Michal, Saul’s Daughter
And as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal Saul’s daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.
. . . .
20 ¶ Then David returned to abless his household. And bMichal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who cuncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself!
21 And David said unto Michal, It was before the Lord, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel: therefore will I play before the Lord.
22 And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour.
23 Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death.
-thus 2 Samuel 6
An oddly contemporary conversation.
Michal had not children, and if David hadn’t other wives, neither would he. If this is a contemporary conversation, is it a coincidence that birthrates are falling?
Bookslinger
June 21, 2022
I think she was tee’d off for two reasons.
1) Earlier in the chapter, v 13, it says he took wives and concubines from among the Jerusalemites.
2) In her eyes, maybe his shine had started to wear off. She had swooned like all the other women over the giant-killer, the BMOC, the slayer of tens of thousands. And she, the king’s little princess, got to marry the Hero of Israel. But then, the prissy princess sees that her hero is true to his country bumpkin sheepherder roots, and after the conquest, spikes the ball, dancing half nekkid in public. After all the pomp and circumstance of daddy’s court, this guy gets down with the commoners? Harrumph!
jorgen
June 21, 2022
But why does David ferl the need to uncover himself before the Lord in public? Does he think the Lord is gay?
daughterofzion
June 21, 2022
“And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.”
Evenstar
June 22, 2022
Sometimes, the Old Testament comes across as particularly abridged to me. I think I would understand it better if there were more information.
G.
June 22, 2022
Yeah, I wonder about the after math here. Did Michal never make any later overtures to David? Did he rebuff them?
Bookslinger
June 22, 2022
Evenstar: Two things that trip me up in the KJV OT are idioms and cultural context.
The KJ translators did mainly literal word-for-word translation, so idiomatic meanings can get lost. For instance, comparing various translations of Judges 5:26, it appears that “smote off his head” is an idiom for any mortal head wound, not a literal decapitation at the neck. That also sheds light on the common questions about the Nephi-Laban incident and Coriantumr/Shiz.
The alternate translations provided in the footnotes of the LDS edition often agree with the NIV, so that’s my main go-to when the KJV isn’t clear. IMO, another good thought-for-thought (as opposed to word-for-word) translation is the 1969 edition of the Jerusalem Bible (later editions became a bit politically correct.)