michal Summary and Overview

rivulet, or who as God?, the younger of Saul's two daughters by his wife Ahinoam (1 Sam. 14:49, 50). "Attracted by the graces of his person and the gallantry of his conduct, she fell in love with David and became his wife" (18:20-28). She showed her affection for him by promoting his escape to Naioth when Saul sought his life (1 Sam. 19:12-17. Compare Ps. 59. See TERAPHIM T0003618). After this she did not see David for many years. Meanwhile she was given in marriage to another man, Phalti or Phaltiel of Gallim (1 Sam. 25:44), but David afterwards formally reclaimed her as his lawful wife (2 Sam. 3:13-16). The relation between her and David soon after this was altered. They became alienated from each other. This happened on that memorable day when the ark was brought up in great triumph from its temporary resting-place to the Holy City. In David's conduct on that occasion she saw nothing but a needless humiliation of the royal dignity (1 Chr. 15:29). She remained childless, and thus the races of David and Saul were not mixed. In 2 Sam. 21:8 her name again occurs, but the name Merab should probably be here substituted for Michal (compare 1 Sam. 18:19).

(who is like God?), the younger of Saul's two daughters, #1Sa 14:49| who married David. The price fixed on Michal's hand was no less than the slaughter of a hundred Philistines. David by a brilliant feat doubled the tale of victims, and Michal became his wife. Shortly afterward she saved David from the assassins whom her father had sent to take his life. #1Sa 19:11-17| When the rupture between Saul and David had become open and incurable, she was married to another man, Phalti or Phaltiel of Gallim. #1Sa 25:44| After the death of her father and brothers at Gilboa, David compelled her new husband to surrender Michal to him. #2Sa 3:13-16| How Michal comported herself in the altered circumstances of David's household we are not told; but it is plain from the subsequent occurrences that something had happened to alter the relations of herself and David, for on the day of David's greatest triumph, when he brought the ark of Jehovah to Jerusalem, we are told that "she despised him in her heart." All intercourse between her and David ceased from that date. #2Sa 6:20-23| Her name appears, #2Sa 21:8| as the mother of five of the grandchildren of Saul.

MI'CHAL , the second daughter of Saul, 1 Sam 14:49, and the wife of David, who paid in dowry one hundred slaughtered Philistines. She was passionately devoted to her young husband, and once saved him from the fury of her father. During David's exile she was married to another man, Phalti, 1 Sam 25:44; 2 Sam 3:15, with whom she lived for ten years. After the accession of David to the throne she was restored to him, 2 Sam 3:13-14, but an estrangement soon took place between them, and on the occasion of the greatest triumph of David's life - the bringing up of the ark to Jerusalem - it came to an open rupture between them, after which her name does not again occur. 2 Sam 6:2.

1 Samuel 14:49. Saul's younger daughter. Saul had promised David the elder, but gave her to Adriel. (See MERAB.) Meanwhile, Michal loved David; and Saul on hearing of it from his attendants made it a trap for David (1 Samuel 18:21), saying, "thou shalt be my son in law in a second way," and requiring, instead of the dowry paid to the father according to Eastern usage, 100 Philistines' foreskins. The courtiers, by Saul's secret instructions, urged on David, who at first shrank from again subjecting himself to the king's caprice. David killed 200 Philistines, and Saul gave him Michal. She proved a true hearted wife, and saved her husband from Saul's messengers sent to slay him in the morning. Like "dogs" prowling about for prey "at evening," so they besieged David's house, awaiting his coming forth in the morning (Psalm 59:6; Psalm 59:14-15; agreeing naturally with 1 Samuel 19:11). David sets his "watching" and "waiting upon God" against their "watching" and waiting to kill him. The title of Psalm 59:9, "because of his (the enemy's) strength"; see Psalm 59:12 on Saul's "pride" roused to jealousy of David's fame, and Saul's "lying" accusation of treason against David. Saul's "wandering up and down" for help, when he sought the Endor witch, was the retribution in kind for his wandering up and down persecuting David (Psalm 59:14-15). Michal let him down through the window, and laid in his bed a life-sized teraphim image (Genesis 31:19), and put a goat's hair cloth to cover the head and face from gnats, and the "outer mantle" (beged) over the body. Thus, time was allowed for his escape to Samuel; and when Saul, impatient of waiting until he should come forth in the morning, sent messengers in the evening to take him, she first said he was sick; then on their return, with Saul's command to see and bring him in the bed, her trick was detected and Saul upbraided her; but she said she was constrained by David's threats. Subsequently, Michal was married to Phaltiel of Gallim (1 Samuel 25:44; 2 Samuel 3:15). After Saul's death Michal and her husband went with the rest of the family to the E. of Jordan and was under Ishbosheth's rule. Thence she was brought to David by Abner, as the king made her restoration the one condition of a league and demanded her from Ishbosheth; so in spite of the tears of Phaltiel, who followed behind to Bahurim on the road up from the Jordan valley to Olivet, and was thence turned back by Abner, David's messenger; and the 20 men with Abner, whose puppet Ishbosheth was, escorted her. The forced parting with her last husband, and David's accession of wives, Abigail and Ahinoam, caused a coolness on her part after an interval of 14 years since she had enabled David to escape at Gibeah. His ardor for her was certainly at first the same, as his keenness to claim her proves; but she alienated him from her forever by her cutting sneer when, after dancing with all his might before Jehovah, in a thin ephod with short-shoulder dress, as representative of the priestly nation, stripped of royal robes in the presence of the great King, "he returned to bless his household"; instead of pious and affectionate congratulations at the bringing up of Jehovah's ark to Zion, already "despising him in her heart" she came out to meet him, and said in bitter irony, "how glorious was the king of Israel today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovered himself!" Michal had teraphim (1 Samuel 19:13), but like Saul she had no regard for Jehovah's ark (1 Chronicles 13:3), and was offended at the king because in pious enthusiasm he humbled himself to the level of the priests and nation before Jehovah. David replied, mortifying her pride as a king's daughter: "it was before Jehovah who chose me before thy father and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of Jehovah, Israel; therefore will I play (or, have I played) before Jehovah, and I will be yet more vile ... and base in my own sight; and along with (Hebrew) the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, along with them shall I be had in honor," namely, of Jehovah. Probably a band of damsels playing on timbrels accompanied David while dancing in procession, as in Psalm 68:25, "among the damsels playing with timbrels"; the words "them were" of KJV should be omitted, as not in the Hebrew. Blunt thinks that Michal meant by the "handmaids" her hated rivals Abigail and Ahinoam, and that the gravamen of her pretended concern for his debasement rested here. Saul's pride and disregard of Jehovah caused his rejection, as now the same sins cause the rejection of Michal; just as, on the contrary, David's humility and piety toward Jehovah brought him honor before Jehovah. Therefore he is content to be held still more vile than Michal held him, and to be base in his own sight (Psalm 131:1), in order that thereby he may be honored by Jehovah (Matthew 23:12). So Michal was childless until her death, the nature of her punishment being appropriate to her transgression. Merab is probably the true reading for Michal in 2 Samuel 21:8. (See MERAB.) Otherwise "brought up" must mean that Michal reared the children after their mother Merab's death.