Saul sent messengers to David's house, to watch him, and to kill him in the morning: and Michal, David's wife, told him, saying, If you don't save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be slain.
Saul reactivated his mission of putting David to death, this time by using his men (cf. 1 Samuel 19:1). As Jonathan had done (1 Samuel 19:2), Michal told David what Saul was planning (1 Samuel 19:11). Then she aided his escape, first by helping him flee from a window, and then by fashioning a dummy in his bed and concocting a story that he was sick. The household idol (Heb. teraphim) was usually a small image three or four inches high that many people carried on their persons or set up in their homes as good luck charms. Archaeologists have found many such images in Palestine. Evidently Michal intended the presence of this image beside (Heb. ’el) the bed to convince Saul’s servants that David was seriously ill. Some interpreters believe the teraphim image was quite large and was in the bed. [Note: See the note on 1 Samuel 19:16 in the NET Bible.] 