The narrative in 1 Samuel presents one of the most direct attributions of evil to God in the Hebrew Bible. After rejecting Saul as king of Israel, God is said to have sent "an evil spirit" to torment him.1 This evil spirit is mentioned repeatedly throughout the Saul narrative, explicitly attributed to God or the LORD in every instance. Under its influence, Saul experienced episodes of mental disturbance and twice attempted to murder David with a spear.2, 3 The passages raise fundamental questions about God's relationship to evil and suffering: does the God of the Bible send evil spirits to afflict people?
What the text says
The evil spirit first appears in 1 Samuel 16, immediately after Samuel has secretly anointed David as the future king. The text describes what happened to Saul:
"Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him. And Saul's servants said to him, 'Behold now, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you.'" 1 Samuel 16:14-15 (English Standard Version)1
The Hebrew text is explicit. The phrase translated "evil spirit from the LORD" is "ruach ra'ah me'et YHWH" (רוּחַ רָעָה מֵאֵת יְהוָה).4 The word "me'et" means "from" in the sense of origin or source, indicating that the spirit came directly from YHWH, the personal name of God in Hebrew.5 The word "ra'ah" (רָעָה) is the feminine form of "ra" (רַע), the standard Hebrew word for "evil," "bad," or "harmful."6 This is the same word used in Genesis 2:9 for the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" and in numerous other passages to describe moral evil, calamity, and harm.6
The servants' response in verse 15 uses slightly different phrasing: "an evil spirit from God" (ruach elohim ra'ah), using "Elohim" (God) rather than YHWH.1 Both expressions unambiguously attribute the tormenting spirit to the deity. The servants then propose a remedy: finding someone who can play the lyre to soothe Saul when the evil spirit comes upon him.7 This leads to David being brought to Saul's court, where his music provides temporary relief:
"And whenever the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him." 1 Samuel 16:23 (English Standard Version)8
The violent episodes
The evil spirit from God did not merely cause mental distress; it drove Saul to attempted murder. In 1 Samuel 18, after David's military successes and the women's song praising David above Saul, the text records:
"The next day an evil spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he prophesied within his house while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand. And Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, 'I will pin David to the wall.' But David evaded him twice." 1 Samuel 18:10-11 (English Standard Version)2
The Hebrew verb "tsalach" (צָלַח), translated "rushed upon," is a strong term indicating forceful seizing or overwhelming.9 The same verb is used earlier in 1 Samuel when the Spirit of the LORD empowers Saul for prophecy and battle (1 Samuel 10:6, 10; 11:6).10 The parallel is deliberate: the same forceful divine action that once empowered Saul now torments him, but the source is now described as an "evil spirit from God" rather than the Spirit of the LORD.9
The word translated "prophesied" (Hebrew: wayyitnabeh) is notable. The hitpael form of the verb "naba" can indicate ecstatic behavior or prophetic frenzy, not necessarily intelligible speech.11 Under the influence of the evil spirit from God, Saul experienced what appears to be an uncontrolled ecstatic state during which he attempted to kill David.
A similar incident occurs in 1 Samuel 19:
"Then an evil spirit from the LORD was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing the lyre. And Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night." 1 Samuel 19:9-10 (English Standard Version)3
Once again, the text explicitly states that the evil spirit came "from the LORD" (me'et YHWH), using the divine name. Under its influence, Saul again attempts to murder David. The pattern is consistent across all the accounts: the evil spirit comes from God, causes Saul mental disturbance, and drives him to violent action.
Occurrences of the evil spirit from the LORD in 1 Samuel1, 2, 3, 8
| Passage | Attribution | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Samuel 16:14 | "evil spirit from the LORD" | Tormented Saul |
| 1 Samuel 16:15 | "evil spirit from God" | Tormented Saul |
| 1 Samuel 16:23 | "evil spirit from God" | Departed when David played |
| 1 Samuel 18:10 | "evil spirit from God" | Saul prophesied, threw spear at David |
| 1 Samuel 19:9 | "evil spirit from the LORD" | Saul threw spear at David |
The Hebrew terminology
The phrase "ruach ra'ah me'et YHWH" contains several theologically significant terms. The word "ruach" (רוּחַ) has a range of meanings in Hebrew including "wind," "breath," and "spirit."12 In the context of 1 Samuel 16, it clearly refers to a spiritual entity or force, contrasted with "ruach YHWH" (the Spirit of the LORD) that departed from Saul.1
The word "ra'ah" (רָעָה) is the key term for understanding the passage. It is the standard Hebrew word for evil and is used throughout the Hebrew Bible to describe moral wickedness, harm, calamity, and disaster.6 In Isaiah 45:7, God declares: "I form light and create darkness; I make peace and create calamity (ra)."13 The word encompasses both moral evil and harmful circumstances, and Hebrew does not always sharply distinguish between these categories as modern Western thought does.14
The preposition "me'et" (מֵאֵת) indicates origin or source, meaning "from" or "from with."5 When combined with YHWH, it indicates that the evil spirit originates directly from God. This is not a passive construction suggesting that God merely allowed the spirit; it is an active statement that the spirit came from God as its source.15
Some translations attempt to soften the phrase. The New International Version translates 1 Samuel 16:14 as "an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him," but includes a footnote suggesting the alternative translation "a harmful spirit."16 The New Living Translation renders it "a tormenting spirit from the LORD."17 These translations preserve the attribution to the LORD while attempting to move away from the word "evil." However, the Hebrew word is unambiguously "ra'ah," the same word used for "evil" throughout the Hebrew Bible.6
Context in 1 Samuel
The evil spirit appears as part of a larger narrative about the transfer of divine favor from Saul to David. In 1 Samuel 15, God rejects Saul as king because Saul failed to completely destroy the Amalekites and their possessions as commanded.18 Samuel pronounces judgment:
"Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king." 1 Samuel 15:23 (English Standard Version)18
Immediately following this rejection, Samuel secretly anoints David as the future king (1 Samuel 16:1-13), and the Spirit of the LORD comes upon David.19 The very next verse (16:14) records the Spirit of the LORD departing from Saul and the evil spirit from the LORD coming upon him.1 The literary structure presents a divine exchange: as God's Spirit moves from Saul to David, an evil spirit moves from God to Saul. The two events are presented as parallel and coordinated divine actions.20
This context raises moral questions. Saul's sin was disobedience regarding the Amalekites, specifically sparing King Agag and the best of the livestock when God commanded total destruction.18 Whatever one thinks of that command, Saul's punishment seems disproportionate: he loses the kingdom, loses the Spirit of the LORD, receives a tormenting evil spirit from God, descends into paranoia and violence, and ultimately dies in battle.21 The evil spirit is not presented as a natural consequence of Saul's choices but as a direct divine action, something God sent to afflict a man He had rejected.
A broader pattern
The evil spirit sent to Saul is not unique in the Hebrew Bible. Several other passages attribute evil or deceptive spirits directly to God.
In 1 Kings 22:19-23, the prophet Micaiah describes a vision of God's heavenly council. God asks who will entice King Ahab to go to battle and die. A spirit volunteers:
"Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, saying, 'I will entice him.' And the LORD said to him, 'By what means?' And he said, 'I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' And he said, 'You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.' Now therefore behold, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the LORD has declared disaster against you." 1 Kings 22:21-23 (English Standard Version)22
Here God not only permits but actively commissions a lying spirit to deceive Ahab through his prophets. The parallel to the evil spirit sent to Saul is clear: God dispatches spirits to bring about harm and deception.
Perhaps the most striking parallel is found in the account of David's census. In 2 Samuel 24:1, the text states:
"Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, 'Go, number Israel and Judah.'" 2 Samuel 24:1 (English Standard Version)23
However, the parallel account in 1 Chronicles 21:1 attributes the same incitement to Satan:
"Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel." 1 Chronicles 21:1 (English Standard Version)24
This represents one of the clearest examples of theological evolution in the Hebrew Bible. The earlier text (2 Samuel, from the monarchic period) attributes the incitement directly to God. The later text (Chronicles, from the post-exilic period) transfers the attribution to Satan.25 The Chronicler apparently found it theologically problematic to say that God incited David to sin, so he changed the agent to Satan.26 This same theological discomfort may apply to the evil spirit passages, yet the text of 1 Samuel was not revised and continues to attribute the evil spirit directly to God.
Judges 9:23 provides another example: "And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem."27 Here God sends an evil spirit to create discord, leading to violence and Abimelech's death. The pattern is consistent: the Hebrew Bible repeatedly attributes evil spirits and harmful actions directly to God.
Common apologetic defenses
Theologians and apologists have offered various explanations to mitigate the theological difficulties these passages present. Each defense merits examination.
The "ra'ah means calamity, not moral evil" defense
Some defenders argue that "ra'ah" in these passages means "harmful" or "calamitous" rather than morally evil. On this reading, God sent a spirit that caused harm or distress, not a spirit that was morally wicked.28
This defense encounters several problems. First, the Hebrew word "ra'ah" is used throughout the Bible for moral evil, including in the phrase "tree of knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis 2:9), and the same word is regularly translated as "evil" in other contexts.6 Translations that render it differently in 1 Samuel 16 but as "evil" elsewhere are making theological rather than linguistic choices.
Second, even if "harmful spirit" were the better translation, the theological problem remains. A God who sends harmful spirits to torment people and drive them to murderous violence is still morally problematic. Whether we call the spirit "evil" or merely "harmful," God is still presented as its source and sender.15
Third, the effect of the spirit in the narrative is clearly evil in its consequences: it causes Saul to attempt murder on multiple occasions.2, 3 A spirit whose direct effect is attempted murder would seem to qualify as evil regardless of how one parses the Hebrew adjective.
The "God merely permitted it" defense
Some interpreters argue that when the text says the spirit was "from the LORD," it means only that God permitted or allowed the spirit to come upon Saul, not that God actively sent it. On this view, God withdrew His protection, and evil spirits that had been restrained were then allowed to afflict Saul.29
This defense cannot be sustained from the text. The Hebrew preposition "me'et" indicates origin and source, not mere permission.5 The text does not say an evil spirit came upon Saul when God's protection departed; it says an evil spirit "from the LORD" (me'et YHWH) came upon him.1 The language is parallel to "the Spirit of the LORD" (ruach YHWH) that had empowered Saul previously. Just as the Spirit of the LORD came from God as its source, so the evil spirit comes from God as its source.20
Moreover, in 1 Samuel 18:10, the evil spirit "rushed upon" (tsalach) Saul. This is the same verb used when the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon Saul to empower him (1 Samuel 10:10, 11:6).9, 10 The text presents this as active divine intervention, not passive divine withdrawal.
The "God was withdrawing his presence" defense
A related argument suggests that the evil spirit represents the absence of God's presence. When God's Spirit departed, Saul was left in a spiritual vacuum that evil filled. The "evil spirit from the LORD" is thus God's withdrawal manifesting as spiritual affliction.30
While this interpretation has theological appeal, it does not match the text. The passage describes two distinct events: first, "the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul," and second, "an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him."1 These are presented as sequential actions, not as one phenomenon. The evil spirit is not described as an absence but as a presence, something that "came upon" Saul and "rushed upon" him.2 Saul's servants recognize it as an entity that is present and active, proposing that music might cause it to "depart" (1 Samuel 16:23).8
The "this was mental illness described in ancient terms" defense
Modern interpreters sometimes suggest that Saul suffered from what we would today recognize as mental illness, perhaps depression, bipolar disorder, or paranoid episodes, and that ancient Israelites interpreted this through their religious framework as spirit activity.31
This interpretation may well be accurate regarding what actually happened to Saul. The symptoms described, mood disturbances, paranoia, violent outbursts, are consistent with various mental health conditions.32 However, this defense does not resolve the theological problem for those who take the biblical text as divinely inspired revelation. The text does not say Saul developed a mental illness; it says God sent an evil spirit to torment him. If the Bible is authoritative revelation, then readers must grapple with what it claims, not merely with naturalistic alternative explanations. The question is not whether Saul had a mental illness but whether God, as described in the text, sends evil spirits to afflict people.15
Theological implications
The evil spirit passages in 1 Samuel raise significant questions about the biblical understanding of God's relationship to evil. Later Christian theology, particularly following Augustine, developed the doctrine that God is not the author of evil, that evil is a privation of good rather than a positive force, and that God only permits evil rather than causing it.33 The passages examined here sit uneasily with this later theological development.
The Hebrew Bible exhibits a more direct understanding of divine causation. As Isaiah 45:7 states, God "creates calamity" (bore ra).13 The 1 Samuel passages extend this to God sending an evil spirit. The later theological distinction between God "causing" and God "permitting" evil is not present in these texts. The language is straightforward: the evil spirit comes "from the LORD," God is its source, and God sends it to torment Saul.1
This understanding reflects a strongly monotheistic worldview in which all significant events, including harmful ones, are attributed to the one God rather than to independent evil powers.34 In a polytheistic system, a harmful spirit might be attributed to a malevolent deity. But strict Yahwism had no such secondary deity to blame. If an evil spirit was at work, it must come from YHWH, the only true God. The theological development seen in 1 Chronicles, where Satan takes on the role of instigator, represents movement toward a dualistic framework where evil can be attributed to an adversary rather than to God directly.25, 26
For readers who hold that God is perfectly good and never the source of evil, these passages present a direct challenge. The text does not say that evil spirits exist independently and that God merely allows them to act. The text says God sent the evil spirit, that it came from God, and that it caused Saul to do evil things (attempt murder). Either the text is wrong about God, or traditional theology about God's relationship to evil needs revision, or readers must find some other way to reconcile these claims.15
Moral questions
Beyond the theological question of God's relationship to evil, the narrative raises moral questions about justice. Saul's punishment seems disproportionate to his offense. He failed to completely destroy the Amalekites as commanded, showing what he called mercy to King Agag and the best livestock.18 For this, he lost the kingdom, lost divine favor, was tormented by an evil spirit from God, descended into paranoid violence, and died ignominiously in battle.21
The evil spirit did not merely cause Saul to suffer; it caused him to do evil. Under its influence, Saul attempted to murder David multiple times.2, 3 If God sent this spirit, then God bears responsibility for driving Saul to attempted murder. This is not a case of Saul freely choosing to do evil; the text explicitly says that an evil spirit from God "rushed upon" him and caused his violent behavior.2 Divine causation of evil actions raises profound questions about moral responsibility and the justice of subsequent punishment.
Additionally, David was endangered by God's action. If God sent the evil spirit that caused Saul to try to kill David, then God put David, His own chosen and anointed future king, in mortal danger. David escaped only through his own quick reflexes, not through divine protection from the divine attack.2 The narrative presents a strange picture: God anoints David as king, then sends an evil spirit that causes the current king to try to kill the future king.
Implications for understanding God
The evil spirit passages in 1 Samuel offer a portrait of God that many modern believers find uncomfortable. According to the text, God actively sent an evil spirit to torment a man He had rejected. This spirit caused mental disturbance and drove Saul to attempted murder on multiple occasions. The text does not present this as Satan's work, as natural illness, or as the result of God's withdrawal. It presents it as a direct divine action: an evil spirit from the LORD came upon Saul and tormented him.
Readers must decide what to make of this portrait. Some may conclude that the text reflects ancient Israelite theology rather than eternal truth, that the authors attributed to God what later theology would attribute to other causes. Others may accept the text at face value and revise their understanding of God accordingly: God does send evil spirits when He chooses, and what seems evil to humans may be encompassed within divine providence. Still others may find creative interpretive strategies to reconcile the text with their prior theological commitments.
What the text does not support is the claim that God has nothing to do with evil spirits, that God only permits but never sends them, or that the "evil" involved was merely "harm" without moral connotations. The Hebrew is clear, the attribution is explicit, and the consequences were violent. According to 1 Samuel, God sent an evil spirit to torment Saul. Whether that God is worthy of worship is a question each reader must answer for themselves.