Younger of two daughters of Saul and wife of David. She bore him no children.
Michal was one of five children born to Saul (1 Sam 14:49). When David began to rise in popularity and strength after the death of Goliah, Saul thought of a plan to rid himself of the younger upstart. He proposed a marriage between David and his daughter Merab (1 Sam 18:15-19). David refused on the ground that such an affair was too great an honour for him (though there seemed to be more involved than just this, because a date for the wedding seemed to have been fixed (v19) and Merab was married to Adriel instead). It was then that Saul was told that Michal was in love with David (v20). Saul duly offered her hand to David. There was no way to refuse such a royal offer a second time without serious breach with the king, especially, when, this time, the offer came with a price: Saul asked, as the price of the bride "a hundred Philistine foreskins" (v25). David was happy for the opportunity not be be seen as getting free royal favours and Saul hopeful that, in collecting the foreskins, David might be killed by the Philistines. Saul's wish was not fulfilled, and David married Michal (v.27).
The marriage seemed a happy enough affair which made Saul even more insecure. Another battle with the Philistines won David even greater fame (1 Sam 19:4). Now Saul came out in open opposition to David, plotting to kill him in his home. Michal learned about the plot and, letting David down a window, saved her husband. She even dressed up an idol in bed to deceive the men who came to kill David. Having escaped, David became a refugee fleeing for his life from his father-in-law until Saul's death. Meanwhile Saul gave Michal to another man, Paltiel (1 Sam 25:39; from the picture painted of him in 2 Sam 3:16, Paltiel seemed genuinely in love with her ("Her husband, however, went with her, weeping behind her all the way to Bahurim. Then Abner said to him, "Go back home!" So he went back.").
After Saul's death, Abner (Saul's former commander) came to David with an offer to bring the northern tribes to his side (2 Sam 3:7ff.). The discussion of the terms over, David demanded that, first, Michal should be returned to him (vv13-14); the demanded was quickly filled.
We hear no more of Michal until sometime later when, with his rule over the entire Israel established, David decided to bring the ark of the Lord to Jerusalem (2 Sam 6:12-23). While David and the crowd rejoiced, dancing and singing amidst the procession, Michal was reported watching from a window and she "despised him in his heart" (v16). There would be no reconciliation. The parallel account in 1 Chron 15 ends on this note. 2 Sam 6, however, ends with an emphatic sentence (the Hebrew opens with the subject) that Michal bore no children till the day of her death, suggesting—seemingly—that divine judgment had to do with her spiritual antipathy she displayed so patently that day.
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