KING DAVID'S WIVES

The various wives of King David present an interesting study in contrasts. According to McKenzie's count, the Bible attributes as least nineteen wives and concubines to David.” Four of these are enumerated in II Samuel 3:3-5 (and the parallel passage I Chronicles 3:2-3) – Maacah, Haggith, Abital, and Eglah. We know nothing more concerning the last three of these. However, we are told that Maacah was the daughter of King Talmai of Geshur, located on the Golan Heights. Therefore her marriage to David was probably one made for political reasons to seal a treaty between the two kings.

In addition, while David was in Jerusalem he took additional wives, as recorded in both II Samuel 5:13-16 and I Chronicles 14:3-7. Fortunately, we know a little more concerning the following four women whom he married:

Michal (I Samuel 18:20-29; I Chronicles 15:29)

Saul leads David on a complicated chase whereby, to cite Murphy's words, Saul proceeds “to retract a promise of marriage to his oldest daughter (I Sam. 17:25), into a conditional (18:17), to use the conditional as a means of camouflaging murder (18:17), to break the promise (18:19), to instrumentalize a second daughter's love as a vehicle of tempting a rival to marriage (18:20-21), to use servants as a dirty tricks brigade, and to invent a 'dowry' that one hopes will get the putative son-in-law killed.” The “dowry” is in fact 100 foreskins from Philistines David is to kill in battle.

Throughout all this maneuvering one can see an echo of the way Jacob's “wages” were constantly changed by his uncle Laban to the point where Jacob had to first marry the oldest daughter before he could gain the woman he really wanted.

Michal obviously loved David (I Samuel 18:20) and helped him to escape from Saul (I Samuel 19:11-17). However, later when David danced before the LORD as the ark was being brought back, she criticized him for his lack of royal decorum (II Samuel 6). For that act, David refrained from any marital relations with her and she died childless.

McKenzie has a revisionist slant on this story. According to his version, the whole story of “this 'marriage' was contrived for political purposes: to solidify David's claim to the throne of Israel after he had become king. Michal's childlessness (2 Sam 6:23) would then have been a strategy on David's part to ensure that she produced no heirs to Saul.”

Ahinoam (I Samuel 25:43; II Samuel 2:2; 32; I Chronicles 3:1)

There is a bit of a mystery concerning this wife of David since Ahinoam was also the name of Saul's wife (see I Sam. 14:50). Some scholars such as Levenson propose that David actually married Saul's wife during her lifetime in order to make a claim to the throne. However, the only proof for such a scenario is when Nathan says to David, “I gave you your master's house, and your master's wives into your bosom.” (II Samuel 12:8) Baldwin says that this supporting evidence “is too slight for such a monstrous deed.” She concludes that “it is inconceivable that they are one and the same person.”

Abigail (I Samuel 25; II Samuel 2:2; 3:3; I Chronicles 3:1)

She is best known for her role in I Samuel 25 in defusing what could have been a major conflict between David and her drunken husband Nabal. She is said to have been beautiful and demonstrates as well her wisdom and diplomacy by giving David and his troops the provisions they needed. Thus, after Nabal's death it is no surprise that David took her as his own bride.

However, McKenzie takes an entirely different, and unlikely, view of the situation when he explains, “Aside from 1 Chronicles 2:16-17, David's two sisters, Abigail and Zeruiah, are mentioned together only in 2 Samuel 17:25, which calls Abigail the daughter of Nahash, not of Jesse. If this is not a textual error...Abigail may have been David's half-sister. The only other Abigail in the OT is Nabal's former wife, who married David (I Sam 25); the two may have been the same woman.”

In addition, McKenzie attributes an entirely different motive for David's choice of Abigail as a wife, saying that “Abigail brings to David Nabal's wealth, social prominence and political status, making this episode a crucial step in David's rise to the throne of Judah.” While all that may be true, I prefer to think that David was attracted by her other obvious attributes instead.

Bathsheba (II Samuel 11-12; I Kings 1-2; I Chronicles 3:5)

There is no need to recap the famous, or infamous, story behind this marriage. However, I think that David's plot to let the enemy kill Uriah during battle echoes strangely the way Saul had earlier posed a trial by battle for David against the Philistines to win the hand of Saul's daughter in the hope that David would be killed in the process.

I discussed in an earlier post how there was a great controversy in our home Bible study one night regarding the character of Bathsheba. In general, the women tended to see her as wicked and conniving while the men felt that she was a mere victim over circumstances she could not control. I tend to side with the latter view in light of Bathsheba's very naive agreeing to Adonijah's request that he be allowed to marry Abishag, even though that could be used as evidence that David wished him to inherit the throne rather than Solomon.

As a dissenting view from the above, House states that “it is evident that she understands the nature of Adonijah's request and prudently warns her son of his rival's inept power play.”

Then there is Cogan's more cautious judgment on the incident: “The description of Bathsheba's there [I Kings 2:18] and in the interview with Solomon that follows is artfully ambiguous. Was she meant to be portrayed as going along with Adonijah so as to lead him into Solomon's clutches? Or are we to imagine her as believing that there was nothing untoward in the request? The same mystery shrouds her earlier actions in I Kg 1.”

McKenzie, ever the skeptic, says that it “is difficult to see why Adonijah would be so foolish as to ignore the political implications of his request or to trust Bathsheba's advocacy. The story has thus been viewed as a literary construct [i.e., a total fabrication] designed to provide some pretense for Solomon's execution of his brother.” Again, I prefer to stick to the biblical account as written instead.

Ten Concubines (II Samuel 15:16; 16:21-22; 20:3)

Moving from David's wives to his concubines, the story of the ten concubines left behind when Absalom took over Jerusalem illustrates another way in which women in OT times were often mere pawns in the game of politics. When Absalom had sex with those in his father's harem, it was a way of publicly proclaiming his rightful claim to David's throne. In doing so, he was only following his father's lead since Nathan stated, as mentioned above, that David had been given his father's wives earlier (a statement regarding which we have little detail).

Abishag (I Kings 1-2)

This brings us back to Abishag, the young woman David was given in his old age to literally warm his bed. Cogan cites Josephus, who “ascribed the advice to the king's physician, perhaps basing his interpretation on ancient medical prescriptions for hyperthermia...” The text makes it clear that the two never had sexual relations. However, enough of that impression was given that Adonijah could easily have used his marriage to her to prop up his royal aspirations. As G.H. Jones puts it, “The king's authority and the well-being of his people depended on his virility...In the statement that David did not have intercourse with Abishag lies the clear message that he was no longer potent. It was, therefore, time to appoint a co-regent to exercise authority on his behalf. Adonijah took it as a sign to take the throne.”