- published: 23 Jun 2015
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Michal (Hebrew: מיכל) was a daughter of Saul, king of Israel, who loved and became the wife of David, (1 Samuel 18:20-27) who later became king of Judah, and later still of the united Kingdom of Israel.
Their story is recorded in the Book of Samuel. It is recorded that she chose the welfare of David over the wishes of her father. When Saul's messengers were searching for David in order to kill him, Michal secretly sent him away while pretending he was ill and laid up in bed. She let David down through a window and hid teraphim in his bed as a ruse. (1 Samuel 19:11-17)
Whilst David was hiding for his life, Saul gave Michal as a wife to Palti, son of Laish, and David took several other wives, including Abigail. (1 Samuel 25) Later when David became king of Judah and Ish-bosheth Michal's brother (and Saul's son) was king of Israel, David demanded her return to him, in return for peace between them. This Ish-bosheth did, despite the public protests of Palti.
These events have raised moral issues within Judaism, especially in the context of the prohibition in Deuteronomy 24:1-4. On the one hand, some argue that it is prohibited to re-establish a marriage with a previous spouse who has subsequently remarried. On the other hand, other commentators explain that David had not divorced Michal at this point in time, but rather Saul acted to break their marriage by marrying her off to another without David's consent. On that view, they were not technically divorced as David had not issued a writ of divorcement according to biblical law.