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Selected Verse: 1 Samuel 18:17 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
1Sa 18:17	Strong Concordance	And Saul [07586] said [0559] to David [01732], Behold my elder [01419] daughter [01323] Merab [04764], her will I give [05414] thee to wife [0802]: only be thou valiant [01121] [02428] for me, and fight [03898] the LORD'S [03068] battles [04421]. For Saul [07586] said [0559], Let not mine hand [03027] be upon him, but let the hand [03027] of the Philistines [06430] be upon him.
	King James	And Saul said to David, Behold my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife: only be thou valiant for me, and fight the LORD'S battles. For Saul said, Let not mine hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him.

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
HE OFFERS HIM HIS DAUGHTER FOR A SNARE. (Sa1 18:17-21) Saul said to David, Behold my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife--Though bound to this already [Sa1 17:25], he had found it convenient to forget his former promise. He now holds it out as a new offer, which would tempt David to give additional proofs of his valor. But the fickle and perfidious monarch broke his pledge at the time when the marriage was on the eve of being celebrated, and bestowed Merab on another man (see on Sa2 21:8); an indignity as well as a wrong, which was calculated deeply to wound the feelings and provoke the resentment of David. Perhaps it was intended to do so, that advantage might be taken of his indiscretion. But David was preserved from this snare.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

HE OFFERS HIM HIS DAUGHTER FOR A SNARE. (Sa1 18:17-21)

Saul said to David, Behold my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife--Though bound to this already [Sa1 17:25], he had found it convenient to forget his former promise. He now holds it out as a new offer, which would tempt David to give additional proofs of his valor. But the fickle and perfidious monarch broke his pledge at the time when the marriage was on the eve of being celebrated, and bestowed Merab on another man (see on Sa2 21:8); an indignity as well as a wrong, which was calculated deeply to wound the feelings and provoke the resentment of David. Perhaps it was intended to do so, that advantage might be taken of his indiscretion. But David was preserved from this snare.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
Saul had not hitherto fulfilled the promise of which David had heard (marginal reference); nor was it unnatural that Saul should delay to do so, until the shepherd's boy had risen to a higher rank.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
Craftiness of Saul in the betrothal of his daughters to David. - Sa1 18:17. As Saul had promised to give his daughter for a wife to the conqueror of Goliath (Sa1 17:25), he felt obliged, by the growing love and attachment of the people to David, to fulfil this promise, and told him that he was ready to do so, with the hope of finding in this some means of destroying David. He therefore offered him his elder daughter Merab with words that sounded friendly and kind: "Only be a brave man to me, and wage the wars of the Lord." He called the wars with the Philistines "wars of Jehovah," i.e., wars for the maintenance and defence of the kingdom of God, to conceal his own cunning design, and make David feel all the more sure that the king's heart was only set upon the welfare of the kingdom of God. Whoever waged the wars of the Lord might also hope for the help of the Lord. But Saul had intentions of a very different kind. He thought ("said," sc., to himself), "My hand shall not be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him;" i.e., I will not put him to death; the Philistines may do that. When Saul's reason had returned, he shrank from laying hands upon David again, as he had done before in a fit of madness. He therefore hoped to destroy him through the medium of the Philistines. Sa1 18:18 But David replied with true humility, without suspecting the craftiness of Saul: "Who am I, and what is my condition in life, my father's family in Israel, that I should become son-in-law to the king?" חיּי מי is a difficult expression, and has been translated in different ways, as the meaning which suggests itself first (viz., "what is my life") is neither reconcilable with the מי (the interrogative personal pronoun), nor suitable to the context. Gesenius (Thes. p. 471) and Bttcher give the meaning "people" for חיּים, and Ewald (Gramm. 179, b.) the meaning "family." But neither of these meanings can be established. חיּים seems evidently to signify the condition in life, the relation in which a person stands to others, and מי is to be explained on the ground that David referred to the persons who formed the class to which he belonged. "My father's family" includes all his relations. David's meaning was, that neither on personal grounds, nor on account of his social standing, nor because of his lineage, could he make the slightest pretension to the honour of becoming the son-in-law of the king. Sa1 18:19 But Saul did not keep his promise. When the time arrived for its fulfilment, he gave his daughter to Adriel the Meholathite, a man of whom nothing further is known. (Note: Sa1 18:17-19 are omitted from the Septuagint version; but they are so, no doubt, only because Saul's first promise was without result so far as David was concerned.) Sa1 18:20-21 Michal is married to David. - The pretext under which Saul broke his promise is not given, but it appears to have been, at any rate in part, that Merab had no love to David. This may be inferred from Sa1 18:17, Sa1 18:18, compared with Sa1 18:20. Michal, the younger daughter of Saul, loved David. When Saul was told this, the thing was quite right in his eyes. He said, "I will give her to him, that she may become a snare to him, and the hand of the Philistines may come upon him" (sc., if he tries to get the price which I shall require a dowry; cf. Sa1 18:25). He therefore said to David, "In a second way (בּשׁתּים, as in Job 33:14) shalt thou become my son-in-law." Saul said this casually to David; but he made no reply, because he had found out the fickleness of Saul, and therefore put no further trust in his words. Sa1 18:22 Saul therefore employed his courtiers to persuade David to accept his offer. In this way we may reconcile in a very simple manner the apparent discrepancy, that Saul is said to have offered his daughter to David himself, and yet he commissioned his servants to talk to David privately of the king's willingness to give him his daughter. The omission of Sa1 18:21 in the Septuagint is to be explained partly from the fact that בּשׁתּים points back to Sa1 18:17-19, which are wanting in this version, and partly also in all probability from the idea entertained by the translators that the statement itself is at variance with Sa1 18:22. The courtiers were to talk to David בּלּט, "in private," i.e., as though they were doing it behind the king's back. Sa1 18:23 David replied to the courtiers, "Does it seem to you a little thing to become son-in-law to the king, seeing that I am a poor and humble man?" "Poor," i.e., utterly unable to offer anything like a suitable dowry to the king. This reply was given by David in perfect sincerity, since he could not possibly suppose that the king would give him his daughter without a considerable marriage portion. Sa1 18:24-25 When this answer was reported to the king, he sent word through his courtiers what the price was for which he would give him his daughter. He required no dowry (see at Gen 34:12), but only a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, i.e., the slaughter of a hundred Philistines, and the proof that this had been done, to avenge himself upon the enemies of the king; whereas, as the writer observes, Saul supposed that he should thus cause David to fall, i.e., bring about his death by the hand of the Philistines. Sa1 18:26-27 But David was satisfied with Saul's demand, since he had no suspicion of his craftiness, and loved Michal. Even before the days were full, i.e., before the time appointed for the delivery of the dowry and for the marriage had arrived, he rose up with his men, smote two hundred Philistines, and brought their foreskins, which were placed in their full number before the king; whereupon Saul was obliged to give him Michal his daughter to wife. The words "and the days were not full" (Sa1 18:26) form a circumstantial clause, which is to be connected with the following sentence, "David arose," etc. David delivered twice the price demanded. "They made them full to the king," i.e., they placed them in their full number before him. Sa1 18:28-29 The knowledge of the fact that David had carried out all his enterprises with success had already filled the melancholy king with fear. But when the failure of this new plan for devoting David to certain death had forced the conviction upon him that Jehovah was with David, and that he was miraculously protected by Him; and when, in addition to this, there was the love of his daughter Michal to David; his fear of David grew into a lifelong enmity. Thus his evil spirit urged him ever forward to greater and greater hardness of heart. Sa1 18:30 The occasion for the practical manifestation of this enmity was the success of David in all his engagements with the Philistines. As often as the princes of the Philistines went out (sc., to war with Israel), David acted more wisely and prosperously than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was held in great honour. With this general remark the way is prepared for the further history of Saul's conduct towards David.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

Craftiness of Saul in the betrothal of his daughters to David. - Sa1 18:17. As Saul had promised to give his daughter for a wife to the conqueror of Goliath (Sa1 17:25), he felt obliged, by the growing love and attachment of the people to David, to fulfil this promise, and told him that he was ready to do so, with the hope of finding in this some means of destroying David. He therefore offered him his elder daughter Merab with words that sounded friendly and kind: "Only be a brave man to me, and wage the wars of the Lord." He called the wars with the Philistines "wars of Jehovah," i.e., wars for the maintenance and defence of the kingdom of God, to conceal his own cunning design, and make David feel all the more sure that the king's heart was only set upon the welfare of the kingdom of God. Whoever waged the wars of the Lord might also hope for the help of the Lord. But Saul had intentions of a very different kind. He thought ("said," sc., to himself), "My hand shall not be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him;" i.e., I will not put him to death; the Philistines may do that. When Saul's reason had returned, he shrank from laying hands upon David again, as he had done before in a fit of madness. He therefore hoped to destroy him through the medium of the Philistines.

Sa1 18:18

But David replied with true humility, without suspecting the craftiness of Saul: "Who am I, and what is my condition in life, my father's family in Israel, that I should become son-in-law to the king?" חיּי מי is a difficult expression, and has been translated in different ways, as the meaning which suggests itself first (viz., "what is my life") is neither reconcilable with the מי (the interrogative personal pronoun), nor suitable to the context. Gesenius (Thes. p. 471) and Bttcher give the meaning "people" for חיּים, and Ewald (Gramm. 179, b.) the meaning "family." But neither of these meanings can be established. חיּים seems evidently to signify the condition in life, the relation in which a person stands to others, and מי is to be explained on the ground that David referred to the persons who formed the class to which he belonged. "My father's family" includes all his relations. David's meaning was, that neither on personal grounds, nor on account of his social standing, nor because of his lineage, could he make the slightest pretension to the honour of becoming the son-in-law of the king.

Sa1 18:19

But Saul did not keep his promise. When the time arrived for its fulfilment, he gave his daughter to Adriel the Meholathite, a man of whom nothing further is known.

(Note: Sa1 18:17-19 are omitted from the Septuagint version; but they are so, no doubt, only because Saul's first promise was without result so far as David was concerned.)

Sa1 18:20-21

Michal is married to David. - The pretext under which Saul broke his promise is not given, but it appears to have been, at any rate in part, that Merab had no love to David. This may be inferred from Sa1 18:17, Sa1 18:18, compared with Sa1 18:20. Michal, the younger daughter of Saul, loved David. When Saul was told this, the thing was quite right in his eyes. He said, "I will give her to him, that she may become a snare to him, and the hand of the Philistines may come upon him" (sc., if he tries to get the price which I shall require a dowry; cf. Sa1 18:25). He therefore said to David, "In a second way (בּשׁתּים, as in Job 33:14) shalt thou become my son-in-law." Saul said this casually to David; but he made no reply, because he had found out the fickleness of Saul, and therefore put no further trust in his words.

Sa1 18:22

Saul therefore employed his courtiers to persuade David to accept his offer. In this way we may reconcile in a very simple manner the apparent discrepancy, that Saul is said to have offered his daughter to David himself, and yet he commissioned his servants to talk to David privately of the king's willingness to give him his daughter. The omission of Sa1 18:21 in the Septuagint is to be explained partly from the fact that בּשׁתּים points back to Sa1 18:17-19, which are wanting in this version, and partly also in all probability from the idea entertained by the translators that the statement itself is at variance with Sa1 18:22. The courtiers were to talk to David בּלּט, "in private," i.e., as though they were doing it behind the king's back.

Sa1 18:23

David replied to the courtiers, "Does it seem to you a little thing to become son-in-law to the king, seeing that I am a poor and humble man?" "Poor," i.e., utterly unable to offer anything like a suitable dowry to the king. This reply was given by David in perfect sincerity, since he could not possibly suppose that the king would give him his daughter without a considerable marriage portion.

Sa1 18:24-25

When this answer was reported to the king, he sent word through his courtiers what the price was for which he would give him his daughter. He required no dowry (see at Gen 34:12), but only a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, i.e., the slaughter of a hundred Philistines, and the proof that this had been done, to avenge himself upon the enemies of the king; whereas, as the writer observes, Saul supposed that he should thus cause David to fall, i.e., bring about his death by the hand of the Philistines.

Sa1 18:26-27

But David was satisfied with Saul's demand, since he had no suspicion of his craftiness, and loved Michal. Even before the days were full, i.e., before the time appointed for the delivery of the dowry and for the marriage had arrived, he rose up with his men, smote two hundred Philistines, and brought their foreskins, which were placed in their full number before the king; whereupon Saul was obliged to give him Michal his daughter to wife. The words "and the days were not full" (Sa1 18:26) form a circumstantial clause, which is to be connected with the following sentence, "David arose," etc. David delivered twice the price demanded. "They made them full to the king," i.e., they placed them in their full number before him.

Sa1 18:28-29

The knowledge of the fact that David had carried out all his enterprises with success had already filled the melancholy king with fear. But when the failure of this new plan for devoting David to certain death had forced the conviction upon him that Jehovah was with David, and that he was miraculously protected by Him; and when, in addition to this, there was the love of his daughter Michal to David; his fear of David grew into a lifelong enmity. Thus his evil spirit urged him ever forward to greater and greater hardness of heart.

Sa1 18:30

The occasion for the practical manifestation of this enmity was the success of David in all his engagements with the Philistines. As often as the princes of the Philistines went out (sc., to war with Israel), David acted more wisely and prosperously than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was held in great honour. With this general remark the way is prepared for the further history of Saul's conduct towards David.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
Fight the Lord's battles - Mr. Calmet properly remarks that the wars of the Hebrews, while conducted by the express orders of God, were truly the wars of the Lord; but when the spirit of worldly ambition and domination became mingled with them, they were no longer the wars of the Lord, but wars of lust and profanity.

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⁸ But the king [04428] took [03947] the two [08147] sons [01121] of Rizpah [07532] the daughter [01323] of Aiah [0345], whom she bare [03205] unto Saul [07586], Armoni [0764] and Mephibosheth [04648]; and the five [02568] sons [01121] of Michal [04324] the daughter [01323] of Saul [07586], whom she brought up [03205] for Adriel [05741] the son [01121] of Barzillai [01271] the Meholathite [04259]:

²⁵ And the men [0376] of Israel [03478] said [0559], Have ye seen [07200] this man [0376] that is come up [05927]? surely to defy [02778] Israel [03478] is he come up [05927]: and it shall be, that the man [0376] who killeth [05221] him, the king [04428] will enrich [06238] him with great [01419] riches [06239], and will give [05414] him his daughter [01323], and make [06213] his father's [01] house [01004] free [02670] in Israel [03478].

¹⁷ And Saul [07586] said [0559] to David [01732], Behold my elder [01419] daughter [01323] Merab [04764], her will I give [05414] thee to wife [0802]: only be thou valiant [01121] [02428] for me, and fight [03898] the LORD'S [03068] battles [04421]. For Saul [07586] said [0559], Let not mine hand [03027] be upon him, but let the hand [03027] of the Philistines [06430] be upon him.
¹⁸ And David [01732] said [0559] unto Saul [07586], Who am I? and what is my life [02416], or my father's [01] family [04940] in Israel [03478], that I should be son in law [02860] to the king [04428]?
¹⁹ But it came to pass at the time [06256] when Merab [04764] Saul's [07586] daughter [01323] should have been given [05414] to David [01732], that she was given [05414] unto Adriel [05741] the Meholathite [04259] to wife [0802].
²⁰ And Michal [04324] Saul's [07586] daughter [01323] loved [0157] David [01732]: and they told [05046] Saul [07586], and the thing [01697] pleased [03474] [05869] him.
²¹ And Saul [07586] said [0559], I will give [05414] him her, that she may be a snare [04170] to him, and that the hand [03027] of the Philistines [06430] may be against him. Wherefore Saul [07586] said [0559] to David [01732], Thou shalt this day [03117] be my son in law [02859] in the one of the twain [08147].

³⁰ Then the princes [08269] of the Philistines [06430] went forth [03318]: and it came to pass, after [01767] they went forth [03318], that David [01732] behaved himself more wisely [07919] than all the servants [05650] of Saul [07586]; so that his name [08034] was much [03966] set by [03365].

²⁸ And Saul [07586] saw [07200] and knew [03045] that the LORD [03068] was with David [01732], and that Michal [04324] Saul's [07586] daughter [01323] loved [0157] him.
²⁹ And Saul [07586] was yet the more [03254] afraid [03372] of [06440] David [01732]; and Saul [07586] became David's [01732] enemy [0341] continually [03117].

²⁶ And when his servants [05650] told [05046] David [01732] these words [01697], it pleased [03474] [01697] [05869] David [01732] well to be the king's [04428] son in law [02859]: and the days [03117] were not expired [04390].
²⁷ Wherefore David [01732] arose [06965] and went [03212], he and his men [0582], and slew [05221] of the Philistines [06430] two hundred [03967] men [0376]; and David [01732] brought [0935] their foreskins [06190], and they gave them in full tale [04390] to the king [04428], that he might be the king's [04428] son in law [02859]. And Saul [07586] gave [05414] him Michal [04324] his daughter [01323] to wife [0802].

¹² Ask [07235] me never so much [03966] dowry [04119] and gift [04976], and I will give [05414] according as ye shall say [0559] unto me: but give [05414] me the damsel [05291] to wife [0802].

²⁴ And the servants [05650] of Saul [07586] told [05046] him, saying [0559], On this manner [01697] spake [01696] David [01732].
²⁵ And Saul [07586] said [0559], Thus shall ye say [0559] to David [01732], The king [04428] desireth [02656] not any dowry [04119], but an hundred [03967] foreskins [06190] of the Philistines [06430], to be avenged [05358] of the king's [04428] enemies [0341]. But Saul [07586] thought [02803] to make David [01732] fall [05307] by the hand [03027] of the Philistines [06430].

²³ And Saul's [07586] servants [05650] spake [01696] those words [01697] in the ears [0241] of David [01732]. And David [01732] said [0559], Seemeth [05869] it to you a light [07043] thing to be a king's [04428] son in law [02859], seeing that I am a poor [07326] man [0376], and lightly esteemed [07034]?

²² And Saul [07586] commanded [06680] his servants [05650], saying, Commune [01696] with David [01732] secretly [03909], and say [0559], Behold, the king [04428] hath delight [02654] in thee, and all his servants [05650] love [0157] thee: now therefore be the king's [04428] son in law [02859].

²¹ And Saul [07586] said [0559], I will give [05414] him her, that she may be a snare [04170] to him, and that the hand [03027] of the Philistines [06430] may be against him. Wherefore Saul [07586] said [0559] to David [01732], Thou shalt this day [03117] be my son in law [02859] in the one of the twain [08147].

¹⁴ For God [0410] speaketh [01696] once [0259], yea twice [08147], yet man perceiveth [07789] it not.

²⁵ And Saul [07586] said [0559], Thus shall ye say [0559] to David [01732], The king [04428] desireth [02656] not any dowry [04119], but an hundred [03967] foreskins [06190] of the Philistines [06430], to be avenged [05358] of the king's [04428] enemies [0341]. But Saul [07586] thought [02803] to make David [01732] fall [05307] by the hand [03027] of the Philistines [06430].

²⁰ And Michal [04324] Saul's [07586] daughter [01323] loved [0157] David [01732]: and they told [05046] Saul [07586], and the thing [01697] pleased [03474] [05869] him.

¹⁸ And David [01732] said [0559] unto Saul [07586], Who am I? and what is my life [02416], or my father's [01] family [04940] in Israel [03478], that I should be son in law [02860] to the king [04428]?

²⁰ And Michal [04324] Saul's [07586] daughter [01323] loved [0157] David [01732]: and they told [05046] Saul [07586], and the thing [01697] pleased [03474] [05869] him.
²¹ And Saul [07586] said [0559], I will give [05414] him her, that she may be a snare [04170] to him, and that the hand [03027] of the Philistines [06430] may be against him. Wherefore Saul [07586] said [0559] to David [01732], Thou shalt this day [03117] be my son in law [02859] in the one of the twain [08147].

¹⁹ But it came to pass at the time [06256] when Merab [04764] Saul's [07586] daughter [01323] should have been given [05414] to David [01732], that she was given [05414] unto Adriel [05741] the Meholathite [04259] to wife [0802].