Michal daughter of Saul מיכל בת שאול
she let David down through the window to save his life; and she despised him before the Ark
"And Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David" — a formula said of no other woman in the Tanakh. Saul heard of it and was pleased: let her be a snare to him. He demanded a bride-price that should have ended in the suitor's death; David came back alive and got his wife.
When Saul sent men to watch the house and kill David in the morning, Michal let him down through the window, laid the teraphim in the bed, covered it with a garment and told the men he was ill. By the time the trick was discovered, David was gone.
Afterwards her father gave her to another man, Palti son of Laish. Years later David, now king, demanded her back, and her husband followed her weeping as far as Bahurim — one of the most human lines in the book of Samuel.
The last scene is at the bringing of the Ark to Jerusalem. David danced before the Ark with all his might, in a linen ephod. Michal watched from the window and "despised him in her heart," and when he returned she came out with a jibe: how honoured was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself before the maidservants. He answered: it was before the LORD that I danced — and I will be lowlier still in my own eyes.
The chapter ends with a line and no explanation: "and Michal, daughter of Saul, had no child to the day of her death."
On the timeline
Sources
Tanakh
- Shmuel I 18:20 — “and Michal… loved David”
- Shmuel I 19:11–17 — the window, the rope, and the teraphim in the bed
- Shmuel II 6:16–23 — the dancing before the Ark and the chapter's last line
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.