Right Words

Princess Michal, the daughter of King Saul, is remembered for various things, but when one examines her life as a whole, it certainly has a tragic course.

1. Life before David. Apparently it was not one of virtue, for when Saul sees that she loves David (1 Sam. 18:20), he supports the marriage malevolently, thinking that Michal “may be a snare to [David]” (18:21). So Saul knew her bad character and yet allows her to wed David.
2. Early marriage to David. Michal does help David escape Saul’s wrath, lying to her father twice in the process (19:14 , 17). The most telling aspect of the deception, though, is her use of “an image” to simulate David. What was she doing with an image? David never worshipped them, so here we see that Michal was an idolatress in her private life, likely without even David’s knowledge (and the idol must have been hefty to simulate a man).
3. Separation from David. During David’s fugitive years, Michal is given “to Phalti the son of Laish, which was of Gallim” (25:44), since Saul has banished David and sentenced him to death. Phalti loved Michal deeply, as shown by his distress over David reclaiming her (2 Sam. 3:13-16), but we don’t know if his love was reciprocated. [Note: David reclaiming her was against the Mosaic law; cf. Deut. 24:1-4.]
4. Rejection by David. The low point in Michal’s life occurs when she ridicules David for his exuberant public worship upon bringing the ark to Jerusalem (2 Sam. 6:20). The companion passage in 1 Chron. 16:29 gives us the full picture, since it describes what happened inside Michal at this point, not the outcome as 2 Samuel does. She wasn’t annoyed at David’s antics: “she despised him in her heart.” This woman was not a good woman at heart, and this event dissolves any doubt of that. It’s such a serious sin, dishonoring her husband and king – even publicly (2 Sam. 6:20) – that David passes judgment on her then and there. Note that she’s first looking out a window, and her ill will is so deep that she “came out to meet David,” for “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Mt. 12:34). And oh, what a price she pays: childless to death. But that’s not all…
5. Final years. At some point, her elder sister Merab, who was wed to Adriel the Meholathite (1 Sam. 18:19), passes away, and Michal is charged with raising her sister’s children, though not as Adriel’s wife, since she remained married to David (2 Sam. 21:8). There were five sons, and no daughters are mentioned. These sons are among those executed to appease God’s wrath on Israel for Saul breaking the covenant with the Gibeonites ratified by Joshua (cf. Josh. 9). Although I can’t prove it, I think that the five sons were the only children, and that Michal was, at the time of her death, in every sense childless. Her sin was dishonoring her husband and king in a conjugal context (2 Sam. 6:20-23), so she is deprived of the fruits of conjugation, both from her own body and her sister’s. Sin does not pay!