The+Character+of+Michal


 * Biography **

Michal’s story in I and II Samuel is fragmented and requires piecing together. She was Saul’s younger daughter, sister to Merab and Jonathan. Saul offered his daughter Merab to David in exchange for fighting against the Philistines, in the hopes that David would kill himself in battle. Saul tricked David, though, and gave Merab to another. However, Michal was in love with David, and Saul saw this and tried to make her another trap for David to lure him to his death. David prevailed, and killed 200 Philistines to win her. Later Saul hatched another, more direct attack on David, sending men to his house to spy on him and kill him. But Michal let David down a rope through the window, and used a rug and a dummy to pretend he was still in bed. She told Saul that David forced her to let him go. While David was wandering in the wilderness and avoiding Saul’s anger, Saul gave Michal to Palti as a wife. David calls for Michal years later, when he is on the brink of becoming king of the Israelites, and she is brought to David, with Palti weeping behind her. Yet years later, David brought the ark of the covenant up to Jerusalem, he was dancing and rejoicing before it in praise to God. Michal, looking down, saw him dancing and despised him in her heart. She rebuked David for his dance, and he reprimanded her and pronounced a judgment on her: she would have no children until the day of her death. [|[i]]

** List of Biblical passages where Michal is mentioned **

I Samuel 14.49-51 – Michal is introduced as Saul’s daughter I Samuel 18.12-29 – Michal is given to David as wife I Samuel 19.8-18 – Michal helps David escape from Saul I Samuel 25.43-44 – Michal is given to Palti II Samuel 3.12-16 – David sends for Michal as sign of Saulite house II Samuel 6.12-23 – Michal despises David and his dance [|[ii]]

** Popular Views and Interpretations of Michal **

One method of sketching Michal’s character is to compare her to her brother, Jonathan. Both siblings appear in the text in relation to David; Samuel placed them in direct contrast in I Samuel 18-20. Both Michal and Jonathan showed more love and faithfulness to David than their father did. Both admitted their love for David; however, in Michal’s case this is a culturally unfeminine action. It is the only time in the Bible that a woman is said to ‘love’ (and thus choose) a husband, rather than the man take action towards the woman; the narrator records it twice to emphasize this anomaly (I Samuel 18:20, 28). David, however, did not marry Michal for love, as she did; he married her because “it pleased David well to be the king’s son-in-law (I Samuel 18:26).” Indeed, Michal’s life was shaped by David’s practical considerations; she was used as a political object, not a person with emotion and the need to be loved. David did not object when Saul married Michal to someone else in his absence (I Samuel 25:44). The only reason he requested her to be returned on his threshold of being crowned king was to guarantee the support of the Saulite house (II Samuel 3:13-15). There is no indication of Michal’s feelings at being torn from her second husband, but he had clearly developed love for her. David seems to have related to Michal as man and Jonathan as a woman—not as sexual perversion, but in the sense that David kept his feelings of love and tenderness (which might have been shared with Michal) for Jonathan (I Samuel 20:41). David’s relationship with Michal was all practical. Michal never had children—this is perhaps a hint that David, who never truly loved her, cut off marital relations with her after their confrontation on David’s dancing before the ark of the Lord. This denial of one of woman’s central characteristics (as portrayed by the Bible) suggests that Michal “never fulfilled a female role” in David’s eyes. Unlike many women in Biblical narrative, Michal is never described as beautiful. Her atypical unfemininity is partially forced upon her by David. [|[iii]]

One method that is used to speculate on Michal’s characteristics is a comparison. Robert B. Lawton of Georgetown University draws a parallel from the love triangle between Jacob, Leah, and Rachel to the ‘triangle’ between David, Merab, and Michal. Merab and Michal are sisters offered to the same man, just as Leah and Rachel are sisters married to the same man. But Jacob loves Rachel—it is to be expected that David loves Michal. The expectation is what highlights the absence. Michal loves David (I Samuel 18:20), but David is not said to love Michal. Michal uses the household idol to trick her father and help David escape. Rachel hides her household idols from her father in her escape with Jacob. Both of them are more devoted to their husbands than their fathers. The parallel between the two trios underscores what David lacks in his relationship with Michal: love. [|[iv]]

Another view sees Michal’s conflict with David over his dancing before the ark of the Lord as an end result of her tumultuous life spent loving him and always being given last priority in his affections. Michal loved David even when Saul was already jealous of him, and was faithful to him over her loyalty to Saul. She saved David’s life on at least one occasion by helping him escape from Saul through the window (I Samuel 19:11). Saul, who had unwillingly given Michal to David in the first place, had no qualms about marrying her off to Palti once David was out of the way. Her feeling of desertion by David only added to the bitterness she felt from his apathy towards her that had characterized their whole relationship. Michal was left full of conflicts and dilemmas, and an overall sense of not belonging. She was naturally loyal to her father Saul, but he used her politically and hated the man she loved. David did not love her as his wife or as a person; he wanted her as a status symbol, an affirmation that he was king. Palti was the only man who displayed true affection for her, but David tore Michal from him in order to secure his claim to the throne. When Michal saw David dancing with such passion and sincerity before God—a passion and honest feeling he had never shown her—her bitterness spilled over. She was left a cold and lonely woman. [|[v]]

** Works Cited **

I. Barker, William P. 1966. //Everyone in the Bible//. Westwood, CA: Fleming H. Revell Company. II. Berlin, Adele. 1982. “Characterization in Biblical Narrative: David’s Wives.” //Journal for the Study of the Old Testament// 23, no. 7 (July 1). III. Lawton, Robert B. 1989. “I Samuel 18: David, Merob, and Michal.” District of Columbia, U.S.A.: //Catholic Biblical Quarterly// 51, no. 3 (July 1). IV. Sachs, Gerardo G. 2006. “David Dances—Michal Scoffs.” Jerusalem, Israel: //Jewish Bible Quarterly// 34, no. 4 (October 1). V. Strong, James. 1979. //The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible//. McLean, VA: Macdonald Publishing Company.

[|[i]] William P. Barker, Everyone in the Bible (Westwood, CA: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1966), 245.

[|[ii]] James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (McLean, VA: Macdonald Publishing Company, 1979), 677.

[|[iii]] Adele Berlin, “Characterization in Biblical Narrative: David’s Wives,” //Journal for the Study of the Old Testament// 23, no. 7 (July 1982): 2-4.

[|[iv]] Robert B. Lawton, “I Samuel 18: David, Merob, and Michal,” //Catholic Biblical Quarterly// 51, no. 3 (July 1989): 1-3.

[|[v]] Gerardo G. Sachs, “David Dances—Michal Scoffs,” //Jewish Bible Quarterly// 34, no. 4 (October 2006): 1-4.

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