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1 Samuel 25

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Samuel Dies; Nabal Insults David 1–17

1
And Samuel died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at 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 great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. ​
3
Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb. ​
4
And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep.
5
And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name:
6
And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be both to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast. ​
7
And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel. ​
8
Ask thy young men, and they will shew thee. Wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David. ​
9
And when David's young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased.
10
And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master. ​
11
Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?
12
So David's young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings.
13
And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff. ​
14
But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them.
15
But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields:
16
They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. ​
17
Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household: for he is such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him.

Abigail Intervenes to Save Her Household 18–35

18
Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses. ​
19
And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal.
20
And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the covert of the hill, and, behold, David and his men came down against her; and she met them.
21
Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he hath requited me evil for good.
22
So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall. ​
23
And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground,
24
And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid.
25
Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send. ​
26
Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal. ​
27
And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord.
28
I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the LORD, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days. ​
29
Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling. ​
30
And it shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel;
31
That this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself: but when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid. ​
32
And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me:
33
And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand. ​
34
For in very deed, as the LORD God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall. ​
35
So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person.

Nabal Dies by the Lord's Hand 36–38

36
And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light. ​
37
But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. ​
38
And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died. ​

David Marries Abigail 39–44

39
And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil: for the LORD hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him to wife. ​
40
And when the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spake unto her, saying, David sent us unto thee, to take thee to him to wife.
41
And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord. ​
42
And Abigail hasted, and arose, and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of hers that went after her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.
43
David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they were also both of them his wives. ​
44
But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Phalti the son of Laish, which was of Gallim. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for 1 Samuel 25

Verse 1

Samuel died — The prophet who anointed David (1 Sam 16:13) is buried at Ramah ‘in his house’; 28:3 repeats it, ‘all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city’. David goes down to the wilderness of Paran, where Ishmael had dwelt (Gen 21:21).

Verse 2

Maon… Carmel — Maon and Carmel are towns of Judah named together in Josh 15:55. The man’s wealth, ‘three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats’, is on the scale of Job’s seven thousand sheep (Job 1:3). Shearing is the occasion of a feast, as at Absalom’s shearing, to which he invited the king’s sons (2 Sam 13:23–24).

Verse 3

churlish and evil in his doings — ‘Nabal’ is the word for a fool (nabal, Ps 14:1, ‘The fool hath said in his heart’); the name is explained in v.25. ‘Churlish’ is qasheh, hard. His wife has ‘good understanding’ (sekel): ‘Every wise woman buildeth her house’ (Prov 14:1).

Verse 6

Peace be both to thee — There are three wishes of peace (shalom): to the man, to his house and to all he has. It is the greeting Christ gave the seventy for the house they entered: ‘first say, Peace be to this house’ (Luke 10:5). David sends it by ten young men to Nabal (v.5).

Verse 7

we hurt them not — ‘Hurt’ is kalam, which means to insult or put to shame as well as to wound, so the claim covers both. The shepherds confirm it in v.15, ‘we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing’, and in v.16, ‘They were a wall unto us both by night and day’.

Verse 8

we come in a good day — This is a festival day, like the ‘good day’ of Esth 9:19, ‘a day of gladness and feasting… and of sending portions one to another’. David asks for a share of what ‘cometh to thine hand’ and calls himself ‘thy son David’. The young men rest their case on the shepherds: ‘Ask thy young men, and they will shew thee.’

Verse 10

Who is David? — ‘The son of Jesse’ was Saul’s way of naming David (1 Sam 20:30; 22:7), and Nabal speaks the same way. His charge, ‘servants… that break away every man from his master’, treats David as a runaway from Saul, though those with him were the distressed and indebted who ‘gathered themselves unto him’ (1 Sam 22:2).

Verse 13

Gird ye on every man his sword — ‘About four hundred’ go up and ‘two hundred abode by the stuff’ (keli, baggage): the six hundred of 1 Sam 23:13. In the cave David had said, ‘The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master’ (1 Sam 24:6); here he girds on a sword against a householder, and is held back in vv.26, 33.

Verse 16

a wall unto us — Chomah, the word of Ex 14:22, where at the Red Sea ‘the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left’, and of Zech 2:5, ‘I… will be unto her a wall of fire round about’. The shepherds say David’s men guarded them ‘both by night and day’ while they kept the sheep.

Verse 18

two hundred loaves — The gift is itemised: loaves, two skins of wine, five sheep dressed, parched corn, raisins, and figs, all loaded on asses. Ziba later brings David ‘two hundred loaves of bread, and an hundred bunches of raisins’ (2 Sam 16:1). ‘A gift in secret pacifieth anger’ (Prov 21:14); she acts without telling Nabal (v.19).

Verse 22

So and more also do God — This is the oath formula, as in ‘The LORD do so and much more to Jonathan’ (1 Sam 20:13), where the swearer names himself; here it names ‘the enemies of David’. The phrase ‘him that pisseth against the wall’ means every male (1 Kgs 14:10; 21:21; 2 Kgs 9:8). The deadline is ‘the morning light’, which returns in vv.34, 36.

Verse 25

Nabal is his name, and folly is with him — Nabal, a fool, and nebalah, folly, share a root, and the second is used of the folly ‘wrought… in Israel’ (Gen 34:7, ‘he had wrought folly in Israel’) and of the ‘folly’ of Judg 19:23. ‘Man of Belial’ (beliyyaal, worthlessness) repeats the servant’s ‘son of Belial’ (v.17). Abigail places herself, as ‘thine handmaid’, between David and the house.

Verse 26

the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood — Abigail credits the LORD with David’s restraint (mana’, to hold back; David repeats the verb in v.34, ‘kept me back’). To avenge ‘with thine own hand’ is what Rom 12:19 forbids: ‘avenge not yourselves… Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.’

Verse 28

a sure house — Bayit ne’eman, a faithful house, the phrase of 1 Sam 2:35, ‘I will build him a sure house’. Here it is promised to David, as in 2 Sam 7:16, ‘thine house and thy kingdom shall be established’. ‘Fighteth the battles of the LORD’ is Saul’s own charge to him (1 Sam 18:17), and ‘evil hath not been found in thee’ agrees with 1 Sam 24:11.

Verse 29

bound in the bundle of life — Tsror, a packet kept safe, ‘with the LORD thy God’. The pursuer is Saul, who rises ‘to seek thy soul’. The enemies’ souls are slung out ‘as out of the middle of a sling’, the figure the LORD uses of Jerusalem’s people: ‘I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once’ (Jer 10:18).

Verse 31

no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart — ‘Grief’ (puqah) and ‘offence’ (mikshol) are both words for a stumbling-block: that David should not later stumble over blood ‘shed… causeless’ (chinnam, without cause) or over self-avenging. Her last request, ‘then remember thine handmaid’, is like Joseph’s to the cupbearer (Gen 40:14).

Verse 33

blessed be thy advice — ‘Advice’ is ta’am, literally taste, then discernment. David gives three blessings: to the LORD God of Israel (v.32), to her judgment, and to her person, for keeping him ‘from coming to shed blood’. ‘As an earring of gold… so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear’ (Prov 25:12).

Verse 34

except thou hadst hasted — Mahar, to hasten, is used four times in the chapter, each of Abigail: ‘made haste’ (v.18), ‘hasted’ (vv.23, 34, 42). David’s oath, ‘as the LORD God of Israel liveth’, names the LORD as the one who ‘kept me back from hurting thee’ (v.26). The deadline is again ‘the morning light’.

Verse 36

like the feast of a king — It was Nabal’s feast (mishteh) at shearing time, and he was ‘very drunken’. Abigail ‘told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light’, the same phrase as the deadline in vv.22 and 34. ‘Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging’ (Prov 20:1).

Verse 37

his heart died within him, and he became as a stone — Told in the morning, ‘when the wine was gone out of Nabal’, he is struck motionless. Fear makes the peoples round Israel ‘as still as a stone’ in Ex 15:16. The text names no illness and no cause beyond the telling; v.38 puts the end ‘about ten days after’.

Verse 38

the LORD smote Nabal — Nagaph, to strike, the verb of David’s own word in 1 Sam 26:10, ‘As the LORD liveth, the LORD shall smite him’. No hand of David touched Nabal; Abigail’s wish in v.26 that David’s enemies ‘be as Nabal’ is answered by the LORD himself.

Verse 39

pleaded the cause of my reproach — Riv, to plead a case: ‘The LORD will plead their cause’ (Prov 22:23), and David’s own prayer to Saul, ‘The LORD therefore be judge… and plead my cause’ (1 Sam 24:15). ‘Returned the wickedness… upon his own head’ is the justice of Ps 7:16 and 1 Kgs 2:44. David then sends to take Abigail ‘to wife’.

Verse 41

to wash the feet of the servants of my lord — The lowest household service, the washing of guests’ feet (Gen 18:4). Christ took it on himself in the upper room (John 13:5), and Paul lists ‘if she have washed the saints’ feet’ among the good works of a widow (1 Tim 5:10). Abigail ‘bowed herself on her face to the earth’ as in v.23.

Verse 43

Ahinoam of Jezreel — Jezreel is listed among the cities of Judah (Josh 15:56). She is named beside Abigail in 1 Sam 27:3 and 30:5, and in Hebron her son Amnon is David’s firstborn, while Abigail, ‘the wife of Nabal the Carmelite’, bears Chileab (2 Sam 3:2–3).

Verse 44

Saul had given Michal his daughter — Saul had given Michal to David (1 Sam 18:27), and now gives her to Phalti, the son of Laish. David reclaims her through Ishbosheth as the wife ‘espoused to me for an hundred foreskins of the Philistines’; her husband, named Phaltiel there, ‘went with her along weeping’ to Bahurim (2 Sam 3:14–16).