Single lesson
David, Jonathan and Saul's Jealousy
1 Samuel 18:1–30
This lesson traces how 1 Samuel 18 moves from covenant friendship to jealousy, fear and hostile plans. Students will follow the chapter in order and observe what it explicitly says about Jonathan, Saul, David and Yahweh.
Before you teach
Jonathan is closely joined to David and makes a covenant with him. David serves Saul wisely and is accepted by the people and Saul’s servants. After the women sing about David’s victories, Saul becomes angry, watches David, fears David, and keeps setting dangerous situations before him, while the passage repeatedly says Yahweh is with David.
Students will sequence 1 Samuel 18:1–30 and explain at least three choices and outcomes in the chapter, including the repeated statement that Yahweh was with David.
Welcome: Track the change in the chapter
5 minWrite four names where everyone can see them: Jonathan, David, Saul and Yahweh. Tell students to listen for how the chapter changes. It opens with love and covenant, then turns to anger, fear and repeated plans against David. Students should note actions, outcomes and repeated phrases from the text.
1 Samuel 18:1, 1 Samuel 18:3, 1 Samuel 18:8, 1 Samuel 18:29
Read and explain: Jonathan’s covenant and David’s wise service
8 minRead 1 Samuel 18:1–5 aloud. Point out that Jonathan loved David as his own soul, made a covenant with him, and gave him his robe, clothing and weapons. Then observe David’s pattern in verse 5: wherever Saul sent him, David behaved wisely, and this was good in the sight of the people and Saul’s servants.
1 Samuel 18:1, 1 Samuel 18:3, 1 Samuel 18:4, 1 Samuel 18:5
Discuss: From public praise to Saul’s fear
9 minRead 1 Samuel 18:6–16. Ask students to identify the turning point. The women’s song displeased Saul, Saul watched David, and Saul threw his spear twice. The passage then gives its own explanation: Saul was afraid because Yahweh was with David and had departed from Saul. David still behaved wisely before the people.
1 Samuel 18:7, 1 Samuel 18:8, 1 Samuel 18:9, 1 Samuel 18:11, 1 Samuel 18:12, 1 Samuel 18:14, 1 Samuel 18:16
Make and respond: Sequence Saul’s later plans
12 minRead 1 Samuel 18:17–30, including verses 25 and 27 in a sober way without dramatising them. Explain only what the text says: Saul used marriage offers and a deadly demand involving Philistine bodies as part of his plan to make David fall by the Philistines. Students make a sequence chart with choices, outcomes and repeated statements.
1 Samuel 18:17, 1 Samuel 18:19, 1 Samuel 18:20, 1 Samuel 18:21, 1 Samuel 18:25, 1 Samuel 18:27, 1 Samuel 18:28, 1 Samuel 18:29, 1 Samuel 18:30
Closing: What the chapter repeats
6 minAsk students to give one statement about Jonathan, one about Saul, and one about David that can be supported directly from the text. Finish by asking what the chapter repeats about Yahweh and David. Keep answers anchored to the wording that Yahweh was with David and that David behaved wisely.
1 Samuel 18:3, 1 Samuel 18:8, 1 Samuel 18:14, 1 Samuel 18:28, 1 Samuel 18:30
Questions to explore
What actions show Jonathan’s covenant friendship with David?
Look for visible actions, not just feelings. Jonathan made a covenant with David and gave him his robe, clothing, sword, bow and sash.
1 Samuel 18:3, 1 Samuel 18:4
How does the chapter show that Saul’s jealousy became repeated actions?
Trace the order after the women’s song: Saul was angry, watched David, threw his spear, and set later plans in motion through marriage offers and a deadly demand.
1 Samuel 18:7, 1 Samuel 18:8, 1 Samuel 18:9, 1 Samuel 18:11, 1 Samuel 18:17, 1 Samuel 18:21, 1 Samuel 18:25
Which repeated details explain David’s success and reputation in this chapter?
Notice the chapter’s repeated wording about David behaving wisely and Yahweh being with him, then connect that with the ending where his name was highly esteemed.
1 Samuel 18:5, 1 Samuel 18:14, 1 Samuel 18:28, 1 Samuel 18:30
Make, think or respond
Choices and Outcomes Sequence Chart
What you’ll need
- plain paper
- pens or textas
- Bible
- ruler
Try it together
- Draw three columns labelled Event, Choice, and Outcome.
- Fill in six events from the chapter in order, such as Jonathan’s covenant, the women’s song, Saul’s spear, Saul’s first marriage offer, Saul’s demand in verse 25, and the chapter’s ending.
- For each event, write whose choice is in view and what outcome follows in the text.
- Circle repeated phrases such as behaved wisely, loved, feared, and Yahweh was with David.
This chart helps students follow the order of 1 Samuel 18 and see how the chapter itself links choices, outcomes and repeated ideas.
Adapt for your group
- For younger teens, provide the six event prompts so they can focus on matching each event with a verse and outcome.
- For older or more confident students, ask them to add a fourth column called Repeated words and support each entry with exact verse references.
An optional closing prayer
You could pray: “God, help us read this chapter truthfully, recognise jealousy and fear, and pay attention to what you have said about wise conduct and your presence with David.”
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
1 Samuel 18
1 When he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
2 Saul took him that day, and wouldn’t let him go home to his father’s house any more.
3 Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.
4 Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David with his clothing, even including his sword, his bow, and his sash.
5 David went out wherever Saul sent him, and behaved himself wisely; and Saul set him over the men of war. It was good in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul’s servants.
6 As they came, when David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul with tambourines, with joy, and with instruments of music.
7 The women sang to one another as they played, and said, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”
8 Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have credited David with ten thousands, and they have only credited me with thousands. What can he have more but the kingdom?”
9 Saul watched David from that day and forward.
10 On the next day, an evil spirit from God came mightily on Saul, and he prophesied in the middle of the house. David played with his hand, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand;
11 and Saul threw the spear, for he said, “I will pin David to the wall!” David escaped from his presence twice.
12 Saul was afraid of David, because Yahweh was with him, and had departed from Saul.
13 Therefore Saul removed him from his presence, and made him his captain over a thousand; and he went out and came in before the people.
14 David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and Yahweh was with him.
15 When Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he stood in awe of him.
16 But all Israel and Judah loved David; for he went out and came in before them.
17 Saul said to David, “Behold, my elder daughter Merab. I will give her to you as wife. Only be valiant for me, and fight Yahweh’s battles.” For Saul said, “Don’t let my hand be on him, but let the hand of the Philistines be on him.”
18 David said to Saul, “Who am I, and what is my life, or my father’s family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?”
19 But at the time when Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as wife.
20 Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved David; and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him.
21 Saul said, I will give her to him, that she may be a snare to him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Therefore Saul said to David a second time, “You shall today be my son-in-law.”
22 Saul commanded his servants, “Talk with David secretly, and say, ‘Behold, the king has delight in you, and all his servants love you. Now therefore be the king’s son-in-law.’ ”
23 Saul’s servants spoke those words in the ears of David. David said, “Does it seem to you a light thing to be the king’s son-in-law, since I am a poor man and little known?”
24 The servants of Saul told him, saying, “David spoke like this.”
25 Saul said, “Tell David, ‘The king desires no dowry except one hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king’s enemies.’ ” Now Saul thought he would make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.
26 When his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king’s son-in-law. Before the deadline,
27 David arose and went, he and his men, and killed two hundred men of the Philistines. Then David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full number to the king, that he might be the king’s son-in-law. Then Saul gave him Michal his daughter as wife.
28 Saul saw and knew that Yahweh was with David; and Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved him.
29 Saul was even more afraid of David; and Saul was David’s enemy continually.
30 Then the princes of the Philistines went out; and as often as they went out, David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was highly esteemed.
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.