1 Samuel 18:20-30

Modern English Version

²⁰ Now Michal, daughter of Saul, loved David and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. ²¹ Saul said, “I will give her to him that she may be a snare to him, and so that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” Therefore Saul said to David, “For a second time, you may be my son-in-law today.”

²² Saul commanded his servants, saying, “Speak to David in secret saying, ‘Listen, the king delights in you and all his servants love you. Now therefore become the king’s son-in-law.’ ”

²³ So the servants of Saul spoke these words in the ears of David. And David said, “Does it seem to you a light thing to be a king’s son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed?”

²⁴ And the servants of Saul reported to him saying, “According to these words, David spoke.” ²⁵ Saul said, “Thus will you say to David, ‘The king does not desire any dowry but a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king’s enemies.’ ” But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.

²⁶ When his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king’s son-in-law. Now the days had not expired; ²⁷ therefore David arose and went, he and his men, and killed two hundred men of the Philistines. Then David brought their foreskins and they gave them in full to the king, that he might be the king’s son-in-law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter for a wife.

²⁸ When Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michal, his daughter, loved him, ²⁹ Saul was yet the more afraid of David, and Saul became the enemy of David continually.

³⁰ Then the commanders of the Philistines went out to make war. And when they went out David was more successful than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was highly honored.