The name Michael must be a
mistake for Merah, for it was Merab who married Adriel (v. 8; 1 Samuel
18:19). If it is indeed Michal, David’s wife and Saul’s daughter, who is meant,
this is a very bitter ending to their relationship as man and wife. (D. Kelly
Ogden and Andrew C. Skinner, The Old Testament Verse By Verse, 2 vols. [Salt
Lake City: Deseret Book, 2013], 2:456)
2 Samuel 21:8
מִיכַ֣ל
The king took the two sons of
Rizpah daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and
the five sons of Merab daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel son of
Barzillai the Meholathite;
The Syr., Tg., two Hebrew
manuscripts, and several LXX manuscripts have “Merab” instead of “Michal” (cf.
1 Sam 18:19). (Rick Brennan and Israel Loken, The Lexham Textual
Notes on the Bible [Lexham Bible Reference Series; Bellingham, Wash.:
Lexham Press, 2014], Logos Bible Software edition)
8 a mlt Mss מפיבשת || b 2 Mss
מ(י)רב cf 𝔊Mss, 𝔖
ndb, 𝔗 mjrb drbjʾt mjkl ex 1 S 18,19 || c pc Mss cit לעזר׳ cf 𝔊Mss𝔖. (Gérard E. Weil, K.
Elliger, and W. Rudolph, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 5. Aufl., rev. [Stuttgart: Deutsche
Bibelgesellschaft, 1997], 546.
Merob MT has mykl,
“Michal,” but we know that Michal was childless (6:23) and that Adri(el) was
Merob’s husband (1 Sam 18:19). LXXL (merob) and MTMSS, therefore, are correct in reading mrb, “Merob” (cf. LXXM, Syr.,
Targ.). LXXB agrees with MT, but the fact that it renders mykl as michal instead of the usual LXX melchol
(3:13, etc.) shows that it is recensional and suggests (pace Barthélemy 1980:18–19) that merob was in fact the OG rendering. Thus merob cannot have been derived from 1 Sam 18:19, which was lacking
in OG (cf. I Samuel, pp. 299–309).
For the pronunciation of the name, see I
Samuel, the Textual Note at
14:49. A defense of MT’s reading (“Michal”) may be found in Glück 1965. For the
rabbinical explanations of the contradiction in MT between 6:23 and 21:8, see
Sanhedrin 21a. (P. Kyle McCarter Jr., II Samuel : A New
Translation with Introduction, Notes, and Commentary [AYB 9; New Haven:
Yale University Press, 2008], 439)