Shmuel Alef 18:18

18 And Dovid said unto Sha’ul, Who am I? And what is my life, or the mishpakhat avi in Yisroel, that I should be Choson to HaMelech?

Shmuel Alef 18:18 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 18:18

And David said unto Saul
Surprised at the offer Saul made him, yet not refusing it, but expressing himself with great modesty and humility:

who [am] I?
as to his person, parentage, and employment, mean and despicable, at least in his own eyes, a type of the lowly Jesus, ( Matthew 11:29 ) ;

and what [is] my life?
keeping sheep, for from thence was he taken and advanced; though some think his meaning is, that to hazard his life, as Saul proposed, was not equivalent to such an honour he meant to confer upon him, and that he was ready to do it at all times:

[or] my father's family in Israel;
though in an honourable tribe, and was an honourable family, yet it seems not to be very great, at least was not in David's esteem worthy of such high advancement, as that one of it should be so nearly related to the king; Ben Gersom thinks David has reference to the original of his family, Ruth the Moabitess:

that I should be son in law to the king?
as he would be by marrying his daughter.

Shmuel Alef 18:18 In-Context

16 But kol Yisroel and Yehudah loved Dovid, because he went out and came in before them.

17 And Sha’ul said to Dovid, Hinei bitti hagedolah Merav, her will I give thee as isha; only be thou ben chayil (valiant) for me, and fight Hashem’s milchamot. For Sha’ul said, Let not mine yad be upon him, but let the yad Pelishtim be upon him.

18 And Dovid said unto Sha’ul, Who am I? And what is my life, or the mishpakhat avi in Yisroel, that I should be Choson to HaMelech?

19 But it came to pass at the time when Merav Bat Sha’ul should have been given to Dovid, that she was given as isha unto Adriel the Mecholati.

20 And Michal Bat Sha’ul loved Dovid; and they told Sha’ul, and the thing was yashar in [Sha’ul’s] eyes.