David arose and went, along with his men, and killed two hundred of the Philistines. And David brought their foreskins, which were given in full number to the king, that he might become the king's son-in-law. And Saul gave him his daughter Michal for a wife.
Saul offered David his daughter Michal for one price: a hundred Philistine foreskins. He hoped the errand would kill David; instead David came back with double, and the plot turned into a marriage.
The trap behind the price
The dowry was never about the price. It was about the journey to collect it.
Leslie M. GrantKing Saul used this to his advantage. He told his servants to say to David that he wanted no dowry except a hundred foreskins of the Philistines. This did not guarantee that the men would die, but that was clearly what Saul had in mind. He expected the Philistines to kill David as he tried to kill so many of them. But David doubled the number to two hundred, killing the men and bringing their foreskins to Saul. Saul could hardly go back on his promise then, so he gave David Michal as his wife.
Double the terms
David does not haggle the price down, and he does not stop at the number Saul named.
The Bible TreasurySaul, against all honesty and honour, gives Merab to Adriel. But he is still set on destroying David, so he offers him Michal as a trap. The condition is that David bring a hundred foreskins of the Philistines as the dowry. David agreed at once. He did not stay inside the limit of the contract. Because of the greatness of his nature — he will be no man's debtor — he goes beyond the condition and "killed two hundred of the Philistines." But the more we rise above the spirit of the world, the more it will hate us.
Honour paid to a king who had none
David had every reason to be bitter. Saul had given the older daughter to another man. David says nothing about it.
William KellyThe fact was that David, looking to God, cared more for the king's honour than the king himself did. It is always so, and should be so, wherever there is faith. As long as God keeps in place even what is completely unworthy of Himself or His people, faith puts up with it and freely pays all the respect due. This is not folly; nor is it cringing... His simple mind still held to the king's honour. The word so often broken in his own case provoked no sneer. He feared God and the king. If the king really thought of him that way, David valued it. That was the feeling of his generous heart.
Why the price was a mark of the flesh
The price Saul named is grim to modern ears. But it points to the one thing the Philistines lacked.
Samuel RidoutNotice how they are described — uncircumcised, people without the mark of covenant relationship with God, the covenant God made with Abraham... In spiritual terms, circumcision answers to that sentence of death on ourselves: we should not trust in ourselves, but in the living God... Uncircumcision answers in the same way to confidence in the flesh. And after all, what are the Philistines, for all their greatness, dug in on the shining heights of power and position? In the eyes of faith, what are they but people who have confidence in the flesh? They trust in human power, human wisdom, human forms, everything of man, and they leave God out.
A bride won by victory
Some writers read David here as a picture of Christ. He wins his bride by battle.
Samuel RidoutWith fitting modesty, David shrinks from the honour of being linked to the king. But he meets all the conditions, and in the end Saul gives him his second daughter as his bride. This is a very faint picture, we might say, of the Church, given to our Lord as the result of His glorious victory. "Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her."
The plot and the outcome sit in one sentence. The errand meant to kill David is the errand that wins him the bride.
H. L. RossierIn the end the adversary's schemes fail. David wins the victory and receives the king's daughter as his wife, because the price asked of him for her is the destruction of the Lord's enemies.
Summary
- The price — Saul set the dowry at a hundred Philistines. He expected David to die collecting them.
- The payment — David brought two hundred. He would be no man's debtor, so he went past the terms instead of just meeting them.
- The posture — David paid the price and never threw Saul's broken promises back at him. Faith honours the throne even when the man on it has broken his word.
- The picture — The Philistines carry one label: uncircumcised, men who trust the flesh. The price David paid was their defeat.
- The prize — The trap became a wedding. Commentators see here a faint sketch of the Church given to Christ as the fruit of His victory.