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Wednesday 5 May
Michal given to Palti

Read 1 Samuel 25:39–44

Abigail … went after the messengers of David and became his wife. David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel; both of them became his wives. Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim. (verses 42–44)

David is now an outlaw, living as the leader of a guerrilla band. In the course of a dubious scheme to support themselves, which looks very much like a protection racket, he meets Abigail, the wife of Nabal. She is described as ‘clever and beautiful’ (1 Samuel 25:3). These adjectives are never applied to Michal, despite her ingenuity. Abigail is then fortuitously widowed – Nabal suffers some kind of stroke on learning of the threat posed by David (deftly averted by Abigail) and later dies. David is thus free to marry her. And he takes another wife, Ahinoam. All we know about her is her place of origin. Both these wives will later be captured by the Amalekites, and David will have to rescue them (1 Samuel 30:5, 18).

Michal, meanwhile, so active and resourceful when we read about her yesterday, is treated as a pawn in male power games, passed by her father from one man to another. Saul is ensuring that David can no longer claim kinship with the royal family in a bid for the throne. Michal is not consulted, and we are given no indication of how she copes with her new situation. Has she received any news of David? Does she even know about Abigail and Ahinoam? Given these gaps, we can but fill the silence with our own imaginations.

† We pray for women who are pushed around by men, treated as status symbols or objects of conquest.. Amen