The Wives of King David Trivia Quiz

Answer: Merab

Following David's slaying of the Philistine giant, Goliath, David was compelled by King Saul to stay at the palace. David was successful in all he did, so Saul promoted him to a high rank in the army. All the people loved David so much that Saul became quite jealous and wanted David dead. As part of his strategy he decided to offer his older daughter Merab to David in marriage. His only request was that David would continue to serve him in the army. He thought that by doing this it would be inevitable that David would be killed at some point.

David however did not consider himself worthy to become the King's son-in-law as he came from a humble background. So when the time came for Merab to marry, she was given to another man. (See 1 Samuel 18).

Abital and Eglah were two of David's other wives. Abishag was the young girl who cared for him in his old age.

Answer: 100 Philistine foreskins

After David's refusal to marry Saul's older daughter, King Saul discovered that his daughter Michal was actually in love with David. He saw another opportunity to try to get David to become his son-in-law and thought that Michal could be used as a snare to trap David. David however refused the offer again on the grounds of being a poor man, presumably implying that he wouldn't be able to afford the bride price required by a king.

Saul saw this as an opportunity to get David killed so didn't ask for money or anything of monetary value: he simply asked David to go and kill 100 Philistines and bring back their foreskins! (This sounds somewhat gruesome to modern ears!) David agreed to the challenge and went to it with a vengeance. He and his men went out and killed not 100 but 200 Philistines and brought their foreskins to the king. And so David and Michal were married. (See 1 Samuel 18:20-27).

Answer: Let him down through the window

Saul's jealousy and hatred of David continued and Saul was constantly on the lookout for an opportunity to kill his son-in-law. One night Saul sent men to watch David's house with the plan to kill him the next morning. Michal must have heard of this, though, and persuaded her husband that he had to flee for his life. She let him down out of a window and he was able to escape.

Michal then dressed an idol and put it in David's place in the bed. When Saul's men came the next day she pretended that David was ill so they couldn't see him. On hearing this her father himself then came to the house and was angry with her deception. (See 1 Samuel 19:11-17).

Answer: She apologised for her husband's lack of hospitality

Abigail was married to a wealthy man named Nabal. She was described as intelligent and beautiful, but he was described as surly and mean. David was in the desert with his men not far from where Nabal and Abigail lived. David sent some of his men to Nabal to request provisions from Nabal, who was shearing his sheep. In spite of the fact that Nabal knew that David and his men had treated Nabal's shepherds well when they had been camping in the same area, Nabal refused to provide David with anything. Hearing what had been said, David decided that they should go and kill Nabal and those with him.

Nabal's servants, however, reported to Abigail what had happened and the insulting way in which her husband had treated David and his men. Abigail quickly gathered together a large amount of provisions and set off on her donkey to see David, not telling Nabal what she was doing.

When she reached David she got off her donkey and bowed down before him. She then apologised for her husband's behaviour. David praised Abigail for her good judgement and thanked her for the provisions which she had brought.

About ten days after this incident occurred, Nabal died. When the news reached David he sent word to Abigail to ask her to become his wife. (See 1 Samuel 25).

Answer: Jezreel

We first read of Ahinoam in 1 Samuel 25:43. David had obviously married her sometime between marrying Michal and Abigail. Whenever she is mentioned she is always referred to as "Ahinoam of Jezreel".

Answer: The Amalekites

In order to get some respite from being pursued by King Saul, David and his men and their families went to live in Philistine territory for a year and four months. The Philistine king allowed them to live in the town of Ziklag. (1 Samuel 27:6-7).

While David and his men were away with the Philistine army the Amalekites came and raided Ziklag, razing it to the ground and taking everyone who was there captive. 1 Samuel 30 provides the account of how David and his men fought the Amalekites and got their families and possessions back.

Answer: Maacah

Absalom was David's third son and Maacah's first. Maacah was the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur (2 Samuel 3:3). (Interestingly, we learn from Joshua 12:4-5 that Geshur was a former territory of Og, King of Bashan whose land was conquered by the Israelites. Og was also king of the people of Maacah.) In 1 Samuel 27:8 it says that David went and raided the Geshurites. One would presume that he brought princess Maacah back with him as a "share of the plunder".

From 2 Chronicles 11:20 we discover that Absalom later named his own daughter after his mother, Maacah.

Answer: She became barren

In 2 Samuel 6 we read the story of King David bringing the ark of the Lord back to Jerusalem. It was a real time of joy and celebration for David and his people. Many sacrifices were made and there was music and shouts of praise.

As the procession entered the city, Michal looked out of a window and saw her husband, the king, basically dancing before the Lord in his underclothes! Instead of entering into the spirit of rejoicing that the ark of the Lord was finally home in its rightful place, Michal was appalled at what she considered to be her husband's inappropriate behaviour. When David came home she told him what she thought of him. David wasn't at all bothered about what she thought - he just wanted to praise God!

The chapter simply ends with the statement that Michal never had any children, implying that this was a consequence of her attitude.

Answer: We aren't told

The story of David's adultery with Bathsheba is well known. If you've never read it, you can do so in 2 Samuel 11.

David had hoped that he could keep his liaison with Bathsheba quiet but she became pregnant. After he had had her husband Uriah killed, David brought Bathsheba to be his wife in the palace and in due time the baby, a boy, was born.

Just at that time the prophet Nathan came to see David to chastise him and tell him of God's displeasure with what he had done. He told David in 2 Samuel 12:14 that the baby was going to die. The baby, whose name we are never told, became sick. David pleaded with God for his son's life but after a week the child died.

David later had four more sons with Bathsheba: Solomon (who became king after the death of his father), Shammua, Shobab and Nathan (see 1 Chronicles 3:5).

Answer: Abishag

As an old man David was struggling to keep warm in bed, even when he had plenty of covers on. His servants decided that the best thing to do to help him was to provide him with a human hot water bottle! They searched the land and found a beautiful young woman named Abishag from Shunem who became the king's personal servant. It does make it quite clear though that David had no sexual relations with her (see 1 Kings 1:1-4).

Haggith was one of David's wives, Tamar was his daughter and Rizpah was one of Saul's daughters.