David had also taken Ahinoam of Jizreel; and they became, even both of them, his wives.
David has just married Abigail. Then one short line adds a second wife, Ahinoam of Jezreel. Who was she? And why does Scripture record a step that cuts across God's own instruction for a king?
Ahinoam arrives with no background, yet her name returns again and again in David's story. One reference work traces her path:
David's wife, a woman of Jezreel. She went with David when he fled from Saul. While she was living at Ziklag, the Amalekites burned the city and carried her off. But she was brought back. She was with David when he came to the throne, and at Hebron she gave birth to Amnon, David's firstborn.
Her town was probably in Judah, near where these events happened. The sons of David's two wives went very different ways:
David now married, and had two wives. Both were probably of the tribe of Judah. There was a town named Jezreel in Judah, not far from Maon and Carmel (Joshua 15:55-56), and it is likely Ahinoam came from there. By her he had Amnon, whose history is bound up with the sorrows of his house. By Abigail he had Daniel, or Chileab, of whom we read nothing... The Lord did build David a sure house, but Abigail had no share in the building of it.
Commentators differ over how sharply to judge the step. One reads it as plain disobedience to a command aimed at the king himself:
Now God had clearly warned the king He would choose: "he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away" (Deut. 17:15, 17, ESV). David knew well that God had chosen him to be king... But in deliberate disobedience to the clear command of God, addressed especially to himself, David began to multiply wives.
Another puts it more mildly, and carries the thread forward to the wife Saul had taken away:
Verse 43 tells us that David took another wife also, Ahinoam of Jezreel. The Old Testament did not forbid this, though it was never God's intention. His intention was that a man should hold fast to his wife, not his wives (Gen. 2:24). As to Michal, Saul had unrighteously taken her from David and given her to another man. Later David demanded that Ish-bosheth give her back to him (2 Sam. 3:14), and he did. But this was a mistake on David's part: why should he add her to those he already had?
As David went on adding wives, he already held everything needed to settle the question. The family history shows what his choices cost:
Had he asked the Lord before doing so, what would the Lord have answered? Read my Word! Dependence on God and dependence on His Word are one and the same thing. David had the books of the law in hand, and he needed only to think them over to see his path... By human thinking he might have all sorts of good reasons for doing as he did — to secure a royal line, and so on. But this was not according to God. To be convinced of this we need only trace the descendants of his wives. Suppose godly Abigail had been his only companion. Would he then have seen an Amnon bring shame and dishonour on his house? Would he have seen an Absalom rebel against his own father, or an Adonijah try to seize control of the kingdom?
One writer asks why the Holy Spirit kept such a small domestic note, and answers by looking past David to Christ:
Two facts are now given (1 Sam. 25:43-44). If the Holy Spirit had only meant to show how wonderfully God delivered David from all his foes, He could have left them out with no loss to the record of God's grace and loving-kindness. But the primary object of the Holy Spirit is not David but Christ. And every event must be brought into His life if we would learn the thoughts of God... Abigail and her attendants may represent the remnant of Israel that held to the Lord before the church began. What then is Ahinoam, for she also was wife to David? I judge that the two of them together point to the remnant in the days of our Lord, and to those converted by Peter's preaching, before the special position of the church was declared.
The name of her town carries its own weight in that reading, pointing forward to Israel's restoration:
David's failure seems clear, even to the end. The double marriage at the close cannot leave a good impression of him. Yet the type here is not affected by it. Ahinoam the Jezreelitess may in this way, as in other double types, confirm the meaning... Jezreel reminds us of the promise then to be fulfilled: "I will sow her for myself in the land." This promise could hardly apply to the Christian Church.
- Named. Ahinoam of Jezreel shared David's exile. The Amalekites carried her off at Ziklag, she was brought back, and she bore Amnon, David's firstborn.
- Chosen. David acted without asking God, though the law in his hands told a king not to multiply wives. Commentators differ: was it outright disobedience, or a step short of God's intention?
- Reaped. Trace the children of these marriages: Amnon, Absalom, Adonijah — sorrow after sorrow in David's own house.
- Repeated. He later took Michal back too — one writer calls that a further mistake, not a repair.
- Recorded. The Spirit kept these small details because the story's true subject is Christ. Even Jezreel's name points to the promise: Israel sown again in her land.
But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Phalti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.
Saul's last act in this chapter looks legal, but it is cruel: while David hides in the wilderness, the king gives his wife to another man. The verse is only a note, but the loss is real, and the grief runs on into 2 Samuel.
The chapter ends by turning back to the king. He treats his own daughter's marriage as his to cancel.
The chapter closes with another reminder of Saul's lawlessness. He had taken his daughter Michal, whom he had given to David as wife, and given her to another. Truly the flesh tramples on everything that is sacred, whether human or divine.
Why keep a detail this small in a story about David's rescue from his enemies? One writer answers that the record has a larger subject than David.
Two facts are now given (1 Sam. 25:43-44). Suppose the Holy Spirit only meant to show how wonderfully God had delivered David from all his enemies. Then these two facts could have been left out, and the record of God's grace and loving-kindness would lose nothing. But the primary object of the Holy Spirit is not David but Christ. And every event must be brought into His life if we are to learn the thoughts of God.
The verse names him once and then drops him — until David comes to power and sends for his wife. Older translations spell his name Phalti.
Son of Laish, of Gallim: Saul gave him Michal, David's wife. When she was restored to David, Phalti followed weeping behind her, until Abner abruptly sent him back. 1 Sam. 25:44; 2 Sam. 3:15.
One writer puts the blame for those tears on David:
Michal had become an adulteress by taking another husband. David takes her from her home, instead of leaving her to her new husband. So he breaks this man's heart. He is an honest man after all, deeply attached to his wife. He follows her weeping, without any thought of rebelling against the authority over him.
Saul's act was unjust. But one writer says David's way of reversing it was wrong too.
As to Michal, Saul had unrighteously taken her from David and had given her to another man. Later David demanded of Ishbosheth that she should be returned to him (2 Sam. 3:14), which she was. But this was a mistake on David's part: why should he add her to those he already had? It is not surprising that he did not find her any more devoted afterward than she had been before.
The same writer points to a law David already had, if he had looked for it:
He could also have argued that Deuteronomy 24:1-4 did not apply. After all, he was not the one who put her away. But that passage does say the first husband was not to take his wife back once marriage to another man had defiled her (v. 4). If David had sought wisdom from God, this scripture might have been a protection for him.
The verse moves Michal from one man to another without a word from her. Her own story shows where her heart lay.
She was Saul's younger daughter and David's wife. She helped David escape when her father wanted him dead. But she did not share David's zeal for the Lord. When he brought up the ark and danced with joy before it, she not only despised him in her heart but scolded him for it. Because of this she was childless for the rest of her days… Michal is an example of how completely the leadings of the Spirit of God lie beyond the natural mind.
Commentators read her part in that escape differently. One writer weighs what she told her father afterwards:
Michal had shown no faithfulness to David in 1 Samuel 19:17, when she told her father that David had threatened to kill her if she did not let him escape from Saul. Why should he want her back when she had proved undependable? Was he only thinking of his own rights?
- Taken. Saul gives away a marriage that was not his to cancel. The flesh tramples on everything sacred, human and divine alike.
- Recorded. The real subject of the record is not David's escapes but Christ. That is why even this small detail is kept.
- Wept over. Phalti was an honest man, deeply attached to his wife. He follows her in tears. Others made the wrong, others undid it, and he paid for both.
- Repeated. David later demanded Michal back. That did not undo Saul's wrong; it added to it. The law he already had would have protected him, if he had sought God's wisdom.
- Barren. The wife David took back was the wife who despised his worship. Her natural mind could not follow the Spirit of God, and she stayed childless to the end.