Image: David Marrying Michael, Medieval Illustrated Bible, Morgan Library NY)
David is loved 5 times in this chapter: Twice by Prince Jonathan, twice by Princess Michal, and once by the entire nation whose women dance and sing to him in adoration: ‘Saul has slain thousands and David -tens of thousands!’
There are also the two times Saul tries to kill David with a spear as David plays him music. Jealousy deepens Saul’s depression and he turns violent.
There are lots of numbers in this dense chapter that involves three of Saul’s children in convoluted love and hate dynamics mixed with political ambitions and mental health - all spinning around David.
Maybe numbers and dry data is the only way to try and keep track of what’s going on in this messy court drama, emotionally, painfully and ultimately tragically.
The chapter, like this epic story slowly spun, weaves extreme violence with the tenderest of feelings, the intimate, domestic with the public-political.
It begins with Jonathan, smitten with David, taking off his uniform and dressing David with it in a precise reversal of the previous chapter in which David tries on Saul’s royal armor and declines the heavy favor. This time, with erotic undertones - they both strip to complete this transaction - the princely gesture is welcomed. Does Jonathan already begin to hand over his heir-rights to his beloved? And does David love him back - it is not stated. Jonathan’s love is explicitly mentioned, twice.
Next - Saul keeps up the promise of rewards for Goliath’s slaying and offers David the hand of Merav, the eldest princess, in marriage. It’s not just fairness, the text explains that Saul hopes his new son in law will have army responsibilities that will eventually get him killed.
David declines at first with humble speeches but the deal is somehow off when Merav is married off to another guy.
And now the youngest princess gets involved in this soap opera:
וַתֶּאֱהַ֛ב מִיכַ֥ל בַּת־שָׁא֖וּל אֶת־דָּוִ֑ד וַיַּגִּ֣דוּ לְשָׁא֔וּל וַיִּשַׁ֥ר הַדָּבָ֖ר בְּעֵינָֽיו׃
Now Michal daughter of Saul had fallen in love with David; and when this was reported to Saul, he was pleased.
Michael is the only woman in the Hebrew Bible of whom it’s said that she loves another in the romantic sense.
Her father agrees to the match, and demands a demeaning bride-price from David: 100 Philistine foreskins.
This demand is delivered to David through messengers, with running commentary exposing the king’s real motives - any way he can get David to die.
But David hurries to the task and returns with 200 foreskins.
There is no mention of what happens at the marriage ceremony that follows. Nor what they do with this dreadful dowery.
In this chapter full of marriage for political gain, loving gestures and forbidden lust - the image of a bloody basket full of foreskins as a wedding rite is revolting - and maybe symbolically appropriate for this family in formation - somewhere blurring the deeply personal and the most political.
Based on some recent archeology, some research examines this story in relation to
The Philistine Phallic Obsession
“It seems that Saul and David were aware of the fact that foreskins were of special cultic significance to the Philistines, and besides the obvious painful and humiliating act, cutting off the foreskins of Philistines may have had also a religious significance, perhaps for both sides.”
What does Michal think of her bridal-price and wedding ritual? We are not told. But modern voices amplify even her silences.
Rev. Wilda Gafney, in her revealtory book Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction To The Women Of The Torah And The Throne, laments the invisible fate of the women in Saul’s court and David’s life:
“Michal loves David. Michal makes decisions and acts on her feelings. Over time, she resists the patriarchal authority of her father and husband and pays the price.
It is striking, because she is the only woman in all of the Scriptures who is said to love a man—and that love will not be returned.
Michal bat Ahinoam has a larger footprint in the Scriptures than her elder sister or mother. Her name appears eighteen times versus three for her elder sister Merab and a single reference for their mother.
Unlike her mother and sister, Michal exercises a great deal of agency in the Scriptures: she loves; she speaks; she conspires; she lies; she moves; she looks; she despises; she criticizes. David is the object of most of her agency. And like the other women she is the object of patriarchal actions: she is given away ; she is likely imprisoned and made barren. Michal has a life, thoughts, and feelings.
Michal, the only woman in the Scriptures said to love a man, is recycled and reissued. It is not just David who thinks that the love of women is insignificant; the text and its narrative have no regard for Michal’s love or the lies it has birthed to save David’s life.”
There’s no honeymoon. In the following chapters the royal family will be embroiled in much more drama including a chase scene, ecstatic dancing, heartaches - and the closest we got to a biblical gay love story.
For additional possible wknd reading inspired by this puzzling chapter, and empowering lesser heard voice, from a very different and intriguing perspective that I’ve not yet read but am intrigued:
One Hundred Phillistine Foreskins by Tova Reich
Below the Bible Belt: 929 chapters, 42 months, daily reflections: Join Rabbi Amichai’s 3+ years interactive online quest to question, queer + re-read between the lines of the entire Hebrew Bible, with daily reflections, weekly videos and monthly learning sessions. January 2022-July 2025
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