One other person, place or group in the registry answers to the name Michal. Every Michal in the Bible
- verses
- 16
- first named
- 1 Samuel 14:49
- last named
- 1 Chronicles 15:29
- period
- United Monarchy
- tribe
- Benjamin
Description
Who was Michal?
Michal was the younger daughter of King Saul and became the first wife of David, Israel's future king. She first appears in the genealogy of Saul (1Sa.14.49) and is later mentioned as loving David (1Sa.18.20). Saul, seeking to ensnare David, offered Michal's hand in marriage, demanding a bride price of 100 Philistine foreskins. David fulfilled this requirement, and Michal became his wife (1Sa.18.27-28). When Saul attempted to kill David, Michal helped him escape through a window and deceived Saul's messengers by placing an idol in David's bed (1Sa.19.11-17). During David's exile, Saul gave Michal in marriage to Palti (1Sa.25.44). After Saul's death, David demanded that Michal be returned to him as a condition for peace with Abner (2Sa.3.13-14). Later, when David danced before the ark of the Lord, Michal despised him in her heart (2Sa.6.16; 1Ch.15.29). She confronted David, criticizing his behavior, but David rebuked her (2Sa.6.20-21). As a result, Michal remained childless until her death (2Sa.6.23). Michal's story illustrates the complex relationships and conflicts within Saul's family and the early years of David's rise to power.
Relations
Direct connections
Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.
The 10 best-attested of 12 are drawn. All 12 are listed below.
Child of
- Ahinoamregistry, no verse
- Saulregistry1 Samuel 14:491 Samuel 18:201 Samuel 18:27 +6
Partner of
- Davidregistry1 Samuel 19:111 Samuel 25:442 Samuel 3:14
- Paltiregistry2 Samuel 3:15
Sibling of
- Abinadabregistry, no verse
- Armoniregistry, no verse
- Ish-boshethregistry, no verse
- Jonathanregistry, no verse
- Malchi-shuaregistry, no verse
- Mephiboshethregistry, no verse
- Merabregistry, no verse
Stands in the same events as
- David12 events
- Saul3 events
- Ish-bosheth2 events
- Palti2 events
- Marriage1 event
Places
Where this happens
A person is placed by the events they take part in, and an event has to clear three things to place them: it must say where it happened, that place must be one the gazetteer can put a coordinate on, and the verse must report it rather than foretell, command or ask it. Nothing anchored here clears all three. Where the text names a setting no gazetteer surveys — a vineyard, a palace, a plot of ground — it is left off rather than guessed at; where a place is named only in a prophecy, the map does not draw what was said to be coming as though it had happened; and a place reached only through a relation is not inherited, because standing beside somebody is not being somewhere.
No verse Atlas has read as a report puts this person anywhere.
Not read yet
The pattern
Where Michal is named
Every book of the corpus in the order it is read, each as wide as the chapters it holds. A bar is the verses of that book which write the name, and the flat stretches are as much of the answer as the bars.
16 verses across 3 of 66 books; 63 write the name nowhere. Named in 1 Samuel (9), 2 Samuel (6) and 1 Chronicles (1).
Read it
Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 16, across 3 books. The name is written 17 times in them.
Onward
Where this page goes
Not the direct relations above — these are one hop further out, ranked so that a rare shared connection outweighs a common one. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.
Where they appear
Chapter by chapter
Atlas's reading of each chapter this person appears in, in canonical order. One line per chapter, and each leads to the whole of it.
- 1 Samuel 18Michal loved David, and Saul gave her to him in marriage.
- 1 Samuel 19Michal lowers David from the window and disguises his empty bed with a household idol, goat hair, and a garment.
- 1 Samuel 25Michal, David’s wife, was given by Saul to Palti.
- 2 Samuel 3Michal is taken from Paltiel and returned to David.
- 2 Samuel 6Michal watched David from a window, despised his dancing, and challenged him when he returned home.
- 1 Chronicles 15Michal watched David dancing from a window and despised him in her heart.
Sources