Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 25:44
But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti the son of Laish, which [was] of Gallim.
44. Saul had given Michal ] Probably he did it when David fled, to mark the completeness of the breach between them. David afterwards compelled Phalti (or Phaltiel) to restore him Michal (2Sa 3:15).
Gallim ] Only referred to again in Isa 10:30, from which passage it appears that it was between Gibeah and Jerusalem. The name of Phalti’s father Laish was probably derived from the place Laish mentioned in the same verse.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Sauls giving Michal to Phalti was intended to mark the final rupture of his own relations with David (compare Jdg 14:20; 2Sa 3:7; 2Sa 16:21). Phalti or Phaltiel Was compelled by Abner to restore Michal to David 2Sa 3:15.
Gallin – A city of Benjamin, and in the neighborhood of another town called Laish.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 44. Phalti] Called also Phaltiel, 2Sa 3:16.
Of Gallim.] Probably a city or town in the tribe of Benjamin; see Isa 10:30. It is likely therefore that Saul chose this man because he was of his own tribe.
IN this chapter we have the account of the death of Samuel, who from his infancy had been devoted to God and the service of his people. He was born at a time in which religion was at a very low ebb in Israel, as there were but very few prophets, and no open vision – scarcely any revelation from God. Those who might be called prophets had no regular ministry of God’s word; they were extraordinary messengers sent for a particular purpose, and not continued in the work any longer than the time necessary to deliver their extraordinary message.
Samuel is supposed to have been the first who established academies or schools for prophets, at least we do not hear of them before his time; and it is granted that they continued till the Babylonish captivity. This was a wise institution, and no doubt contributed much to the maintenance of pure religion, and the prevention of idolatry among that people.
Samuel reformed many abuses in the Jewish state, and raised it to a pitch of political consequence to which it had been long a stranger. He was very zealous for the honour of God, and supported the rights of pure religion, of the king, and of the people, against all encroachments. He was chief magistrate in Israel before the appointment of a king, and afterwards he acted as prime minister to Saul, though without being chosen or formally appointed to that station. Indeed, he seems on the whole to have been the civil and ecclesiastical governor, Saul being little more than general of the Israelitish forces.
In his office of minister in the state, he gave the brightest example of zeal, diligence, inflexible integrity, and uncorruptedness. He reproved both the people and the king for their transgressions, with a boldness which nothing but his sense of the Divine authority could inspire, and yet he tempered it with a sweetness which showed the interest he felt in their welfare, and the deep and distressing concern he felt for their back-slidings and infidelities.
He was incorrupt; he received no man’s bribe; he had no pension from the state; he enriched none of his relatives from the public purse; left no private debts to be discharged by his country. He was among the Hebrews what Aristides is said to have been among the Greeks, so poor at his death, though a minister of state, that he did not leave property enough to bury him. Justice was by him duly and impartially administered, and oppression and wrong had no existence.
If there ever was a heaven-born minister, it was Samuel; in whose public and private conduct there was no blemish, and whose parallel cannot be found in the ancient or modern history of any country in the universe.
Let ministers of state who have sought for nothing but their own glory, and have increased the public burdens by their improvident expenditure; who have endeavoured, by their wordy representations, to dazzle and elude the people, and impose false grandeur in the place of true greatness and solid prosperity; who have oppressed the many, and enriched the worthless few; fall down at the feet of THIS heaven-born man, and learn, from this immaculate judge of Israel, what a faithful servant to his king, and an incorruptible minister of state, means, and in retiring from their high station, or in going to appear before the judgment-seat of God, see whether, in the presence of their king, and in the face of the thousands of their people, they can boldly say, “Behold, here am I! Witness against me before the Lord and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose ass have I seized? Whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed, by the imposition of heavy taxes for the support of needless expenses, and the payment of venal men? Or of whose hand have I taken any bribe to blind my eyes? Scrutinize my conduct, examine the state of my family, compare their present circumstances with what they were previously to my administration, and see if you can find aught in my hands.” See 1Sa 12:1, c.
O, how seldom in the annals of the world, from the assembled heads of the great body politic, can the departing prime minister hear, “Thou hast not defrauded us, thou hast not oppressed us neither hast thou taken aught of any man’s hand! ” This voice call be heard from Gilgal; but of what other minister can this be spoken but of Samuel the seer, who was the gift of God’s mercy to the people of Israel; whose memory was too precious to be intrusted to public monuments, but stands, and alas; almost unique in the BOOK OF GOD? Of Daniel, and his administration, I shall have occasion to speak elsewhere.
A prime minister, deeply devoted to God and faithful to his king and to his country, is so rare a character in the world, that when he does occur, he should be held up to public admiration. But I have no parallel for Samuel. See the notes on 1Sa 12:1-25 and on 1Sa 24:6.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
But, or for, as the Hebrew vau is ofttimes used. For this seems to be added as a reason why David took other wives, because Saul had given his former wife to another man, that he might as far as he could extinguish all relation and kindred to him, whom he hated; and withal, cut off his hopes and pretence to the crown upon that account.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
44. MichalBy theunchallengeable will of her father, she who was David’s wife wasgiven to another. But she returned and sustained the character of hiswife when he ascended the throne.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti the son of Laish,…. Or “for Saul”, c. i which is a reason for his marrying again, but no reason for marrying more wives than one. Michal was his first wife, and they lived lovingly together, until David was obliged to flee from Saul, and then he gave her to another; partly to vex David, and partly if he could to break the relation between him and David, that he might not be thought to be his son in law, and he to persecute one in such a relation to him; and that this might not give David any show of claim, or be the means of his rising to the throne. This Phalti, to whom he gave her, is called Phaltiel, 2Sa 3:15;
which [was] of Gallim; which very probably was a city in the tribe of Benjamin, since it is mentioned with several cities of that tribe, and as near Gibeah of Saul, Isa 10:29.
i “Saul enim”, Tigurine version; “nam Saul”, Junius Tremcillius, Piscator so Pool and Patrick.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(44) Michal his daughter.The marriage of the Princess Michal to Phalti (Michal, we read, loved David, 1Sa. 18:20) had taken place probably some time before. This high-handed act showed on the part of Saul a fixed determination to break utterly and for ever with David. Phalti was presumably a chieftain whom Saul was desirous of attracting to his fortunes. But the story of Miehal does not end here. After King Sauls death, Abner, the uncle (or perhaps the cousin) of the late king, the well-known captain of his host, made overtures to David. David, however, only consented to a friendship with Abner if his young kins woman, the Princess Miehal, Sauls daughter, was taken away from Phalti, and restored to him as his wife. Abner, we read, complied with the condition, and Miehal was taken from Phaltielas he is called in the account of this transaction, contained in 2Sa. 3:13; 2Sa. 3:16and restored to David. An interesting and curious tradition respecting this man Phalti, or Phaltiel, is contained in the Talmud. In 1Sa. 25:44 the second husband of Davids wife is called Phalti, and in 2Sa. 3:15 he is called Phaltiel. Rabbi Jochanan said his name received that extension (el=God) to indicate that God had saved him from transgression. (The name Phalti being derived from the root palatto cause to escape, Michal and Phalti never having lived together as man and wife.)Treatise Sanhedrin, fol. 19, Colossians 2.
Once more the daughter of Saul appears in the sacred history. (See 2Sa. 6:20-23.) It was the greatest day in Davids lifethe Ark of the Covenant was being brought up with solemn pomp from its place of long exile in Kirjath-jearim to the new sacred capital of the loved king. One sad incident alone, we are told, marred the glories of the day. Michal, his wife, as Stanley thinks, in the proud, almost conservative, spirit of the older dynasty, not without a thought of her fathers fallen house, looked on contemptuously as King David danced before the Ark with the priests, his royal robes thrown aside; and later in the day seems to have poured out before the king her scornful feelings.
Preceding the blest vessel, onward came,
With light dance leaping, girt in humble guise,
Israels sweet harper; in that hap he seemed
Less and yet more kingly. Opposite,
At a great palace, from the lattice forth
Looked Miehal, like a lady full of scorn
And sorrow.DANTE: Purgatory, 10
The sacred story goes on to say that Michal, as a childless wife in the royal palace of David, had time to mourn her fatal exhibition of pride. (See 2Sa. 6:12-23.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
44. Saul had given Michal David’s wife, to Phalti Hoping thereby to cut off one of David’s pretensions to the throne, and to attach a new family to his cause. Compare the restoration of Michal to David, 2Sa 3:14-16, where the son of Laish is called Phaltiel.
Gallim This place is mentioned Isa 10:30, in connection with several towns in the tribe of Benjamin, and was probably somewhere between Gibeah and Michmash; but its site is now unknown.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
REFLECTIONS
READER! let us not dismiss our review of this chapter, nor close the book which records the death of Samuel, without first paying due tribute to a memory so truly valuable. I would for once methinks pass over the consideration of many other beauties contained in this Chapter, in order to gather suitable reflections from the tomb of the prophet. It pleased the Lord to call Samuel to be his servant in a day of great departure from the Lord. And the Lord was pleased to call him home at a season when corruption abounded. Surely it was a time when such a man was most needed. Saints and servants of the Lord who are eminent in their day and generation, are the salt, the light, and pillars of the earth. When they are gone, their vacancies form sad gaps in the church. How different a death from that of Nabal! while the one dies unlamented, unpitied, disregarded: the name of Samuel ever lives in remembrance, and his memory is blessed.
But let us not stop here. Do I not see in Samuel a type of the ever blessed Jesus! Not only as a prophet, but as a priest, a ruler, a judge, a deliverer in Israel? Was Samuel promised of the Lord as his very name Samuel implied? and was not our Jesus the very promised seed, in whom all the nations of the earth are blessed? Was Samuel coveted by his mother, and as instantly lent or returned unto the Lord from the womb; and do we not feel our minds in this view, directed to the contemplation of him, who in all ages was the earnestly sought and longed for, the desire of all nations, and who was given as a covenant of the people, dedicated to God, and consecrated in the service of redemption, from his miraculous birth. Yes, blessed Jesus! the outlines of thy unequalled character thou wert pleased to have marked out in the several servants of thine, which ministered in thy church before thy coming. The early call of Samuel, and his being appointed to the prophetical office; his ministry, his unkind treatment, and rejection by the people; his benevolent labours, prayers, and intercessions for Israel; these, and many other circumstances which marked his life, became typical of thee, and thy divine mission, when for the government, instruction, and redemption of thy people, thou camest on earth as the almighty prophet of thy church, and as the faithful priest whom God the Father promised to raise up, that should build him a sure house, and become his anointed forever. Oh, blessed Jesus! the gift of our God and Father unasked; and here as in a thousand other instances, infinitely surpassing all the Samuel’s thy servants, be thou to me both prophet, priest, and king! Do thou now by the rich anointing of thy blessed Spirit, graciously teach me of thyself and of thy Father: guide me and lead me into all truth, and when thou hast accomplished all thine holy will and pleasure concerning me in this my day and generation; Lord, take me home to thyself to behold thy glory, that where thou art there may I be also.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1Sa 25:44 But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti the son of Laish, which [was] of Gallim.
Ver. 44. But Saul had given Michel his daughter. ] This he had done as out of pure spite to David, so out of policy, say some, that he might not have by his wife any pretence or title to the crown.
David’s wife.] Whom he had so dearly deserved, and by whom he was now so causelessly deserted; for why should she give consent to be married to another?
To Phalti.
Which was of Gallim.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Michal. Compare 2Sa 3:14, 2Sa 3:15,
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
But Saul: Rather, “For Saul,” etc., as the particle , wav, frequently signifies; this being the cause why David took another wife.
Michal: 1Sa 18:20, 1Sa 18:27
Phalti: 2Sa 3:14, 2Sa 3:14, Phaltiel
Gallim: This town appears to have been situated in the tribe of Benjamin, as it is mentioned in Isa 10:30, with Michmash, Geba, etc.
Reciprocal: 1Sa 14:49 – name of the firstborn 2Sa 3:15 – Phaltiel 1Ch 15:29 – Michal
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
David’s loss of his wife 25:44
As mentioned before, this chapter opens and closes with a tragedy in David’s life, the death of Samuel and the departure of Michal. Evidently Saul considered David as good as dead, and so, sometime during these events, he gave his daughter, David’s wife, to another man. He may also have done this to remove the possibility of David claiming Saul’s throne because he was Saul’s son-in-law. David later reclaimed Michal (2Sa 3:13-16), which proved to be a source of grief for David since Michal did not appreciate how David constantly bowed to Yahweh’s authority (cf. 2Sa 6:16-23; 1Ch 15:29).
David’s second sparing of Saul’s life ch. 26
Again the scene shifts to Saul (cf. ch. 24). The writer contrasted his improper attitudes and behavior, and their consequences, with David’s proper attitudes and behavior, and their consequences. There are many similarities between this chapter and chapter 24, which records David sparing Saul’s life in the cave of Adullam. Perhaps the most significant difference is that in chapter 24 David was on the defensive whereas in chapter 26 he was on the offensive. Chapter 26 is the third and final episode in the mini-section on David’s treatment of two fools: Saul and Nabal. A prominent theme in this pericope is David’s learning to trust God to repay his enemies rather than taking vengeance himself.
The general structure of the chapter is chiastic.
"A. Saul searches for David, who then responds (1Sa 25:1-5).
B. David keeps his man Abishai from killing Saul (1Sa 25:6-12).
B’. David rebukes Saul’s man Abner for not protecting Saul (1Sa 25:13-16).
A’. Saul talks to David, who then responds (1Sa 25:17-25)." [Note: Youngblood, p. 767.]