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Did Michal
have any children or not?
(2 Samuel 6:23 and 2 Samuel
21:8)
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No children (2
Samuel 6:23) - "And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the
day of her death."
-
Five sons (2
Sam. 21:8) - "But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the
daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and
the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for
Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite" (KJV).
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(2 Samuel 21:8, NASB) - "So the king took the two sons
of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, Armoni and Mephibosheth whom she had
born to Saul, and the five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she
had born to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite."
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(2 Samuel 21:8, NIV) - "But the king took Armoni and
Mephibosheth, the two sons of Aiah’s daughter Rizpah, whom she had borne
to Saul, together with the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab, whom she
had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite."
Saul had two
daughters: Merab and Michal.
1 Samuel 14:49, says "Now
the sons of Saul were Jonathan, and Ishui, and Melchishua: and the names of
his two daughters were these; the name of the firstborn Merab, and the name
of the younger Michal." Since
2 Samuel 6:23 states that Michal had no children, we can conclude that
this is a copyist error that should have read Merab. "Many scholars
substitute Merab for Michal in 2
Sam. 21:8, regarding it as an ancient scribal error, saying that after
her death her sons were hanged to atone for Saul’s slaughter of the
Gibeonites, a breaking of Israel’s covenant."1
________________
1. The New Bible Dictionary, (Wheaton, Illinois:
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.) 1962.
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