Michal

As the ark of the covenant of the LORD was entering the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from a window and saw King David dancing and celebrating, and she despised him in her heart.

Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malchishua. His two daughters were named Merab (his firstborn) and Michal (his younger daughter).

Now Saul’s daughter Michal loved David, and when this was reported to Saul, it pleased him.

²⁷ David and his men went out and killed two hundred Philistines. He brought their foreskins and presented them as payment in full to become the king’s son-in-law. Then Saul gave his daughter Michal to David in marriage.

²⁸ When Saul realized that the LORD was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David,

²⁹ he grew even more afraid of David. So from then on Saul was David’s enemy.

¹¹ Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and kill him in the morning. But David’s wife Michal warned him, “If you do not run for your life tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!”

¹² So Michal lowered David from the window, and he ran away and escaped.

¹³ Then Michal took a household idol and laid it in the bed, placed some goat hair on its head, and covered it with a garment.

And Saul said to Michal, “Why did you deceive me like this? You sent my enemy away and he has escaped!” Michal replied, “He said to me, ‘Help me get away, or I will kill you!’”

But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

¹³ “Good,” replied David, “I will make a covenant with you. But there is one thing I require of you: Do not appear before me unless you bring Saul’s daughter Michal when you come to see me.”

¹⁴ Then David sent messengers to say to Ish-bosheth son of Saul, “Give me back my wife, Michal, whom I betrothed to myself for a hundred Philistine foreskins.”

As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him in her heart.

²⁰ As soon as David returned home to bless his own household, Saul’s daughter Michal came out to meet him. “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today!” she said. “He has uncovered himself today in the sight of the maidservants of his subjects, like a vulgar person would do.”

²¹ But David said to Michal, “I was dancing before the LORD, who chose me over your father and all his house when He appointed me ruler over the LORD’s people Israel. I will celebrate before the LORD,

²² and I will humiliate and humble myself even more than this. Yet I will be honored by the maidservants of whom you have spoken.”

²³ And Michal the daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.