Six Hundred Philistine Heads

Now it was the women who gave rise to Saul’s envy and hatred of David. They came out to meet the victorious army with cymbals and drums and every sign of joy, and sang in this way. The wives sang, “Saul has slain his many thousands of the Philistines.” The young girls answered, “David has slain his ten thousands.” When the king heard them singing like this, and that he himself had the smaller share of their praise while the greater number, the ten thousands, was credited to the young man, and when he considered that after such great applause nothing more was lacking to David but the kingdom, he began to be afraid and suspicious of David. So he removed him from the post he had held before, for he had been his armor-bearer, which in his fear seemed to him far too close a post for David; and he made him commander over a thousand. He gave him a post that was better in itself, but, as he thought, safer for himself; for he meant to send him against the enemy and into battles, hoping he would be killed in such dangerous fighting.

But David had God with him wherever he went, and so he greatly prospered in what he undertook. His great success was plain to see, so much so that, because of his surpassing courage, both the people and Saul’s daughter, who was still unmarried, fell in love with him. Her love so overcame her that it could not be hidden, and her father came to know of it. Saul was glad to hear this, intending to use it as a snare for David, and he hoped it would bring him danger and destruction. So he told those who had informed him of his daughter’s love that he would gladly give David the young woman in marriage, and said, “I pledge myself to marry my daughter to him if he will bring me six hundred heads of my enemies. With so splendid a reward set before him, and wanting to win fame by a reckless and incredible deed, he will rush into the attempt and be killed by the Philistines, and my plans for him will turn out nicely; for I will be rid of him, having him killed by others and not by myself.” [a]

So he ordered his servants to find out how David would take this proposal of marrying the young woman. They began to speak to him like this: King Saul loved him, as did all the people, and wished to make him his kinsman by marriage to this young woman. David gave this answer: “Does it seem a light thing to you to become the king’s son-in-law? It does not seem so to me, especially since I am lowly and without any glory or honor.” When Saul was told by his servants what answer David had made, he said, “Tell him that I do not want any money or bride-price from him, for that would be selling my daughter rather than giving her in marriage. I want only a son-in-law who has courage and every other kind of virtue, and I see that he has them. What I wish to receive from him for marrying my daughter is neither gold nor silver, nor any wealth brought from his father’s house, but revenge on the Philistines, and indeed six hundred of their heads. No gift could be more desirable to me, or more glorious, or more prized than these; and for my daughter, to live with such a man, one whose defeat of his enemies speaks for him, is far more to be envied than the customary bride-gifts.”

When these words of Saul were brought to David, he was pleased with them and supposed that Saul really wanted this kinship with him. So without stopping to deliberate any longer, or to consider whether what was proposed was possible or difficult, he and his companions at once attacked the enemy and set about doing what had been named as the condition of the marriage. Because it was God who made everything easy and possible for David, he killed many of them and cut off the heads of six hundred, then came to the king, showed him these Philistine heads, and claimed his daughter in marriage. Saul had no way of getting out of his pledge, since he thought it shameful either to appear a liar after promising him this marriage, or to seem to have acted treacherously toward him by setting him a task all but impossible in order to have him killed. So he gave him his daughter in marriage. Her name was Michal.