17 One day Sha’ul told David, “Look, here’s my oldest daughter Merab—I’ll give her to you for a wife. The only condition is that you become a powerful warrior for me and fight Yahweh’s battles.” (Sha’ul had said to himself, “I don’t need to hurt him physically—I’ll let the Philistines do that for me.”) 18 “Who am I,” David asked, “and who are my relatives in my father’s clan in Yisrael, that I should become the king’s son-in-law?”

19 However, when it was the time for Sha’ul to give his daughter Merab to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite to marry.

20 Now Sha’ul’s other daughter Mikal loved David, and when they told the king, he was pleased about it, 21 saying to himself, “I’ll give her to him so she can become a trap for him so the Philistines could be the ones to attack him.” So he said a second time, “You’ll become a son-in-law of mine today.” 22 Then Sha’ul commanded his servants, “Tell David privately, ‘Listen, the king is pleased with you, and all of us his servants love you. So now we think that you should become the king’s son-in-law.’ ”

23 So they told David privately, but he responded, “Something that significant isn’t likely to happen. I’m hard up and without much honour.”

24 When Sha’ul’s servants told him what David had said, 25 he replied, “Pass this onto David, ‘The king doesn’t want an expensive bride price—only a hundred Philistine foreskins taken from the king’s enemies.’ ” But Sha’ul was still wanting the Philistines to be the ones to kill David. 26 Now when David heard this from the servants, he decided that he could indeed marry the king’s daughter within the time period that had been given, 27 so he and his men got ready and went and killed two hundred Philistine men. He brought them to the king and had them counted to fulfill the pledge, and so Sha’ul had to give his daughter Mikal to become his wife.

28 But when Sha’ul realised that Yahweh was helping David, and that his daughter loved him, 29 he became more afraid of David, so he remained hostile to David from then on.

30 Whenever the Philistine commanders decided to attack, David was more successful than any other of Sha’ul’s commanders, so he became very famous.