2 Samuel 3:15

And Ishbosheth sent, and took her from her husband, even from Phaltiel the son of Laish.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

2 Samuel 3:15-16. Ish-bosheth sent and took her from Phaltiel — This was an honourable action of Ish-bosheth to restore David his lawful wife. Her husband went with her along weeping — “Mr. Bayle,” says Delaney, “considers it as great cruelty in David to ravish her from a husband who loved her so well; that is, he thinks it a great cruelty to disturb Phaltiel in an adultery that was agreeable to him, and to redeem Michal from one, in all appearance, detestable to her, to restore her to her only husband, the husband of her affection and her choice, for whom she had so much tenderness as to save his life at the hazard of her own. Phaltiel was in distress, but it was such a distress as they all endure who are grieved to restore what they have no right to possess; and Mr. Bayle, from the same principles upon which he quarrels with David on this head, is obliged to be highly offended with every honest man who desires to have those goods restored to him of which he once was robbed, under all the circumstances of cruelty and iniquity. And therefore, in truth, Phaltiel is no proper object of pity; and yet his distress upon this occasion is one of the finest pictures of silent grief that any history hath left us. Conscious he had no right to complain, or molest Michal with his lamentations, he follows her at a distance, with a distress silent and self-confined: going (saith the text) and weeping behind her — However such fine paintings of nature pass unregarded in the sacred writings, I am satisfied that in Homer we should survey this with delight.” Abarbinel, and the Jewish rabbis in general, are of opinion that Phaltiel was a strictly religious man, and had had no nuptial commerce with Michal.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:7-21 Many, like Abner, are not above committing base crimes, who are too proud to bear reproof, or even the suspicion of being guilty. While men go on in sin, and apparently without concern, they are often conscious that they are fighting against God. Many mean to serve their own purposes; and will betray those who trust them, when they can get any advantage. Yet the Lord serves his own designs, even by those who are thus actuated by revenge, ambition, or lust; but as they intend not to honour him, in the end they will be thrown aside with contempt. There was real generosity both to Michal and to the memory of Saul, in David's receiving the former, remembering probably how once he owed his life to her affection, and knowing that she was separated from him partly by her father's authority. Let no man set his heart on that which he is not entitled to. If any disagreement has separated husband and wife, as they expect the blessing of God, let them be reconciled, and live together in love.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Sent messengers to Ish-bosheth - Not to Abner, for the league between David and Abner was a profound secret, but to Ish-bosheth who, David knew, must act, feeble as he was, at Abner's dictation. Abner's first act of overt allegiance to David was thus done at Ish-bosheth's bidding; and the effect of the humiliation laid upon Ish-bosheth in exposing his weakness to his own subjects, and so shaking their allegiance to him, was such that Abner needed to use no more disguise.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12, 13. Abner sent messengers to David—Though his language implied a secret conviction, that in supporting Ish-bosheth he had been laboring to frustrate the divine purpose of conferring the sovereignty of the kingdom on David, this acknowledgment was no justification either of the measure he was now adopting, or of the motives that prompted it. Nor does it seem possible to uphold the full integrity and honor of David's conduct in entertaining his secret overtures for undermining Ish-bosheth, except we take into account the divine promise of the kingdom, and his belief that the secession of Abner was a means designed by Providence for accomplishing it. The demand for the restoration of his wife Michal was perfectly fair; but David's insisting on it at that particular moment, as an indispensable condition of his entering into any treaty with Abner, seems to have proceeded not so much from a lingering attachment as from an expectation that his possession of her would incline some adherents of the house of Saul to be favorable to his cause.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

For, being forsaken by Abner, he durst not deny David, into whose power he saw he must unavoidedly come; and besides he supposed that she might be an effectual instrument to make his peace with David.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Ishbosheth sent and took her from her husband,.... Her second husband, to whom Saul had given her, 1 Samuel 25:44,

even from Phaltiel the son of Laish; he is called Phalti in 1 Samuel 25:44.

Geneva Study Bible

And Ishbosheth sent, and took her from her husband, even from Phaltiel the son of Laish.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15. Phaltiel] Called Phalti in 1 Samuel 25:44, where his marriage with Michal is recorded.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - Phaltiel the son of Laish. In 1 Samuel 25:44 he is called Phalti. This word, in Hebrew lexicons, is usually regarded as a contraction for Phaltiyah, "Jehovah is deliverance," while Phaltiel means "El is deliverance." The substitution of El for Yah is one of those changes which arose out of the superstitious reverence for the sacred name which to this day causes the word LORD to be read in our Bibles where in the Hebrew are the four consonants Y, H, V, H, which, by attaching to them the vowels belonging to the Hebrew word edonay (or, adonay, lord) we make into "Jehovah" (Yehovah). 2 Samuel 3:15

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Ishbosheth probably sent Abner to Gallim (1 Samuel 25:44) to fetch Michal from her husband Paltiel (see at 1 Samuel 25:44), and take her back to David. The husband was obliged to consent to this separation.