The Tragedy of Michal

And David had success in all his undertakings, for the Lord was with him. And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in before them.

Then Saul said to David, “Here is my elder daughter Merab. I will give her to you for a wife. Only be valiant for me and fight the Lord’s battles.” For Saul thought, “Let not my hand be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him.” And David said to Saul, “Who am I, and who are my relatives, my father’s clan in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?” But at the time when Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite for a wife.

Now Saul’s daughter Michal loved David. And they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. Saul thought, “Let me give her to him, that she may be a snare for him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” Therefore Saul said to David a second time, “You shall now be my son-in-law.”

…Then Saul said [to his servants], “Thus shall you say to David, ‘The king desires no bride-price except a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, that he may be avenged of the king’s enemies.’” Now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. And when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king’s son-in-law. Before the time had expired, David arose and went, along with his men, and killed two hundred of the Philistines. And David brought their foreskins, which were given in full number to the king, that he might become the king’s son-in-law. And Saul gave him his daughter Michal for a wife. But when Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved him, Saul was even more afraid of David. So Saul was David’s enemy continually.

1 Samuel 18

The story of David, spanning First and Second Samuel, the story of the ruddy shepherd-boy with beautiful eyes and a gift for playing the lyre, is undoubtedly the most elegantly crafted and literarily sophisticated account in all of Scripture.

It is in the story of David, with its rises to power and falls from grace, its political intrigue and double-crosses, that we find the biblical authors at the height of their craft. It is also the story of the Bible in which we should most attune ourselves to the nuances of language and narrative. For instance, we should pay special attention when the biblical author chooses to share a character’s name instead of leaving them as a faceless servant or bystander. When the author includes the name of Michal, the daughter of Saul, in its telling of David’s story, we should draw closer to the text and expect something special.

We’re not told much about Michal in this quick introduction, but what information we can glean is important: Michal is the daughter of Saul and she is said to love David. In fact, that Michal loves David is mentioned twice in the text. Not only is it thus emphasized, it is also the only time in the whole Bible where a woman is explicitly said to love a man.

Now why Michal loves David is again difficult to pin down. We know from the text that David is handsome. Beyond that, we know that he is widely adored as a hero and warrior—all of Israel loves him. But for Michal, there’s something special, and we’re warmed to see them joined together.

Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him, that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, told him, “If you do not escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.” So Michal let David down through the window, and he fled away and escaped. Michal took an image and laid it on the bed and put a pillow of goats’ hair at its head and covered it with the clothes. And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.” Then Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.” And when the messengers came in, behold, the image was in the bed, with the pillow of goats’ hair at its head. Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me thus and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?” And Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go. Why should I kill you?’”

1 Samuel 19

In the very next chapter, we see their relationship developed. Michal learns of Saul’s plans to ambush David outside of their home and to kill him. She warns her husband, thus betraying her father—her blood—and the author tells us of no second thoughts.

Notice that in this biblical account, in a story that most often develops its characters through dialogue, David receives her warning and says nothing. He promptly flees, and Michal, in his wake, synthesizes a scheme to hide David’s escape. David’s silence here may not be important as the author often presents David as private and mysterious, but it could also be telling.

And Abigail rose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, “Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” And Abigail hurried and rose and mounted a donkey, and her five young women attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife. David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives. Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.

1 Samuel 25

Tacked on to the end of the dramatic encounter between David and Abigail is this almost forgettable aside—Michal, a woman we haven’t seen in half-a-dozen chapters, the first wife of David, has been given to another man, Palti the son of Laish, while David takes for himself two more wives, newer women in his life. Notice also that Michal is labeled here the “wife of David,” emphasizing for the reader the illegality of Saul’s deed.

This Palti fellow we know nothing about. He is clearly no David. He has killed no Philistines that we know of; he is not a major contender for the throne. But Palti shouldn’t be forgotten—he will be given his moment.

In this final verse, Michal is a passive pawn in Saul’s pettiness. This is not the Michal we have seen before. The Michal we were introduced to loved a man who was an enemy of her house. She loved like we are told no other women had. This same Michal, clever and shrewd, saved her husband, the mighty warrior, from an ambush and death. Yet the Michal before us is not the same as she is quickly eclipsed by Abigail.

Several chapters pass, we enter into Second Samuel, and the reader all but forgets about Michal. But after the death of Saul and the ensuing civil war, she is reintroduced as David requests her back. He emphasizes the legality of his claim to her and thus his rightful claim to the throne:

Then David sent messengers to Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son, saying, “Give me my wife Michal, for whom I paid the bridal price of a hundred foreskins of the Philistines.” And Ish-bosheth sent and took her from her husband Paltiel the son of Laish. But her husband went with her, weeping after her all the way to Bahurim. Then Abner said to him, “Go, return.” And he returned.

2 Samuel 3

Palti escorts her back, weeping all the way. He is twice called her “husband” or her “man.” He is weak; he is not a king or warrior like David. And so he is driven away.

We are not told how Michal feels about this. It is possible that she is glad to be returned to her husband, but we’ve seen silence in this story before. Our imagination can fill in the blanks.

Time passes and David’s power increases, his control of the land expanding. Things are going well for the chosen one of God. He eventually conquers the mountain stronghold of Jerusalem, seizing it from the Jebusites. It is a momentous occasion in the history of the Davidic kingdom as he brings the ark of the covenant up to the mountain city.

As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart.

2 Samuel 6:16

Further context informs us that David has exposed himself in his dancing, and so the reasons for Michal’s contempt are open to interpretation. It is possible she is embarrassed—her husband has flaunted his nakedness before the city and its women. It is possible she is jealous—as she is forced to the sideline, David rejoices in his greatest victory. It is possible she is resentful—not in many years has he displayed this sort of excitement towards her, a lowly co-wife.

Entering into this final episode from the life of Michal, we recall that never once have we witnessed an exchange between David and Michal—not once has one spoken and the other responded. Again, in a book where dialogue is the primary means of proceeding, the divide between David and Michal could not be wider.

And David returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, “How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants’ female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!” And David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord—and I will celebrate before the Lord. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes. But by the female servants of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor.” And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.

2 Samuel 6

In this episode in the middle of the Davidic epic, the author has cleverly juxtaposed David’s divine right as king and his domestic sin. In his conquering of Jerusalem, the future “City of David,” in his transporting the ark to its new resting place, David has forever solidified his legacy in Israelite history, but it is marked by the rebuke of his first wife.

Michal returns to form here—a woman of action, she calls out the salacious activity of her husband. But with the confidence of a monarch, he dismisses her. Michal has shown herself the sort of woman not to be so easily defeated, but any retort she may have flung at David has been edited from history.

In coming to the final verse of the encounter, some versions choose to translate the first word as “so,” thus suggesting a correlation between Michal’s rebuke and her barrenness. Robert Alter, who has written extensively on the story of Michal, suggests that in maintaining the participle’s translation as “and,” we maintain the author’s intention to present Michal’s situation as objective fact, neither related nor unrelated.

Michal is subjected to the worst misfortune a woman can face in the ancient Near East, and why? Is it because she rebuked the Lord’s elect? Or because David denied her conjugal relations? Or is this simply a statement of cosmic indifference? We are left to wonder whether this then is the point of the story—though the biblical writer often attributes the events of history to divine retribution or finds their cause in the choices of men and woman—the reason for this ultimate fate of Michal is left open.

This, then, is her last mention in Scripture. With indignation, she speaks her mind, but her concerns are cast aside. Since she has been introduced, she has been unrequited and passed around, and the final remark on this queen of Israel is that she had no child to the day of her death. This is the tragedy of Michal, the wife of David, the daughter of Saul, another figure lost in the story of David.