1 Samuel 18:20

1Sa 18:20 And Michal Saul’s daughter loved David: and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him.

Ver. 20. And Michal Saul’s daughter loved David.] Some Latin copies have it, And David loved Michal, Saul’s other daughter. Both may be true; there was mutual liking.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Sa 18:20-21. The thing pleased him — Not out of any love to David, or desire to perform his promise; but because he hoped, by her means, to bring his ends about of destroying David. That she may be a snare to him — He hoped his daughter, in obedience to him, might be persuaded to bring him into some snare that he would lay for him: or that, being exposed to great dangers, (which he was to undergo, as a condition of having her to wife,) he might perish in some of them. Thou shalt be this day my son-in- law — That is, shortly, within a little time. In the one of the twain — Saul seems in this to have told David that though some reasons of state had obliged him to give his elder daughter to Adriel, yet still he would have him for his son-in-law, by giving the other unto him.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Michal Saul's daughter loved David--This must have happened some time after.

they told Saul, and the thing pleased him--Not from any favor to David, but he saw that it would be turned to the advancement of his malicious purposes, and the more so when, by the artful intrigues and flattery of his spies, the loyal sentiments of David were discovered.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(20) And Michal Saul’s daughter loved David.—But the love of the younger of the two royal princesses for her father’s brilliant officer gave the unhappy king a fresh excuse to expose David’s life to peril, while at the same time he appeared to be endeavouring to carry out an old formal promise.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

20–30. David’s marriage with Michal

20. Michal Saul’s daughter loved David] According to the text of the Sept. this follows immediately upon 1Sa_18:16. By his bravery David won the affections of the people, and even of the king’s daughter.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Saul said, I will give him her, that she may be a snare to him,.... The cause and occasion of his fall and ruin, by means of what he should propose to him as the condition of marriage; but instead of proving a snare to him, as he hoped, she was the means of his deliverance, when Saul sent messengers to slay him, Sa1 19:11,

and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him; provoked by what he should put him upon doing to them. The scheme he had in his head after appears, and what he now said was not openly said before his servants and courtiers, whom he did not trust with his secrets, but this he said within himself, conceived and contrived it in his own mind:

wherefore Saul said to David; who was as yet at court, or whom he sent for on this occasion:

thou shalt this day be my son in law in the one of the twain; by marrying one of his two daughters; signifying, that he would not defer the marriage, or put it off to a longer time, as he had done before, but that he should be married immediately to one or other of his daughters; and seeing he could not have the eldest, she being disposed of, he should have the youngest, and so be equally his son-in-law. If we read the words without the supplement, "shalt be my son-in-law in the two", or in both, the sense is, that he should have them both; and so the Jews say (w), that he married them both, first Merab, and after her death Michal; or that he should be his son-in-law on two accounts, one by betrothing Merab, though he was not married to her, and the other by being married to Michal, so that he would be doubly his son in law; but the sense, according to the supplement, is best.

(w) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 19. 2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The thing pleased him - It partly relieved him from the charge of breaking his faith.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Other, is not found in the Hebrew, Septuagint, &c. (Haydock) --- Some Latin copies read, "David loved Michol," (Calmet) as the Douay Bible translates; the authors living before the Popes had published their authentic editions. (Haydock) --- Both might be true. (Drusius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Not for any respect he had to David, but for his own malicious and wicked ends, that he might make use of her love to David, to insnare and ruin him, which he thought might be done many ways, whereof one is here expressed.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

20. Michal… loved David — Keil infers from this that perhaps one reason why Saul broke his promise was that Merab did not love David.

The thing pleased him — For, as the next verse shows, he hoped to make it a snare for David’s life.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 20, 21. Michal loved David. Probably there was some short lapse of time between Merab"s marriage and the growth of this affection, the news of which pleased Saul. He was not an ungenerous man, and possibly may have felt ashamed at having acted so meanly by David after having exposed him to danger. And yet evil thoughts again are uppermost, and his purposes are selfish; for either way Saul will be the gainer. David will probably be slain, he thinks, in trying to get the dowry asked of him; and if not, at all events he will himself be cleared of the stain of public dishonesty now resting upon him. Therefore Saul said to David. Not in person, which accounts for David giving no answer, but through his servants, as is recounted more fully afterwards.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Michal ... loved David

Here "loved" means she had romantic feelings for David.

They told Saul

Here "they" refers to people who found out about Michal's feelings, not to David and Michal.

that the hand of the Philistines may be against him

Harming someone is spoken of as if it were placing one's hand on that person. Here, Saul is referring to killing David. See how you translated a similar phrase in 1 Samuel 18:17. AT: "so that the Philistines may kill him" (See: Metaphor and Euphemism)

You will be my son-in-law

"You will be the husband of my daughter"

translationWords

love

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.