Summary: Samuel the prophet dies (v.1). Nabal was a descendent of Caleb, and he was a cruel and rude man (v.3). He was married to Abigail (v.3). David sent men to ask for provisions, because he had protected him before (vv.7-8), but Nabal refused (v.10). David gathered 400 men to go to war over this (v.13), but Abigail sent provisions secretly to David to quell the fighting (v.18). She goes out to intercept David before battle happens, and she talks him out of fighting. David accepts her offering (v.32). When Nabal heard of this event, it caused him to have a stroke (v.37) and he died (v.38). After his death, David made a wedding proposal to Abigail (v.39). David was polygamous (v.43).
(25:1) Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David moved down into the Desert of Maon.
David most likely moved here because it “provided the most isolated location within David’s homeland for hiding from Saul.”[]
(25:2-3) A certain man in Maon, who had property there at Carmel, was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel. 3 His name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband, a Calebite, was surly and mean in his dealings.
Nabal is “very wealthy.” It isn’t as though he doesn’t have the resources to spare. He’s simply selfish.
Nabal’s name means “fool.” Baldwin[] thinks that this wasn’t his birthname, but rather, people probably gave him this name because of his character.
Abigail is only one of three women called beautiful in the Bible (e.g. Abigail, Esther, and Rachel). But she is extolled in this chapter for her wisdom—not her beauty. Nabal’s name means “fool,” but Abigail’s name means “My [Divine] Father Is Joy.”[]
“Calebite.” Caleb was a good and brave man who fought during the Conquest (Num. 13:30; Josh. 14:6-15). What happened to his descendant Nabal?
(25:4-6) While David was in the desert, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep. 5 So he sent ten young men and said to them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name. 6 Say to him: ‘Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!’”
David opens with a message of greeting and peace. This is filled with irony because “Nabal would be denied both (cf. vv. 37-38) because of his mistreatment of the one who sent the blessing.”[]
(25:7) “‘Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing.”
David’s men had protected Nabal’s shepherds, as Nabal’s men themselves attested (vv.14-16). That is, even Nabal’s own men sided with David, rather than their foolish master Nabal (v.17).
(25:8) “Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my young men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.’”
This “festive day” would’ve been the wealthiest time of year for Nabal (similar to tax season). So, David felt like this would be a good time to ask for some food for his men. David doesn’t even ask for a specific amount of food or supplies—only what Nabal can spare.
(25:9) When David’s men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David’s name. Then they waited.
They spoke in David’s name. Therefore, Nabal’s response to this message is the same as responding to David himself. How would Nabal respond?
(25:10) Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days.”
Nabal mocks David and his father’s line. He also calls David a traitor to the line of Saul. This threefold insult is in stark contrast to David’s courtesy and message of peace.
(25:11) “Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?”
Nabal won’t even spare “bread and water” (the basic necessities!) for David’s men.
Egotism fills Nabal’s mind. Youngblood[] notes that Nabal uses the words “I” or “my” a total of eight times. This is truly the heart of a fool!
(25:12) David’s men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word.
The messengers tell David exactly what Nabal said. It would’ve been painful to repeat this message to David.
(25:13) David said to his men, “Put on your swords!” So they put on their swords, and David put on his. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.
David was a man of action. His response is to grab their swords. Negotiation and diplomacy were over! Of course, this isn’t a righteous response by David, as the rest of the chapter makes clear (vv.32-33, 39). This is descriptive—not prescriptive.
David had implored Nabal, “Ask your own servants and they will tell you” (v.8). As a fool, Nabal doesn’t talk to them. But Abigail, a wise woman, listens to these servants. It’s no wonder that the servants talk to Abigail—not Nabal.
(25:14) One of the servants told Nabal’s wife Abigail: “David sent messengers from the desert to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them.”
“[Nabal] hurled insults at them.” Nabal’s servants point out how mean-spirited Nabal was to David’s men. They are siding with David, as the subsequent context makes clear.
(25:15) “Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing.”
By contrast, David’s men never “insulted” the shepherds, and David’s men never stole from them.
(25:16) “Night and day they were a wall around us all the time we were herding our sheep near them.”
David’s men protected Nabal’s servants and shepherds.
(25:17) “Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him.”
Nabal’s servants implore Abigail to do something. They must know that Abigail doesn’t love Nabal, because (1) they ask Abigail to go against her husband’s will and (2) they call Nabal a “wicked man.” Later, we discover that Abigail didn’t tell her husband about this interaction or her decision to give David’s men food (v.19).
(25:18) Abigail lost no time. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys.
David had originally asked Ahimelech for “whatever he could find” (1 Sam. 21:3), and Ahimelech gave them some bread. When David asked the same question to Nabal (v.8), Abigail goes above and beyond the request.
(25:19-20) Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. 20 As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them.
Abigail told the servants to “go on ahead” because David would find the food and water before they met her.
“But she did not tell her husband.” Abigail did all of this in secrecy from her husband. Surely if Nabal knew her plan, he would’ve stopped her.
No man could’ve done this because David had made an oath against the men. But not the women.
(25:21-22) David had just said, “It’s been useless—all my watching over this fellow’s property in the desert so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. 22 May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!”
Where is the vertical focus that we saw in the previous chapter? Where is the mercy and forgiveness that David had before? This shows that David is just like us: He conquered his anger and vengeance in one trial, but it conquered him in another.
David makes a foolish oath here, as the later context makes clear (vv.33-34). However, he stops short of making this oath in the name of the Lord (Ex. 20:7).[]
(25:23) When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground.
Abigail came out to face an army of four hundred men! She was not only intelligent and beautiful (v.2), but she was exceedingly brave. Nabal was so foolish and wicked that Abigail would rather talk to David than to him (v.17).
(25:24) She fell at his feet and said: “My lord, let the blame be on me alone. Please let your servant speak to you; hear what your servant has to say.”
Abigail knows that she will need to talk fast to change David’s mind. She begins by prostrating herself and asking for mercy. She doesn’t wait for a response, but instead, she launches into her apologetic. This is the longest speech by a woman in the OT (153 Hebrew words).[] It is a testimony to her great wisdom and intelligence.
(25:25) “May my lord pay no attention to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name—his name is Fool, and folly goes with him. But as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my master sent.”
Abigail knows that her husband is a wicked and foolish man. She denies that she had heard about David’s peaceful envoy until after the fact.
(25:26) “Now since the LORD has kept you, my master, from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, as surely as the LORD lives and as you live, may your enemies and all who intend to harm my master be like Nabal.
Abigail argues that God was using her to intercede before the bloodshed happened. Abigail must have known that Nabal would die after all (“be like Nabal”).
(25:27) “And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my master, be given to the men who follow you.”
Abigail brought a gift for the men—a gift that Nabal refused to give.
(25:28) “Please forgive your servant’s offense, for the LORD will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my master, because he fights the LORD’s battles. Let no wrongdoing be found in you as long as you live.”
Abigail asks David for his forgiveness based on David’s own character.
Abigail never sinned. But she is absorbing the price of her husband’s sin.
(25:29) “Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my master will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the LORD your God. But the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling.”
“As from the pocket of a sling.” This is a subtle reference to David killing Goliath with a sling (1 Sam. 17:40, 49-50). Bergen writes, “Abigail’s brilliant use of the sling metaphor no doubt brought to David’s mind a sling the Lord once used to dispense with an enemy much more imposing than Nabal (cf. 17:47-50).”[]
(25:30-31) “When the LORD has done for my master every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him leader over Israel, 31 my master will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the LORD has brought my master success, remember your servant.”
She acknowledges that God was with David, and he would one day bring him into the kingship over Israel. Bergen writes, “One of the most noteworthy aspects of Abigail’s speech was her repeated use of the term translated ‘my lord’ (Hb. ʾădonî). Her fourteen uses of the term are both ironic and prophetic since the word also means ‘my husband.’”[]
(25:32-33) David said to Abigail, “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. 33 May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands.”
David realizes that God had sent Abigail. But he also praises Abigail herself for her wise discernment in stopping him from taking revenge.
(25:34) “Otherwise, as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak.”
David encourages her for her promptness and bravery. If Abigail hadn’t acted quickly, this day would’ve gone a whole lot differently.
(25:35) Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said, “Go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request.”
Nabal was the misogynistic “fool” who refused to listen to a woman. But not David.
Once again, David learned that vengeance wasn’t the way. Baldwin writes, “It was a major lesson in David’s training for kingship, and one that he was going to need to keep before him at future crises. The implication is that violence breeds violence, whereas restraint makes way for a peaceful solution. This he knows with his head, but he may fail to remember it when his blood is roused.”[]
(25:36) When Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing until daybreak.
“Banquet like that of a king.” Nabal had the money, but he refused to give it. Nabal was treating himself like a “king,” but his wife had just allied herself with David as the true “king” (v.30).
Because Nabal was drunk, she waits until “daybreak” to tell him the news. Earlier, it was “daybreak” that David chose to kill all of the men in town.
(25:37) Then in the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone.
Abigail tells Nabal “all” of what she said and did. Nabal couldn’t believe that Abigail would give David’s men five sheep out of his total of 3,000 sheep (v.18). Nabal’s “heart” went from happy (v.36) to sad (v.37) in just one day’s time. This is the plight of the materialist.
“His heart failed him and he became like a stone.” Baldwin[] and Bergen[] think that this may have been a “stroke” that resulted in a short-lived coma before death.
(25:38) About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal and he died.
Nabal’s heart turned to stone (v.37), and consequently, God struck him dead—not David.
(25:39) When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Praise be to the LORD, who has upheld my cause against Nabal for treating me with contempt. He has kept his servant from doing wrong and has brought Nabal’s wrongdoing down on his own head.” Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife.
David thanks God from keeping him from killing Nabal’s men, which he admits would’ve been “wrong.” God doesn’t kill all of the men (as David planned to do). Rather, God only kills Nabal—the man who deserved judgment.
“David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife.” David doesn’t waste any time! He immediately proposes to Abigail. Perhaps, Abigail’s move to meet David was a way of showing that she wanted to be with him, rather than Nabal.
Youngblood sees foreshadowing here in David’s sin with Bathsheba and Uriah.[] In both instances, the husband was killed, and David “sent” and “took” the man’s wife (2 Sam. 11:3-4). However, in this first instance, God was the one who judged an evil man (Nabal), while in the second instance, David was the one who killed an innocent one (Uriah). Perhaps David justified his sin with Uriah and Bathsheba based on this former incident with Nabal and Abigail.
(25:40-42) His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail, “David has sent us to you to take you to become his wife.” 41 She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, “Here is your maidservant, ready to serve you and wash the feet of my master’s servants.” 42 Abigail quickly got on a donkey and, attended by her five maids, went with David’s messengers and became his wife.
Abigail accepts the proposal, and she shows the heart of a servant (Mk. 10:44).
(25:43) David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both were his wives.
Who is Ahinoam? The only other woman with this name in the Bible is Saul’s wife (1 Sam. 14:50; cf. 2 Sam. 12:8).[] Perhaps, David was already securing the throne at this point by marrying Saul’s wife. The text uses the pluperfect tense, which means that David had already married Ahinoam.[]
(25:44) But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Paltiel son of Laish, who was from Gallim.
Just as David took Saul’s wife (v.43), Saul took away David’s wife.
David’s facts were right, but his actions were wrong. Nabal was a wicked fool. And in the end, God took Nabal’s life. However, David was putting the vengeance into his own hands. David defeated revenge in the previous chapter, but he failed here. He was going to commit a massacre because of being insulted. It’s no mystery that David wasn’t talking to God during this time. Unlike the other chapters, David wrote no Psalms during this period of his life.
Abigail’s actions show that it is godly to rebel against authority in certain circumstances. Some fundamentalists often state that the statement “wives submit to your husbands” should refer to all circumstances—even if the husband is telling the wife to sin (!!). This verse speaks against this notion.
David never should’ve made a vow. It is generally not good to make a vow because we aren’t in a position to know all of the possible outcomes. David had vowed to kill all of Nabal’s men, but when he sees Abigail, he has to recant on this.
Diplomacy is a good thing. David was ready to go for Nabal’s head, but Abigail chose a diplomatic solution. Which is better? Losing some loaves of bread, or losing your life? It’s amazing that people in conflict are willing to go for blood, when a diplomatic solution would leave them much better off.
Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, vol. 7, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 243.
Joyce G. Baldwin, 1 and 2 Samuel: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 8, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 158.
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 753.
Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, vol. 7, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 246.
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 756.
Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, vol. 7, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 248.
Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, vol. 7, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 250.
Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, vol. 7, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 250.
Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, vol. 7, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 251.
Joyce G. Baldwin, 1 and 2 Samuel: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 8, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 162.
Joyce G. Baldwin, 1 and 2 Samuel: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 8, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 163.
Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, vol. 7, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 252.
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 765.
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 764.
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 764.
James is an elder at Dwell Community Church, where he teaches classes in theology, apologetics, and weekly Bible studies.
