And Saul said to David, Behold my eldest daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife; only be thou valiant for me, and fight Jehovah's battles. But Saul thought, My hand shall not be upon him, but the hand of the Philistines shall be upon him.
Saul's jealousy has turned quiet and calculated: he offers David his eldest daughter, Merab, and asks only that he keep fighting Israel's battles. The verse then lets us hear what he was really thinking.
Saul had already pledged his daughter to whoever defeated Goliath. Bringing that promise back now, with conditions attached, was not generosity but method.
Saul had once promised his daughter to the man who beat Goliath. He now renews that promise. He offers her to David on one condition: that he will fight the Lord's battles bravely, above all against the Philistines. The craft of Satan that marks the king here shows the true nature of his character. He will expose David to all the dangers of constant warfare. He will also stir up the Philistines against him by special insult, so that they will do all they can to kill him. So while seeking to avoid the responsibility for his death, Saul is really plotting it.
Saul's words are faultless. The second half of the verse shows what lay underneath them.
The king is already a murderer in his heart. Soon he becomes one in fact (v. 11). He looks for an underhanded way to rid himself of the man he hates. He promises his daughter Merab to David, but this is only a sham. "Fight the LORD's battles," Saul tells him, full of outward respect. Deep in his heart, though, hatred is boiling, along with the desire to see "the hand of the Philistines … against him."
Saul's plan had a second purpose beyond killing David: it protected Saul's reputation. He wanted the death without the blame. David, meanwhile, was getting an education.
Saul now tries to trap David. He offers him his eldest daughter, on condition that he should fight the Lord's battles. He is not yet so hardened in wickedness that he would openly lay hands on him. Instead he said, "Let the hand of the Philistines be against him." David never gets Merab. He would have seen the marriage as a most unexpected honour, but it was not to be. "Continual dropping wears away the stone," and this was always the schooling David needed. How he must have winced at each shift and deceit! He was so little prepared for this when he entered the royal circle. … But through it David was learning the deceitfulness of this present evil world.
The prize on offer was rank in the king's family. David never reached for it, and he had not fought Goliath for it either.
The honours and riches promised to the man who killed Goliath were not what moved him. After the victory we do not find him claiming them. They were flattering and splendid — the very things a man would grab if he sought his own glory. Instead we hear him saying, "Who am I, and what is my life, or my father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?"
Saul's scheme depended on the Philistines finishing David. It had the opposite effect.
But God took care of the outcome. Every step Saul took to humble David, or to show his own ill-feeling, or even worse, became only a means in God's hands to fit David the more for the kingdom. … Saul said to David, "Here is my elder daughter Merab. I will give her to you for a wife. Only be valiant for me and fight the LORD's battles." This was a mere pretence. … It only gave David the opportunity for fresh victories. … But there was no truth nor conscience toward God in Saul, any more than care for David or regard for the pledged promise of a king.
Commentators read Saul's campaign against David as a pattern repeated later. The better David proved himself, the more Saul feared him — and fear of a man God has chosen has a long history.
But because David was the Lord's chosen, Saul is his enemy, and David is the victim his enemy craved. The more wisely David conducts himself, and the more he shows that God is with him, the more Saul fears him. With a heart beyond reason, Saul hates him and would gladly kill him. In all this he goes the way of Satan, who, knowing the Son of God in his day, trembled before Him and yet sought to destroy Him.
- Pretence. Saul renewed his promise of Merab only to break it. The offer was "a mere pretence," dressed in the language of fighting the Lord's battles.
- Plot. Saul wanted David dead and his own hands clean. So he set out to stir up the Philistines and let them do the killing.
- Poise. David answered, "Who am I?" He never claimed the honours owed him, and never mentioned the king's broken word.
- Providence. God used every move Saul made against David to fit him the more for the kingdom. The trap only gave David fresh victories.
- Pattern. Saul hated the one God had chosen. In this he went the way of Satan, who trembled before the Son of God and still sought to destroy Him.
And David said to Saul, Who am I? and what is my life, [or] my father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?
Saul has just offered David his elder daughter Merab, dressing the offer up as a call to fight the Lord's battles. David does not grab at the honour; he asks who he is that he should marry into the king's family.
Saul's proposal was not a reward but a plot, and David had reason to suspect it. Saul had already promised a royal marriage to Goliath's killer, and never paid it.
Of course Saul knew that the people thought highly of David, so he used the trick of offering his older daughter Merab to David if David would prove himself brave in fighting the Lord's battles (v.17). David had good cause to be suspicious of this, for Saul had already promised his daughter to the man who would kill Goliath (ch. 17:25). Saul hoped that David would take such risks in his fighting that the Philistines would kill him. But David showed a humble spirit. He protested that he did not think himself worthy to be the king's son-in-law.
David meant the question; he was not putting on modesty. And Saul's answer to it was to give Merab to another man.
"And David said to Saul, 'Who am I?'" — for his humility was real, with nothing put on — and still God worked on his behalf in fresh ways. "Who am I, and who are my relatives, my father's clan in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?" But there was no truth or conscience toward God in Saul, and no care for David or regard for the promised word of a king. "But at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite for a wife."
David had a reason for fighting Goliath, and the prize was not it. Watch what he does after the win.
The Lord had been dishonoured, and His people threatened, and this was "the cause" that moved David to say to Saul, "Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine." The honours and riches promised to the man who killed Goliath were not what moved him. After the victory we do not find him claiming them, splendid and flattering as they were — the very things for a man who wanted glory for himself. Instead we hear him saying, "Who am I, and who are my relatives, my father's clan in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?" and we see him going back to being the king's harpist.
His own brother had accused him of pride and a bad heart. One writer hears David's answer to that charge in a psalm.
Perhaps it was after he had endured the taunts of Eliab, his eldest brother, who charged him with pride and a bad heart, that he poured out his soul in the words of Psalm 131. Turning away from his brother, his soul turned towards his God with these words: "O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me."
Years later David sits as king, and he asks the same question again.
The first thing worth noting is the king's humility. He has no thought of pride. Communion with the Lord, instead of exalting man, lowers him in his own estimation. "Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?" David is well aware of his origin and glories in it because this origin exalts the God who took him from the sheepfold!
David holds back, meets every condition, and receives a bride at the end of it. One writer sees a faint picture of something larger here.
With fitting modesty, David shrinks from the honour of being linked with the king, but he meets all the conditions, and in the end receives Saul's second daughter as his bride. This is a very faint foreshadowing, may we not say, of the Church, which is given to our Lord as the result of His glorious victory. "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her."
- Trap — Saul's offer of Merab was bait. He wanted the Philistines to kill David for him.
- Question — David's "Who am I?" was real humility. He claimed nothing, though Saul had already held back the reward for killing Goliath.
- Silence — He claims none of the promised honours and riches. He goes back to serving as the king's harpist.
- Root — That calm came from a soul already quieted before God, weaned of great matters, as Psalm 131 puts it.
- Consistency — The same "Who am I?" comes later from the throne. Closeness to the Lord lowers a man in his own eyes instead of lifting him.
And it came to pass at the time when Merab Saul's daughter should have been given to David, that she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as wife.
Saul had promised his daughter Merab to the man who fought his battles, but he gave her to someone else instead. The short verse shows what Saul had become, and raises a question: what was God doing for David through this public shame?
Saul dressed the offer up as a reward for courage. His real aim was the opposite.
Soon the king, who is already a murderer in his heart, becomes one in fact (v. 11). He looks for a sly way to get rid of the man he hates. He promises his daughter Merab to David, but this is only a sham. "Fight the LORD's battles," Saul tells him, full of outward respect. Deep in his heart hatred is boiling, along with the desire to see "the hand of the Philistines … upon him" (vv. 17-19).
Saul broke a promise he had given as king. One writer names what was missing in him.
But there was no truth or conscience toward God in Saul, any more than care for David or regard for the pledged promise of a king.
God took every move Saul made to shame David and turned it toward the throne David would later hold.
But God took care that every step that Saul took to humble David, or to show his ill-feeling, or even worse, should be only a means in God's hands to fit David the more for the kingdom. The LORD was with him in the house of Saul and kept him safe. The LORD was with him outside the king's house too, and there he proved himself before the people as his servant, the better because he was the LORD's servant.
Commentators also notice that the loss may have cost David less than we assume.
The time came when David had proved himself equal to the task Saul had assigned to him. He was therefore entitled to marry Merab. But Saul again proved himself untrustworthy by giving Merab to another man (v. 19). This may have been just as well for David, since there seems no sign that he had any love for Merab anyway.
David was new to the royal court and unready for its dishonesty. One writer looks past this single broken promise to the pattern.
David never gets Merab, though he clearly would have regarded it as a most unexpected honour; but it was not to be. "It is the continual dropping which wears the stone," and this was always the character of the schooling David needed. How he must have winced under each change of mind and each deceit! He was so little prepared for this when he entered the royal circle. The noble and strong can hardly bear the meanness of envy. But it was teaching David the deceitfulness of this present evil world.
Saul came back later for fresh services, and David had every ground to raise the old wrong. He never did.
Not a word about the earlier wrong done to him. Not a syllable about Merab given to Adriel. Nothing about the king breaking his royal word, so solemnly pledged in the hour of danger in the valley of Elah, and renewed later by Saul himself for fresh services.
Adriel appears only here and in one later, grim passage. The marriage produced sons who paid for a crime of Saul's.
Son of Barzillai, the Meholathite, to whom Merab, Saul's daughter, was given as wife after having been promised to David. She bore Adriel five sons, and these were given up to death to avenge the Gibeonites because Saul had killed some of them. In 2 Samuel 21:8 these five sons are named as the sons of Michal, Saul's daughter. They were surely the sons of Merab and not of Michal. It seems most likely that the name Michal here is the mistake of an early copyist.
- Bait — The promise of Merab was a sham from a king already a murderer in his heart, hoping the Philistines would kill David for him.
- Broken — Saul had no truth or conscience toward God, so breaking his royal word cost him nothing.
- Overruled — Every step Saul took to humble David became a means in God's hands to fit David the more for the kingdom.
- Schooled — Steady dripping wears away stone. Saul's repeated deceit taught David how deceitful this world is.
- Silent — Asked for fresh service later, David said not a syllable about Merab. The wronged man kept no ledger of the wrong.