1 Samuel 19:17

17 And Saul said to Michol: Why hast thou deceived me so, and let my enemy go and flee away? And Michol answered Saul: Because he said to me: Let me go, or else I will kill thee.

1 Samuel 19:17 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 19:17

And Saul said unto Michal
After the messengers returned and reported what they had seen, when Saul either came to her at her house, or sent for her to his palace:

why hast thou deceived me so;
for deceiving his messengers was deceiving him, by pretending David was sick and in bed, when she had placed an image there, and had let him down through a window, and he was gone:

and sent away mine enemy, that he is escaped?
as if she was more obliged to gratify the wicked passion of a father, than to provide for the safety of her husband:

and Michal answered Saul, he said unto me, let me go, why should I kill
thee?
though she was concerned for the preservation of her husband, yet not for his honour and credit, nor for her own veracity; she attempted not to vindicate her husband from the charge of being an enemy to Saul, as she might; but suggested that he was so desperate a man, that if she had offered to have detained him, he would have murdered her, and threatened, if she did, he would do when both were false; that he should say to her let me go, when it was she that advised him to go, and that if she refused he would kill her; which lies were framed by her to excuse herself, at the expense of her husband's reputation.

1 Samuel 19:17 In-Context

15 And again Saul sent to see David, saying: Bring him to me in the bed, that he may be slain.
16 And when the messengers were come in, they found an image upon the bed, and a goat skin at his head.
17 And Saul said to Michol: Why hast thou deceived me so, and let my enemy go and flee away? And Michol answered Saul: Because he said to me: Let me go, or else I will kill thee.
18 But David fled and escaped, and came to Samuel in Ramatha, and told him all that Saul had done to him: and he and Samuel went and dwelt in Najoth.
19 And it was told Saul by some, saying: Behold David is in Najoth, in Ramatha.
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