And Saul said to David, Here is my elder daughter Merab; I will give her to you as a wife — Saul's *va'yomer le'David hineh bitti ha'gdola Merab*, I will give her to you, represents a new strategy: drawing David into the royal family through marriage. The *otenu lecha le'isha*, give her to you as wife, would create kinship bonds, making David his son-in-law, supposedly binding him more securely to the throne. Yet Saul's proposal contains hidden danger; the *kach li*, serve me, immediately following suggests that marriage is a trap, a transaction contingent upon military service and loyalty.

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