So when it was time to give Saul’s daughter Merab to David, she was given in marriage to Adriel of Meholah.
Parallel translations
- WEB But at the time when Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as 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.
- NKJV But it happened at the time when Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as a wife.
- NASB So it came about at the time that Merab, Saul’s daughter, was to be given to David, that she was given instead to Adriel the Meholathite as a wife.
- NLT So when the time came for Saul to give his daughter Merab in marriage to David, he gave her instead to Adriel, a man from Meholah.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
When the time comes, Merab is given to another man instead of David. Saul breaks his promise, showing his unreliability and ill will.
Overview
At the appointed time Saul gives Merab to Adriel rather than to David, reneging on his word. The broken promise reveals Saul's faithlessness and perhaps a further attempt to manipulate David. God's purposes for David proceed despite Saul's deceit, and the slight does not provoke David to grasp for what is withheld.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Judg 7:22And 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 border of Abel-meholah near Tabbath.
- 2 Sam 21:8But 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 son of Barzillai the Meholathite.
- Judg 14:20and his wife was given to one of the men who had accompanied him.
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Christ at the center
The rise of the anointed king after Israel's failed first choice points to the true Anointed One (Messiah means 'anointed'), the shepherd-king after God's own heart from Bethlehem.
How 1 Samuel 18:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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