C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on 1 Samuel 18:22

1Sa 18:22

Saul therefore employed his courtiers to persuade David to accept his offer. In this way we may reconcile in a very simple manner the apparent discrepancy, that Saul is said to have offered his daughter to David himself, and yet he commissioned his servants to talk to David privately of the king’s willingness to give him his daughter. The omission of 1Sa 18:21 in the Septuagint is to be explained partly from the fact that בּשׁתּים points back to 1Sa 18:17-19, which are wanting in this version, and partly also in all probability from the idea entertained by the translators that the statement itself is at variance with 1Sa 18:22. The courtiers were to talk to David בּלּט, “in private,” i.e., as though they were doing it behind the king’s back.