1 Samuel 25

David, Nabal, and Abigail

And Samuel died, and all the Israelites assembled and mourned for him and buried him at his house in Ramah. And David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

2 And there was a man in Maon whose possessions were in Carmel, and the man was very rich. He had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats, and he sheared his sheep in Carmel. 3 Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife was Abigail; and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful appearance. But the man was mean and evil in his dealings; and he was a descendant of the house of Caleb.

25:3 Nabal means “fool”. See v 25, and note at Ps 14:1 where the same word is used in Hebrew. Very intelligent men can be fools in the Bible sense of the word. Abigail means “father of joy”.⚜

4 And David in the wilderness heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep. 5 And David sent out ten young men, and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel and approach Nabal and greet him in my name. 6 And you are to say this: ‘Long life to you! Peace be to you, and peace be to your household and peace be to all that you have!

7 “‘And now I have heard that you have shearers. Now your shepherds were with us. All the time they were at Carmel we did them no harm, and nothing of theirs was missing. 8 Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let our young men find favour in your eyes, for we come on a good day. Please give to your servants, and to your son David, whatever you find at hand.’ ”

25:7-8 David had not only refused to steal from Nabal’s shepherds, he kept others from stealing from them. He thought Nabal would recognize this and reward it.⚜

9 And when David’s young men arrived, they spoke to Nabal all those words in the name of David, and waited.

10 And Nabal answered David’s servants and said, “Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today, each man breaking away from his master. 11 Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men who are from I know not where?”

25:10-11 Nabal showed he was indeed a fool.⚜

12 So David’s young men turned around and went on their way again, and came and told him all these words. 13 And David said to his men, “Each one of you fasten on his sword”. And each one of them fastened on his sword, and David also fastened on his sword. And about four hundred men followed David, and two hundred stayed with the baggage.

25:13 See vs 21,22. David had not taken vengeance on Saul, but now determined to personally avenge himself on Nabal – a thing he knew was contrary to God’s Word. When even a godly man gives in to bad passions which arise from his sinful nature he is capable of all manner of sin and foolishness. Not one man on earth, except the Lord Jesus, was ever fully consistent all his days.⚜

14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master; and he screamed at them. 15 But the men were very good to us, and we were not harmed, and while we were in the fields we did not miss anything, as long as we went about with them. 16 They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the time we were with them, keeping the sheep. 17 Now therefore know this and consider what you should do. For something bad is being devised against our master and against his whole household, for he is such a wicked man that no one can speak to him”.

18 Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves and two wineskins of wine and five sheep already dressed and five measures of roasted grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and placed them on donkeys.

25:18 Abigail realized that David’s anger could have terrible results and set out to avert them.⚜

19 And she said to her servants, “Go on ahead of me. See, I am coming after you”. But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

20 And it so happened, as she rode on the donkey, that she came down by a hidden place in the hill, and there appeared David and his men coming down opposite her, and she met them. 21 Now David had said, “It certainly has been useless for me to guard all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him. For he has repaid me evil for good. 22 May God do harm and more also to the enemies of David, if, of all who belong to him, I leave any male alive until morning light”.

25:22 Even David who loved justice could be moved to act unjustly, and resolved to kill many because of the insult of one. Oh, such is man, even the best of men.⚜

23 And when Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey, and prostrated herself before David and bowed down to the ground, 24 and fell at his feet and said, “On me, my lord, let this blame be on me; and please let your maid servant speak in your hearing, and listen to the words of your maidservant. 25 Please, may my lord pay no attention to this wicked man Nabal, for he is just like his name. His name is Nabal, and folly is with him. But I, your maid servant did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent.

26 “Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, since the LORD has kept you from bloodshed, and from taking vengeance for yourself with your own hand, may your enemies and those who seek to harm my lord, be like Nabal. 27 And now this present which your maidservant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord. 28 Please forgive the trespass of your maid servant, for the LORD will certainly make a sure house for my lord, because my lord is fighting the battles of the LORD, and no evil has been found in you all your days. 29 Yet a man has risen to pursue you and to seek your life. But the soul of my lord will be bound up in the bundle of life with the LORD your God, but he will hurl away the souls of your enemies, as from the pocket of a sling. 30 And it will be, when the LORD does for my lord all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and appoints you ruler over Israel, 31 that this will not become a grief to you or reason for a troubled heart to my lord, that you have shed blood needlessly or that my lord has taken vengeance for himself. And when the LORD deals well with my lord, then remember your maid servant”.

32 And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD God of Israel who sent you today to meet me,

25:32 David recognized her as a messenger of God and praises the One who sent her. All men should be this quick to praise God when kept from doing wrong.⚜

33 and may your discernment be blessed, and may you be blessed, who have kept me today from bloodshed and from taking vengeance for myself with my own hand. 34 For indeed, as the LORD God of Israel lives, who has kept me from harming you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, by morning light there certainly would not have been left to Nabal any male”.

25:33-34 David fully confesses his evil intention and immediately forsakes it – the mark of a spiritual man who wants God’s best.⚜

35 So David took from her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have listened to your voice and have accepted you”.

36 And Abigail came to Nabal and saw that he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, and he was very drunk. Therefore she told him nothing, little or much, until the morning light. 37 But it came about in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him and he became like a stone. 38 And it happened about ten days later that the LORD struck Nabal, and he died.

39 And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the LORD who has pleaded my cause concerning the reproach at the hands of Nabal, and has kept his servant from evil. For the LORD has returned the wickedness of Nabal onto his own head”. And David sent a message to Abigail about taking her as his wife.

40 And when the servants of David had come to Abigail to Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, “David sent us to you to take you as his wife”.

41 And she arose, and bowed down with her face to the ground, and said, “See your maid servant. She will be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord”. 42 And Abigail hurriedly got up and rode on a donkey, with her five maids who attended her, and she followed the messengers of David, and became his wife. 43 David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them were his wives. 44 But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti the son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

25:42-44 Abigail became David’s third wife, after Michal (1 Sam 18:27), and Ahinoam (1 Sam 27:3; 1 Sam 30:5). Later he married five other women. In this he was not a good example but a bad one (note at Gen 30:1). Eventually it brought great trouble on himself and his family. See 2 Sam 13—15; 1 Kings 5—7.⚜