MICHAL (mi'kal), (Heb.1,r,?, me-kawf , brook), youngest daughter of King Saul (I Sam. xiv:49).
(1) Marriage. She became attached to David, and made no secret of her love, so that Saul, after he had disappointed David of the elder daughter (See MERAB), deemed it prudent to be stow Michal in marriage upon him (I Sam. xviii: 2o-28). Saul had hoped to make her the instru ment of his designs against David, but was foiled in his attempt through the devoted attachment of the wife to her husband. Of this a most memora ble instance is given in Sam. xix:11-17.
(2) Saves David's Life. When David es caped the javelin of Saul he retired to his own house, upon which the king set a guard over night, with the intention to slay him in the morn ing. This being discovered by Michal, she as sisted him to make his escape by a window, and afterwards amused the intended assassins under various pretenses, in order to retard the pursuit. When they were detected Michal pretended to her father that David had threatened her with death if she did not assist his escape.
(3) Second 1VIarriage. Saul probably did not believe this; but Ile took advantage of it by can celing the marriage, and bestowing her upon a person named Pha ,1 xxv :44).
(4) Restored to David. David, however, as the divorce had been without his consent, felt that thc law (Deut. xxiv :4) against a husband taking hack a divorced wife could not apply in this case ; he therefore formally reclaimed her of Ishbo sheth, who employed no less a personage than Abner to take her from Phalti and conduct her with. all honor to David. It was under cover
of this mission that Abncr soundcd the elders respecting their acceptance of David for king, and conferred with David himself on the same sub ject at Hebron (t Sam. iii :12-21).
(5) Reunion ITnhappy. Thc reunion was less happy than might have been hoped. On that great day when the ark was brought to Jerusalem, Michal viewed the procession from a window, and the royal notions she had imbibed were so shocked at the sight of the king not only taking part in, but leading, the holy transports of his people, that she met him on his return home with a keen sarcasm on his undignified and unkingly behavior. This ill-timed sneer, and the unsympa thetic state of feeling which it manifested, drew from David a severe but not unmerited retort ; and the Great King, in whose honor David in curred this contumely, seems to have punished the wrong done to him, for we are told that 'therefore Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no child to the day of her death' (2 Sam. vi :16-23). It was thus, perhaps, as Abarbanel remarks, ordered by Provi dence that the race of Saul and David should not be mixed, and that no one deriving any ap parent right from Saul should succeed to the thronc.