David replied, "I am a poor and lightly esteemed man", meaning that he was unable to provide a bride price.
When Saul's messengers search for David in order to kill him, Michal sends them away while pretending he was ill and laid up in bed.
[3] J. Cheryl Exum points out that although she risked her life in helping him, after he leaves the court, he makes no attempt to contact her.
[5] Robert Alter observes that by stressing that he had paid the requested bride price, David makes a legal argument as a political calculation to reinforce his legitimacy as a member of the royal house.
[6] After Michal was returned to David, she criticised him for dancing in an undignified manner, as he brought the Ark of the Covenant to the newly captured Jerusalem in a religious procession.
The justification for the NIV's textual rendering (see also ESV, NASB, and NRSV) is surely found in the completion of the clause, which states "...whom she had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite."
That it was Merab who married Adriel is attested without ambiguity (1 Samuel 18:19); it is extraordinarily difficult to argue that Michal might have borne five sons to her sister's husband.