image.--An image in the Hebrew is
teraphim--a plural form, but used as a singular. We have no instance of the singular. The Latin equivalent, "penates," singularly enough, is also only found in the plural form. In this case, probably, it was a life-size figure or bust. The word has been discussed above (
1Samuel 15:23). It is singular how, in spite of the stern command to avoid idolatry, the children of Israel seemed to love to possess these lifeless images. The teraphim were probably a remnant of the idolatry originally brought by some of Abraham's family from their Chaldaean home. These idols, we know, varied in size, from the diminutive image which Rachel (
Genesis 31:34) was able to conceal under the camel saddle to the life-size figure which the Princess Michal here used to make her father's guards believe that her sick husband, David, was in bed. They appear to have been looked on as tutelary deities, the dispensers of domestic and family good fortune. It has been suggested, with some probability, that Michal, like Rachel, kept this teraphim in secret, because of her barrenness.
A pillow of goats' hair.--More accurately,a goat's skin about its head.So render the Syriac and Vulgate Versions. The reason of this act apparently was to imitate the effect of a man's hair round the teraphim's head. Its body, we read in the next clause, was covered "with a cloth." Some scholars have suggested that this goat's skin was a net-work of goat's hair to keep off the flies from the supposed sleeper. The LXX., instead ofk'vir(skin), read in their Hebrew copieskeaved(liver). As the vowel points were introduced much later, such a confusion (especially as the difference betweendandrin Hebrew is very slight) would be likely enough to occur in the MSS.
Josephus, adopting the LXX. reading, explains Michal's conduct thus--"Michal put a palpitating goat's liver into the bed, to represent a breathing sick man."
With a cloth.--Heb.,beged.This was David's every-day garment, which he was in the habit of wearing. This, loosely thrown over the image, would materially assist the deception. The fifty-ninth Psalm bears the following title--"A michtam(or song of deep import) of David, when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him." The internal evidence, however, is scarcely confirmatory of the accuracy of the title. The sacred song in question is very probably one of David's own composition, and it is likely enough that the danger he incurred on this occasion was in his mind when he wrote the solemn words; but there are references in this psalm which must apply to other events in his troubled, anxious life.
Verse 13. -
Michal took an image. Literally, "the teraphim," a plural word, but used here as a singular. Probably, like the corresponding Latin word
penates, it had no singular in common use. It was a wooden block with head and shoulders roughly shaped to represent a human figure. Laban's tera-phim were so small that Rachel could hide them under the camel's furniture (
Genesis 31:34), but Michal's seems to have been large enough to pass in the bed for a man. Though the worship of them is described as iniquity (
1 Samuel 15:23), yet the superstitious belief that they brought good luck to the house over which they presided, in return for kind treatment, seems to have been proof against the teaching of the prophets; and Hosea describes the absence of them as on the same level as the absence of the ephod (
Hosea 3:4).
A pillow of goats' hair for his bolster. More correctly, "a goat's skin about its head." So the Syriac and Vulgate. The object of it, would be to look at a distance like a man s hair. The Septuagint has a goat's liver, because this was supposed to palpitate long after the animal's death, and so would produce the appearance of a person's breathing. But this involves a different reading, for which there is no authority; nor was Michal's deception intended for close observation. She would of course not let any one disturb David, and all she wanted was just enough likeness to a man to make a person at a distance suppose that David was there. Soon or later her artifice would be found out, but her husband would have had the intervening time for effecting his escape. As the word rendered
pillow, and which is found only here, comes from a root signifying "to knot together," "to intertwine," some commentators think that it means a network of goats' hair, perhaps to keep off flies. But this is a mere guess, and not to be set against the combined authority of the two versions.
With a cloth. Hebrew,
beged. This
beged was David's every day dress, and would greatly aid Michal in her pious artifice. It was a loose mantle, worn over the close-fitting
meil (see
1 Samuel 2:19). Thus Ezra (
Ezra 9:3, 5) says, "I rent my
beged and my
meil," which the A.V. with characteristic inexactness translates "my garment and my mantle." In
Genesis 28:20, where it is rendered
raiment, Jacob speaks of it as the most indispensable article of dress; and in
Genesis 39:12, where it is rendered
garment, we find that it was a loose plaid or wrapper. In those simple days it was used for warmth by night as well as for protection by day, and it is interesting to find David in his old age still covered up for warmth in bed by his
beged (
1 Kings 1:1), where it is translated
clothes.
Parallel Commentaries ...
Hebrew
Then Michalמִיכַ֜ל(mî·ḵal)Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 4324:Michal -- wife of Davidtookוַתִּקַּ֨ח(wat·tiq·qaḥ)Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 3947:To takea household idolהַתְּרָפִ֗ים(hat·tə·rā·p̄îm)Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 8655:(a kind of idol) perhaps household idoland laid [it]וַתָּ֙שֶׂם֙(wat·tā·śem)Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 7760:Put -- to put, place, setinאֶל־(’el-)Preposition
Strong's 413:Near, with, among, tothe bed,הַמִּטָּ֔ה(ham·miṭ·ṭāh)Article | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 4296:A bed, for, sleeping, eating, a sofa, litter, bierplacedשָׂ֖מָה(śā·māh)Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 7760:Put -- to put, place, setsome goat hairכְּבִ֣יר(kə·ḇîr)Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3523:(something woven) perhaps a quilt or neton its head,מְרַֽאֲשֹׁתָ֑יו(mə·ra·’ă·šō·ṯāw)Noun - feminine plural construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 4763:A place at the head, head placeand coveredוַתְּכַ֖ס(wat·tə·ḵas)Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Consecutive imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 3680:To plump, fill up hollows, to coverit with a garment.בַּבָּֽגֶד׃(bab·bā·ḡeḏ)Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 899:A covering, clothing, treachery, pillage
Links
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OT History: 1 Samuel 19:13 Michal took the teraphim and laid it (1Sa iSam 1 Sam i sa) 
