1 Samuel 18:21

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 Saul said, I will give him her, that she may be a snare to him,.... The cause and occasion of his fall and ruin, by means of what he should propose to him as the condition of marriage; but instead of proving a snare to him, as he hoped, she was the means of his deliverance, when Saul sent messengers to slay him, 1 Samuel 19:11 , and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him; provoked by what he should put him upon doing to them. The scheme he had in his head after appears, and what he now said was not openly said before his servants and courtiers, whom he did not trust with his secrets, but this he said within himself, conceived and contrived it in his own mind: wherefore Saul said to David; who was as yet at court, or whom he sent for on this occasion: thou shalt this day be my son in law in the one of the twain; by marrying one of his two daughters; signifying, that he would not defer the marriage, or put it off to a longer time, as he had done before, but that he should be married immediately to one or other of his daughters; and seeing he could not have the eldest, she being disposed of, he should have the youngest, and so be equally his son-in-law.

If we read the words without the supplement, "shalt be my son-in-law in the two", or in both, the sense is, that he should have them both; and so the Jews say (w), that he married them both, first Merab, and after her death Michal; or that he should be his son-in-law on two accounts, one by betrothing Merab, though he was not married to her, and the other by being married to Michal, so that he would be doubly his son in law; but the sense, according to the supplement, is best. (w) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 19. 2.

21 . a snare ] Michal was to he the bait to lure David into some venturesome raid upon the Philistines in which he might lose his life Wherefore Saul , &c.] Probably, And Saul said to David a second time, Now shalt thou be my son-in-law. The Sept. (B) omits the clause, but adds, “Now the hand of the Philistines was against Saul.” 1 Samuel 18:21

17 . Merab ] = Increase . Saul offered her to David in fulfilment of his promise ( 1 Samuel 17:25 ). In return for this honour Saul expects him to fight his battles, treacherously hoping that he may fall by the hand of the Philistines. the Lord’s battles ] Israel’s wars were “the wars of Jehovah,” because they were undertaken for the defence and establishment of His Kingdom, and His aid might be claimed in waging them. Cp. ch. 1 Samuel 25:28 ; Numbers 21:14 David expresses the same idea in 1 Samuel 17:36 ; 1 Samuel 17:47 . Saul said ] i.e. thought, as above in 1 Samuel 18:11 , 1 Samuel 16:6 , &c. To such cowardly and treacherous hypocrisy has jealousy reduced the once brave and generous soldier! 17–19. Saul’s treacherous offer of his daughter Merab to David 17–19 This section and the clause of 1 Samuel 18:21 which refers to it are omitted in the Sept. (B). See Note VI. p. 241.

And Saul said, I will give him her, that she may be a {i} snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Wherefore Saul said to David, Thou shalt this day be my son in law in the one of the twain. (i) So his hypocrisy appears, for under pretence of favour he sought his destruction.

(21) That she may be a snare to him. —Is it not possible that this dark plot of Saul against a life once so dear to him—a plot which in after days, when the enmity of the king was a matter of general notoriety, became of course known by David—suggested to him (David) the means by which, in the darkest hours of his life, he got rid of the brave Uriah, the husband of Bath-sheba, at the siege of Rabbah? (2 Samuel 11) In the one of the twain.—More accurately translated. in this second time, or in this second way. The LXX. again leaves out this statement, no doubt because it refers back to the omitted passage in 1Samuel 18:17-19.

This day, i.e. suddenly, within a time which probably Saul prefixed. In the one of the twain: whereas I have only two daughters, and thou wast disappointed of thy expectation in the one by an unexpected accident, thou shalt certainly have the other, which is the same thing. Heb. in the twain . Thus the cities of Gilead is put for one of them, Judges 12:7 ; and the sides of the ship for one of the sides, Jonah 1:5 . Or he saith in the twain , or in both, because he was in effect betrothed to the one, and should be married to the other, and so was I his son-in-law upon a double account.

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.

1 Samuel 18:19 . She was given unto Adriel — The son of Barzillai, as he is called 2 Samuel 21:8 . This was an act of great injustice, at the same time that it was a most high affront to David, and accordingly this marriage was accursed by God, and the children begotten in it were, by God’s appointment, cut off, 2 Samuel 21. How Jonathan resented this usage of David we are not told. It is likely his duty to his father made him entreat him to take it patiently, and to look upon Saul as sometimes beside himself, and one that did not know what he did.