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1 Samuel 18:19

in 1 Samuel 18

So when it was time to give Saul’s daughter Merab to David, she was given in marriage to Adriel of Meholah.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

But it came to pass at the time when Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given unto Adriel the Meholathite to wife.

KJV

But it came to pass at the time when Merab Saul’s daughter should have been given to David, that she was given unto Adriel the Meholathite to wife.

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This verse in 1 Samuel 18

Commentary

6 notes on this verse

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

Adriel - The son of Bar-zillai, as he is called, 2 Sam. xxi, 8. This was an act of great injustice; and accordingly this marriage was accursed by God, and the children begotten in it, were, by God's appointment cut off, 2 Sam. xxi, 8, 9.

This site's exposition

fight the Lord’s battles

on 1 Samuel 18:17-19

Saul dresses the marriage offer in pious language, fight the Lord's battles, while his own stated purpose is that the Philistines' hand should fall on David rather than his own. The days run out and Merab goes instead to Adriel the Meholathite, a broken pledge the narrator records without comment. Wesley and Barnes both note that the five sons of that marriage are the men later given over to the Gibeonites at 2 Samuel 21:8-9. David's own answer, Who am I, and what is my life, matches the humility Samuel commended at chapter 16, spoken now under a king already working his ruin.

The record, by era

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Bede

Commentary on Samuel · Written before 735.

proposed

It came to pass then, when Merob was to be given, etc. It came to pass, when the greater part of the Jewish people ought to have believed in Christ teaching in the flesh, they rather believed and adhered to the scribes and Pharisees. However, …

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

This was as great an affront as he could possibly put upon him, and touched him both in his honour and in his love. He therefore thought David's resentment of it would break out in some indecency or other, in word or deed, which might give him an advantage against him to take him off by the course of law.
But it came to pass, at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

Adriel the Meholathite - The five sons of this marriage perished by the hands of the Gibeonites (marginal reference), where we learn further that the name of Adriel’s father, or ancestor, was Barzillai. His birth-place was Meholah, probably the same as Abel-Meholah. (See 1Ki 19:16 note).

The words behind it

13 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיְהִ֗יand it was

    vayhiH1961 →3559 times

  • בְּעֵ֥תat [the] time

    beetH6256 →296 times

  • תֵּ֛תgave

    tetH5414 →2011 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • מֵרַ֥בMerab

    meravH4764 →3 times

  • בַּת־[the] daughter of

    bat-H1323 →588 times

  • שָׁא֖וּלSaul

    shaulH7586 →402 times

  • לְדָוִ֑דto David

    ledavidH1732 →999 times

  • וְהִ֧יאand she

    vehi'H1931 →1879 times

  • נִתְּנָ֛הshe was given

    nitenahH5414 →2011 times

  • לְעַדְרִיאֵ֥לto Adriel

    leadrielH5741 →

  • הַמְּחֹלָתִ֖יthe Meholathite

    hamecholatiH4259 →

  • לְאִשָּֽׁה׃to a wife

    leishahH802 →781 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

3 in all, six open

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Judges 7:22

    And when the three hundred rams’ horns sounded, the LORD set all the men in the camp against one another with their swords. The army fled to Beth-shittah toward Zererah as far as the…

    it leads to

    • 1 Kings 4:12

      Baana son of Ahilud in Taanach, in Megiddo, and in all of Beth-shean next to Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah and on past Jokmeam;

    • Joshua 6:16

      After the seventh time around, the priests blew the horns, and Joshua commanded the people, “Shout! For the LORD has given you the city!

    • Isaiah 9:4

      For as in the day of Midian You have shattered the yoke of their burden, the bar across their shoulders, and the rod of their oppressor.

    • Isaiah 19:2

      “So I will incite Egyptian against Egyptian; brother will fight against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

    • Joshua 6:20

      So when the rams’ horns sounded, the people shouted. When they heard the blast of the horn, the people gave a great shout, and the wall collapsed. Then all the people charged straight into…

  • Through

    Judges 14:20

    and his wife was given to one of the men who had accompanied him.

    it leads to

    • Judges 15:2

      “I was sure that you thoroughly hated her,” said her father, “so I gave her to one of the men who accompanied you. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take…

    • John 3:29

      The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom stands and listens for him, and is overjoyed to hear the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.

  • Through

    2 Samuel 21:8

    But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons whom Rizpah daughter of Aiah had borne to Saul, as well as the five sons whom Merab daughter of Saul had borne to Adriel…

    it leads to

    • 2 Samuel 3:7

      Meanwhile, Saul had a concubine named Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah. So Ish-bosheth questioned Abner, “Why did you sleep with my father’s concubine?”

Where this verse is studied

About 1 Samuel

Saul Attempts to Kill David — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Saul Attempts to Kill David — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
1 Samuel: the study guide →Read 1 Samuel 18 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on Samuel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in 1 Samuel 18 →