Ahinoam

In 1 Samuel 10 the prophet Samuel anointed Saul as the first king of the Israelites. The chapters that follow cover Saul’s political and spiritual battles. 

Chapter 14 tells us that Saul established his sovereignty over Israel and fought against his enemies on every side. He fought Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, kings of Jobah, and the Philistines. He waged war against the Philistines all the days of his life, and when he saw any strong or valiant man, he took him for himself.

In the midst of these war accounts, we are introduced to Saul’s family including his wife Ahinoam and his daughters Merab and Michal. 

Saul and Ahinoam had three sons – Jonathan, Jishui, and Malchishua. 

The name Ahinoam means “brother of pleasantries”. Though the Bible provides us no details about Ahinoam, we see in her son Jonathan admirable characteristics that could be attributed to her pleasant personality. 

We might assume that Ahinoam died an early death since there’s no mention of her after this point. In 1 Samuel 18 Saul offers his daughter Merab to David but then marries her off to another mother and then offers Michal, his younger daughter to him instead. I like to think if Ahinoam were still alive at this point, she would have tried to intervene and try to watch out for the interests of her girls. But nothing is said of her during these events, so either she wasn’t around to witness them or else she felt powerless to do anything to prevent them. 

Did Ahinoam marry Saul before or after he took over as king? Did she have a clue the kind of man he would become? We’ll never know. But through her son Jonathan, she provided a light in their dark world. 

Read about Ahinoam in Scripture: 1 Samuel 14.

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