Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
11. SAUL THEREFORE SENT HIS GUARDS TO DAVID’S HOUSE, TO WATCH HIM (by night, lest he slip away in the darkness), AND TO KILL HIM IN THE MORNING;—that is, that in the morning, as he came out of his house, they should kill him in public, so that Saul, seeing David certainly slain, might no longer fear him as one who would take the kingdom from him. Josephus adds, book VI, chap. 14, and Abulensis follows him, Questions 11 and 12, that Saul appointed judges who would summon David in the morning to a trial and condemn him to death; so that he might seem to have been condemned and put to death not from Saul’s private hatred but by the just sentence of judges. This seems quite consonant with Holy Scripture and with reason. But the former explanation is plainer and easier.
12. AND SHE LET HIM DOWN THROUGH A WINDOW.—Because Saul’s guards were watching the doors to seize and kill David, Michol let him down through a window. So St. Paul, besieged at Damascus by Aretas, escaped, let down through a basket from the wall, 2 Corinthians 11. Note here Michol’s fidelity, prudence and love toward David her husband. For first, she disclosed her father’s plot to him; second, she gave him prudent counsel to flee by night, lest he be killed in the morning; third, she lent her help by letting him down through the window; fourth, she placed his image in the bed, of which presently.
13. AND MICHOL TOOK AN IMAGE, AND LAID IT IN THE BED, AND PUT A PILLOW OF GOATS’ HAIR AT THE HEAD OF IT, AND COVERED IT WITH CLOTHES.—Michol did this so that David might have time to flee and escape. For she pretended that David was ill and lying in bed, and therefore had not fled. For if the guards had known that he had fled, they would at once have pursued him in his flight and seized him. But while they think he is lying at home in bed, they wait for a convenient time to arrest him honourably, quietly, without noise and unexpectedly, namely when David should come out of the house. So Michol told them that David was lying in bed and ill; for this the image of David, which she had placed in the bed, represented, and when they looked at it from a distance in the dark chamber, they thought it was not an image but David himself. Meanwhile Saul sent fresh officers to take David, to whom Michol said the same thing, namely that David was sick. They report this to Saul; and in this going and returning, and likewise in deliberations and counsels, much time was spent, in which David was able to flee.
For “image” the Hebrew is teraphim, which Abulensis renders a shapeless round piece of wood; others render it an idol, or an oracle; others, an astrolabe constructed to receive the influences of heaven; but it is certain that teraphim signifies an image, as our version has it, namely the figure of a man, here of David, as Theodoret and Procopius hold. See what I have said on teraphim at Osee 3:4, and Judges 18:14 and 17. The Septuagint render it kenotaphia, that is, empty tombs. “For as Theodoret says, an empty tomb seems indeed to have a dead man in it, but has not; so too what was made up of clothes seemed to be David breathing his last, but was not.”
For the Hebrew kebir, that is, a hairy skin, Josephus, Procopius, Theodoret and many others, reading kabed, render it the liver of a goat, because a slaughtered goat’s liver still palpitates and moves, say Theodoret and Procopius, so that it might seem to be not an image but a true, living man, namely David breathing, as though he lay sick under the coverlets and were drawing and giving up his breath there.
Our version, with the Septuagint and the Chaldee, renders it better as a hairy skin; for Michol placed this so that by these reddish hairs (for in Galaad, which is near Jerusalem, sheep and goats are of a red and tawny colour, as I said on Canticles 4:4) she might represent David’s red hair. So Theodoret and Abulensis. Or at least, so that he might seem to be warming David’s head with this soft skin. Hence Vatablus renders it a pillow or cushion made of goatskins. Hear St. Jerome, epistle 103 to Marcella: “The messengers came, and behold, kenotaphia were in the bed—in the Hebrew, teraphim—that is (according to Aquila’s interpretation) set up in place of cenotaphs; and not a goat’s liver, as our codices have it, but a little pillow sewn of goatskin, which, with its unshorn hair, would pass for the head of a man wrapped up in his little bed.”
Saul seems to have commanded the guards to watch David by night at home, and in the morning to bring him out to be killed. But seeing the guards delay, because (as he thought) David was keeping himself at home and did not come out, being impatient and fearing lest David should slip away, or (as envy is suspicious) lest he should corrupt the guards with gifts or promises, he sent new officers to break into David’s house and drag David to him by force; and if he resisted, to kill him.
Now David, placed in these straits, composed and recited Psalm 58: “Deliver me from my enemies, O my God, and defend me from them that rise up against me,” which in St. Jerome’s version reads thus: “For the Victor, that he destroy not David, humble and simple, when Saul sent to watch the house, that they might kill him.” By praying, then, and singing psalms he called upon God’s help; and God accordingly scattered Saul’s counsels and saved David. Let us do the same in dangers and distresses, and we shall experience like help from God.
AND IT WAS ANSWERED (by Michol or her maids and servants) THAT DAVID WAS SICK.—And at the same time, as Saul’s officers did not believe her or doubted, Michol showed them from a distance David’s image in a dark corner, lying in the bed; and they, thinking it was David himself, reported the whole matter to Saul. Michol lies here, but she thought that in such a case, to save the life of David her husband, a lie was not only lawful but honourable, even necessary, as the Egyptian midwives thought, Exodus 1, and Rahab, Josue 2, and very many others still think; in which they err.
Hear Josephus, book VI, chapter 14: “Having prepared the bed as for a sick man, she put under the coverlets the freshly taken liver of a goat, and at daybreak, when those whom her father had sent to David came, she showed them the bed covered, and since they saw the coverlets moving with the throbbing of the liver, she persuaded them that her husband was sick and panting, adding that he had spent the whole night restless.” But this goat’s liver I rejected above on the authority of St. Jerome.