And Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth.
Michael took an image, х hatªraapiym (H8655), the teraphim (see the note at Genesis 31:34); Septuagint, Ta kenotafia],
And laid it in the bed - `the teraphim,' of the figure and size of the human form, used for superstitious purposes by the Israelites in the times of the judges and of Saul (Judges 17:5), until the practice was suppressed by Josiah (2 Kings 23:24). They. were considered the givers and guardians of life and property, or consulted as oracles (Zechariah 10:2; Hosea 3:4). The pretext was that David lay there sick. The first messengers of Saul, keeping at a respectful distance, were deceived; but the imposition was detected on a closer inspection.
And put a pillow or goats' hair, х kªbiyr (H3523) haa`iziym (H5795). This word kªbiyr is defined (Gesenius, 'Lexicon') as 'something braided or plaited,' from the root kaabar (H3527), to plait; whence also kªbodaah, a sieve; and mikbaar, network]. Accordingly, Dr. Shaw, Parkhurst, Harmer, and Dr. A. Clarke, long before Ewald ('Gesch.,' 3:101), considered it the mosquito net, drawn over an Eastern bed as a defense from the gnats. It is a curtain made of gauze, or fine linen, or, silk thread, but anciently, as it seems, of goats' hair. Michael drew this, if it was used so early as the time of Saul, over the head of the image, as if to protect the sleeper from the stings of the flies, and at the same time covered the rest of the figure х babaaged (H899)] with the coverlet. [The Septuagint, having probably read kibar, liver, instead of kªbiyr (H3523), network, renders this clause kai eepar toon aigoon etheto pros kefalees autou, and she put the goats' liver at his head] (cf. Josephus, 'Antiquities,' b. 6:, ch. 11:, sec. 4, where it is said, 'she showed the messengers the bed covered, and made them believe, by the leaping of the liver, which caused the bed-clothes to move also, that David breathed like a person labouring under asthma').