Following his marriage to Abigail, David expands his household by taking another wife. This new wife, Ahinoam, comes from Jezreel, a settlement situated within the territory of Judah [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Much like Abigail, Ahinoam is noted as an exceptional woman, defined by her remarkable intelligence and deep devotion to God [חומת אנך].
The narrative reflects on David's marital status at this stage in his life. The primary approach among commentators is that his recent marriages were an addition to his existing household, meaning Abigail and Ahinoam were married to him alongside Michal, the daughter of Saul, whom David had previously married and held very dear. In contrast, another perspective argues that the focus remains exclusively on Abigail and Ahinoam to intentionally exclude Michal. According to this view, only these two were considered his wives at the time, as Saul had taken Michal and given her to another man, Palti the son of Laish [רד״ק].
The removal of Michal from David's household raises significant questions. How could a married woman be given to another man, and how was David permitted to take her back later? Some scholars suggest that David's original marriage to Michal was based on a legal error, or that her subsequent marriage to Palti was never consummated. However, the straightforward explanation is that David actually issued a formal bill of divorce. Seeing David constantly on the run, Saul forced him to divorce Michal so she would not be left abandoned as a chained wife unable to remarry [רד״ק].
Normally, a man is forbidden to remarry his divorced wife if she has since married someone else. To explain how David was allowed to reunite with Michal, it is understood that the divorce was legally invalid from the start. The document was either forced upon David unlawfully, secretly annulled by him in front of witnesses before it was delivered, or canceled while still in the hands of the messenger. Because Michal and Palti were completely unaware of this and genuinely believed the divorce was legitimate, Michal's second marriage was viewed as an honest mistake or a situation forced upon her beyond her control. Consequently, she was never legally forbidden to return to David [רד״ק].