1 Samuel 19:11

MICHAL SAVES HER HUSBAND'S LIFE

"That night Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch him, that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, told him, "If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed. So Michal let David down through the window; and he fled away and escaped. Michal took an image and laid it on the bed and put a pillow of goat's hair at its head, and covered it with clothes. And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, "He is sick." Then Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, "Bring him up to me in the bed that I may kill him." And when the messengers came in, behold, the image was in the bed with the pillow of goat's hair at its head. Saul said to Michal, "Why have you deceived me thus, and let my enemy go, so that he is escaped"? And Michal answered Saul, "He said to me, "Let me go; why should I kill you"?"

According to the superscription of Psalms 59, David composed that psalm following the occasion of his deliverance reported here.

"That night" (1 Samuel 19:11). "This cannot mean the night of the spear-throwing, for it is said there that David escaped."[10] Indeed it does refer to that night, as Keil very adequately explained above. All critical allegations against this chapter are solved by understanding it just as it is written. Another extremely bizarre "interpretation" is that of H. P. Smith who insisted that "the night" here was "the wedding night" of David and Michal.[11]

"Save your life tonight ... tomorrow you will be killed" (1 Samuel 19:11). One may wonder just how Michal had received the information which led to this warning of her husband; but such an incident as the king's trying to kill his son-in-law would have been reported all over the city in a matter of minutes after it happened.

"Michal let David down through the window" (1 Samuel 19:12). This indicates, of course, that the house of David and Michal was on the city wall, as befitted a member of the king's family, and therefore, just as Rahab had aided the spies sent out by Joshua, and just as the apostle Paul escaped from Damascus, so David here escaped the fury of Saul's murderous "messengers" (Joshua 2:15; Acts 9:25).

Saul's evil influence upon members of his own family is seen in the readiness with which Michal lied to her father, and also her possession of some kind of an idol with the implication that she probably worshipped it. The "teraphim" (the RSV margin) is a plural form with a singular sense, usually meaning household gods."[12] This must have been a secret which she kept from David. Nevertheless, one cannot help admiring the noble and courageous action she exhibited in saving her husband's life.

A great many opinions have been expressed regarding that "image" which Michal put in David's bed; but when all of the "guesses" have been investigated, we still cannot tell exactly what it resembled. The mention of "teraphim" suggests that the image might have been that of some household god, such as Rachel had stolen from her father Laban. The big point was that it was sufficiently deceptive to allow David a little more time to make good his escape. Josephus relates that, "Michal placed a still moving goat's liver in the bed to make the messengers believe that there was a breathing invalid beneath."[13]