1 Samuel 18:20

18:12-30 For a long time David was kept in continual apprehension of falling by the hand of Saul, yet he persevered in meek and respectful behaviour towards his persecutor. How uncommon is such prudence and discretion, especially under insults and provocations! Let us inquire if we imitate this part of the exemplary character before us. Are we behaving wisely in all our ways? Is there no sinful omission, no rashness of spirit, nothing wrong in our conduct? Opposition and perverseness in others, will not excuse wrong tempers in us, but should increase our care, and attention to the duties of our station. Consider Him that endured contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be weary and faint in your minds, Heb 12:3. If David magnified the honour of being son-in-law to king Saul, how should we magnify the honour of being sons to the King of kings!

And Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David,.... His youngest daughter fell in love with him, because of the comeliness of his person, his gallant behaviour, his wise conduct, and the general esteem and reputation he was had in, as may be supposed: and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him; not that his daughter loved David, or that he should be his son-in-law, but that he should have an opportunity, as he hoped, of destroying David, which he had lost by giving his elder daughter to another; as also of retrieving his credit with the people, which was greatly sunk by using David in the manner he did, who had become the darling of the people.

1 Samuel 18:20-21 . The thing pleased him — Not out of any love to David, or desire to perform his promise; but because he hoped, by her means, to bring his ends about of destroying David. That she may be a snare to him — He hoped his daughter, in obedience to him, might be persuaded to bring him into some snare that he would lay for him: or that, being exposed to great dangers, (which he was to undergo, as a condition of having her to wife,) he might perish in some of them. Thou shalt be this day my son-in- law — That is, shortly, within a little time. In the one of the twain — Saul seems in this to have told David that though some reasons of state had obliged him to give his elder daughter to Adriel, yet still he would have him for his son-in-law, by giving the other unto him.

Verses 20, 21. - Michal... loved David. Probably there was some short lapse of time between Merab's marriage and the growth of this affection, the news of which pleased Saul. He was not an ungenerous man, and possibly may have felt ashamed at having acted so meanly by David after having exposed him to danger. And yet evil thoughts again are uppermost, and his purposes are selfish; for either way Saul will be the gainer. David will probably be slain, he thinks, in trying to get the dowry asked of him; and if not, at all events he will himself be cleared of the stain of public dishonesty now resting upon him. Therefore Saul said to David. Not in person, which accounts for David giving no answer, but through his servants, as is recounted more fully afterwards. 1 Samuel 18:20

(20) And Michal Saul’s daughter loved David. —But the love of the younger of the two royal princesses for her father’s brilliant officer gave the unhappy king a fresh excuse to expose David’s life to peril, while at the same time he appeared to be endeavouring to carry out an old formal promise.

20. Michal Saul's daughter loved David—This must have happened some time after. they told Saul, and the thing pleased him—Not from any favor to David, but he saw that it would be turned to the advancement of his malicious purposes, and the more so when, by the artful intrigues and flattery of his spies, the loyal sentiments of David were discovered.

Michal is married to David. - The pretext under which Saul broke his promise is not given, but it appears to have been, at any rate in part, that Merab had no love to David. This may be inferred from 1 Samuel 18:17 , 1 Samuel 18:18 , compared with 1 Samuel 18:20 . Michal, the younger daughter of Saul, loved David. When Saul was told this, the thing was quite right in his eyes. He said, "I will give her to him, that she may become a snare to him, and the hand of the Philistines may come upon him" (sc., if he tries to get the price which I shall require a dowry; cf. 1 Samuel 18:25 ). He therefore said to David, "In a second way (בּשׁתּים, as in Job 33:14 ) shalt thou become my son-in-law." Saul said this casually to David; but he made no reply, because he had found out the fickleness of Saul, and therefore put no further trust in his words.