Eglah: one of the six women who bore sons to David while he ruled from Hebron, the mother of his sixth son Ithream; her name is the everyday Hebrew word for a heifer, a young cow
Eglah turns up twice, in two versions of one list: the sons born to David during the years he ruled from Hebron, before Jerusalem was his. Both versions name each son with his mother, and both put Eglah last, as the mother of the sixth son, Ithream (יִתְרְעָם). Nothing else about her survives. The text gives no father, no home town, and no story, and her son is never heard of again either.
One small detail has always drawn attention. Of the six mothers, she alone is called "David's wife":
- Ahinoam is placed by her home town in Jezreel.
- Abigail is remembered as the widow of Nabal.
- Maacah is a princess, the daughter of the king of Geshur.
- Haggith and Abital are given by name and nothing more.
- Eglah alone is labeled the wife of David.
Since the two women named just before her carry no description at all, the extra words are hard to write off as routine.
The name itself is the ordinary Hebrew word for a heifer, a young cow past calfhood and not yet bred (עֶגְלָה). Israelite parents often named children after animals, as with Rachel "ewe", Deborah "bee", Jonah "dove", and Caleb "dog". A heifer stood for youth, strength, and real worth, an animal at her unspoiled peak, so the name reads as a compliment rather than as a comment on the woman's circumstances.
Early Jewish interpreters took "David's wife" to mean the chief wife, and concluded that Eglah must be Michal (מִיכַל), Saul's daughter, under a second name; on that reading her son also gives Michal the child that Samuel otherwise seems to deny her. Modern commentators read the phrase more plainly and leave Eglah a woman known nowhere else, so the six mothers stand side by side with none of them ranked above the rest.
Disputed
Why Eglah alone among the six mothers of David's Hebron sons is called "David's wife" (2 Samuel 3:5) or "his wife" (1 Chronicles 3:3), and whether the phrase identifies her with Michal, Saul's daughter.
- majorityEglah is a woman otherwise unknown, and the added words simply identify her and round off the list. Nothing in either version of the list gives her precedence over the other five mothers, and the notes attached to the earlier women vary freely: a home town for Ahinoam, a former husband for Abigail, a royal father for Maacah, nothing at all for Haggith and Abital.; P. Kyle McCarter, II Samuel, Anchor Bible 9 (Garden City: Doubleday, 1984), on 2 Samuel 3:2-5; A. A. Anderson, 2 Samuel, Word Biblical Commentary 11 (Dallas: Word, 1989), on 2 Samuel 3:2-5; Sara Japhet, I and II Chronicles: A Commentary, Old Testament Library (London: SCM, 1993), on 1 Chronicles 3:1-9; Gary N. Knoppers, I Chronicles 1-9, Anchor Bible 12 (New York: Doubleday, 2003), on 1 Chronicles 3:1-9
- minorityThe phrase marks her as the principal wife, and the principal wife of David was Michal, Saul's daughter, so Eglah is Michal under a second name. The reading has the further attraction of giving Michal a child, against the statement that she had none to the day of her death.; Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 21a; Rashi on 2 Samuel 3:5