Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Samuel 3:13

And he said, Well; I will make a league with thee: but one thing I require of thee, that is, Thou shalt not see my face, except thou first bring Michal Saul’s daughter, when thou comest to see my face.

13. except thou first bring ] As the text stands it can only be rendered except on condition of thy bringing. But it looks like a combination of two readings, except thou bring (so the LXX.) and before thou bring (Vulg.).

David’s reasons for demanding the restoration of Michal were probably ( a) genuine affection for the wife of his youth who had saved his life (1Sa 18:20; 1Sa 19:11 ff.); ( b) a desire to efface the slight put upon him by the deprivation; ( c) a wish to conciliate the good will of the northern tribes by an alliance with Saul’s family.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Davids motive in requiring the restitution of Michal was partly his affection for her, and his memory of her love for him; partly the wish to wipe out the affront put upon him in taking away his wife, by obtaining her return; and partly, also, a politic consideration of the effect on Sauls partisans of a daughter of Saul being Davids queen.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 13. Except thou first bring Michal] David had already six wives at Hebron; and none of them could have such pretensions to legitimacy as Michal, who had been taken away from him and married to Phaltiel. However distressing it was to take her from a husband who loved her most tenderly, (see 2Sa 3:16), yet prudence and policy required that he should strengthen his own interest in the kingdom as much as possible; and that he should not leave a princess in the possession of a man who might, in her right, have made pretensions to the throne. Besides, she was his own lawful wife, and he had a right to demand her when he pleased.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

I will make a league with thee, to wit, upon thy terms; which, all circumstances considered, seems to be lawful, to prevent the great effusion of Israelitish blood, which otherwise would certainly have been split. And although the principle of this action of Abners was base and wicked, yet the action itself was lawful and commendable, and no more than his duty to God and David obliged him to; and therefore David might well persuade and induce him to it.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

And he said, well, I will make a league with thee,…. He accepted of the offer, he was ready and willing to enter into a covenant of friendship with him, and forgive all past offences:

but one thing I require of thee; as the condition of this covenant:

that is, thou shall not see my face; be admitted into my presence, or have any mark of my favour and respect:

except thou first bring Michal, Saul’s daughter, when thou comest to see my face; he insisted on it that Michal, Saul’s daughter, and his wife, should be brought along with him, and presented to him; this was the preliminary to the league and covenant; if this was not complied with, the proposal would not be attended to. This shows the great affection David retained for his first wife, though he had had six since, see 2Sa 3:2, and though she had lived with another man, 1Sa 25:44; as also his great regard to the honour of Saul’s family, that one of them might share with him in the grandeur of the kingdom; though this also might be a piece of policy in him, to gain the friends of Saul’s family to him.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Abner Treats with David, vs. 13-21

David responded affirmatively to Abner’s suit for peace, with only one stipulation, that his wife Michal, Saul’s daughter, be restored to him. Michal was the first wife of David, and he had a legal right to request that the wrong done him by marrying her to another man righted. However, it would seem that David insisted on this more as a matter of diplomacy than a lingering love for her. Out of spite for David, Michal’s father, Saul, had taken her and married her to a man named Phalti, or Phaltiel.

Acting upon this requirement David sent his messengers to Ishbosheth demanding that Michal be sent to him.lsh-bosheth complied by sending and taking her from her husband. David had won the hand of Michal by answering Saul’s challenge of a hundred foreskins of the Philistines as the dowry. He had produced two hundred, and Saul who had hoped David would be killed, was compelled to give him Michal (see 1Sa 18:20 ff). After David was driven to flight from Saul,her father married Michal to Phalti (1Sa 25:44).

Michal had loved David and had saved his life (1Sa 18:28; 1Sa 19:11 -17). Her present feeling for him is unknown, though at later time she despised him (2Sa 6:16; 2Sa 6:20-23). One thing is positively clear in the section under study, Michal’s new husband, Phaltiel, loved her. It is a very pathetic scene that is related. Phaltiel accompanied the men conveying Michal to David as far as Bahurim, in the Jordan valley east of Jerusalem, where he was made to go back by Abner. Actually he followed along behind the company weeping all the way. The feeling of Michal for Phaltiel might have been mutual. At any rate it seems, from the modern viewpoint, David would have acted in a magnanimous and commendable way to have released Michal to her husband after he made his point of diplomacy.

Abner went first to the elders of Israel, reminding them how they had wanted to make David their king in past times. They had evidently been persuaded against that by Abner, but now he urges them to turn their allegiance to David, reminding them also that the prophecy from the Lord was that David would deliver them from the Philistines. Next he went to the Benjamites, his own and Saul’s tribesmen, and encouraged them to turn to David. Finally he came with his proposal to David himself at Hebron, bringing with him a twenty man delegation. David feasted them, and Abner agreed to leave the meeting and go out into Israel and gather them to David that they may make a treaty of allegiance with him to be their king. So all that David had desired and long awaited would be effected. Thus David allowed Abner to leave peacefully on his errand.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

(13) Except thou first bring Michal.David consents to negotiate with Abner only on condition of the previous restoration of his lawful wife. Besides the justice of this demand (Michal having been wrongfully taken from him by Saul), and besides all question of affection towards one who had loved him and saved his life (1Sa. 18:20; 1Sa. 19:11-17), there were political reasons of importance for the demand. The demand itself showed to all Israel that he bore no malice against the house of Saul, and the restoration would again constitute him Sauls son-in-law, and thus further his claims to the throne; while it also showed publicly that he was in a condition to enforce his rights as against the house of Saul.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

13. First bring Michal She was his own proper wife, and he had a right to demand her. With her restored to him he would stand before the nation as the son in law of Saul. “No doubt it was of great importance to David, on every account, to maintain this matrimonial connexion with the house of Saul as long as possible, in order to preserve the sort of claim to the succession which his alliance gave him; but an additional motive, which urged him to demand her restoration, was the prudential desire of possessing in her a pledge against possible treachery on Abner’s side.” Ewald.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments