Lives of Scripture

Michal, Saul's younger daughter, loved David, and Saul gave her to him in marriage, hoping the arrangement -- and a dangerous bride price of Philistine foreskins -- would get David killed (1 Samuel 18:20-27). When Saul later sent men to kill David in his own house, Michal helped him escape through a window and placed a household idol in his bed to buy time, then lied to her father's men to protect her husband's life (19:11-17). While David was a fugitive, Saul gave Michal to another man, Paltiel, who wept as she was taken from him (25:44). Once David was established as king, he demanded Michal's return as a condition of peace negotiations with Saul's remaining house, and she was taken from Paltiel and brought back to David (2 Samuel 3:13-16). When the ark of the covenant was brought into Jerusalem and David danced before it with unrestrained joy, Michal watched from a window and "despised him in her heart," later mocking him sharply for exposing himself "as one of the foolish ones" might (6:16, 20). David rebuked her sharply in return, reminding her it was before the LORD that he had celebrated. Scripture closes her story with a stark, quiet line: "Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death" (6:23) -- a marriage that began in love ending in permanent estrangement.