The Sad Life of Michal

As I look at the experiences of Michal, the daughter of Saul and wife of David, it is clear that she had a terribly difficult life.  She was one of two daughters of Israel’s first king, and as David was starting to gain fame and power as a military leader we read that “Michal Saul’s daughter loved David.”  This was at the same time that Saul was becoming extremely jealous of David, and so he sought to take advantage of this potential relationship to try to get David killed.  He told David to go and kill one hundred Philistines as a dowry, with the expectation that he would surely die in the process.  But he didn’t, and so “Saul gave him Michal his daughter to wife.”  The writer of 1 Samuel emphasized again that “Michal Saul’s daughter loved him” (1 Samuel 18:20-28).  So Michal was married to a man she loved but someone her father wanted to kill—not the easiest situation for a new bride. 

               This tension for Michal was brought out soon after their marriage when Michal learned of another plot from Saul to kill David.  We read that “Michal David’s wife told him, saying, If thou save not thy life to night, to morrow thou shalt be slain.”  She “let David down through a window: and he went, and fled, and escaped.”  So she saved his life, and when her father found out what she had done Saul was clearly very upset with her: “Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy, that he is escaped?” (1 Samuel 19:11-17)  We don’t really have much of a record of her feelings, but we can only imagine what kind of mental anguish she went through as her father was trying to kill her husband and admitted it openly to her.  After this David was on the run for some time, and at some point, likely before she saw David, she was given by her father to someone else as a wife, perhaps even as a punishment.  After learning that David had taken two other wives we also learn that “Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti the son of Laish, which was of Gallim” (1 Samuel 25:44).  Again we have no record of what she felt, but surely it was an emotionally trying time as she was improperly given by her father to another man while she was still married to David.  Some time later—it’s not clear how much—she was then pulled out of that relationship when David took her back.  David convinced Michal’s brother Ish-bosheth to take her back, and this is the account: “And Ish-bosheth sent, and took her from her husband, even from Phaltiel the son of Laish.  And her husband went with her along weeping behind her to Bahurim. Then said Abner unto him, Go, return. And he returned” (2 Samuel 3:15-16).  Clearly there was great sadness on the part of this second husband of Michal, though we are not told what her feelings were.  It is likely that being taken and moved from husband to husband without her ability to act for herself caused feelings of sorrow, guilt, and anger.  And now that she was back she was not the single wife of David like before but now only one of multiple wives of David.  Whether David was justified in taking her back I don’t think we can judge from the sparse record that we have, but surely the whole situation was a cause of great sorrow all around. 

               It appears that Michal’s life ended in bitterness, at least from the few details that we have.  When the ark of the Lord was brought in to the city, Michal saw that David was “leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.”  It may be that the hatred was really not just about this event but about the general struggles Michal had been through.  We can hear her feelings of bitterness in her words to David, “How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself!”  David’s response was equally bitter, showing that their relationship likely had deteriorated into a marriage by name only.  David’s infidelity with Bath-sheba could have only deepened the feelings of resentment of Michal towards David.  The last we hear of Michal is in this sad verse: “Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death” (2 Samuel 6:16-23).  (Note that the later mention of Michal having five sons in 2 Samuel 21:8 “is mistakenly used for Merab, who was the wife of Adriel.”)  So, born the daughter of a king, Michal died the unloved wife of another king with no children. 

               I do believe, though, that the Lord has taken care of her.  To the extent that she was righteous and faithful to her husbands, surely she has received the blessing of an eternal marriage and posterity in the next life.  The Lord seemed to allude to that in a revelation to the Prophet Joseph: “David’s wives and concubines were given unto him of me, by the hand of Nathan, my servant, and others of the prophets who had the keys of this power….  He hath fallen from his exaltation, and received his portion; and he shall not inherit them out of the world, for I gave them unto another, saith the Lord” (D&C 132:39).  All her earthly sorrows were surely made right by the Lord as she was given to a man—perhaps Phaltiel or perhaps another—who could be hers in the Lord for eternity.