And one of [Nabal's] young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to bless our master; and he has insulted them.
One servant sees what his master has done and takes the news straight to Abigail. His report turns the whole story. It raises two questions: how can a man enjoy David's protection and still despise David himself? And who warns a household when nobody can speak to its head?
The servant tells Abigail what David's men had been in the fields: good to them, taking nothing, standing guard day and night. Nabal knew the value of what he had received. He would not pay for it.
This was just Nabal's way of acting. He got all the advantage he could from David. But the moment David asked for sympathy and help, his worldly spirit showed itself... Nabal could see the value of David's protection, but he cared nothing for David himself. As long as David's men were a wall around his possessions, he would tolerate them; but when they became a burden, he rejected and insulted them.
Nabal's answer was not just ungracious. Commentators weigh it against Scripture itself.
As you would expect, Nabal's conduct went directly against Scripture, and his spirit went against the spirit of its divine Author. Precious grace! How like God. How unlike Nabal! Grace would keep the heart wide open to everyone in need. Selfishness would close it against every person who asks. Nabal ought to have obeyed the word, whatever he knew about David. But his selfishness ran too deep to allow obedience to the Lord's word, or love for the Lord's anointed.
Nabal had asked, "Who is David?" The servant's report shows the question was hollow. His household knew David's men well. Commentators read Nabal's claimed ignorance as blindness he chose.
His serious fault was that he pretended not to know God's purposes, or who David was. The pretence was clear, because his own admissions gave him away and convicted him of impiety. His heart had no interest in what God had already done for Israel, nor in the blessing still in store for His people. He was "willingly ignorant," and like those Paul writes of in Romans 1:28, he "refused to have God in his knowledge." In his case it was not simplicity or ignorance, but enmity. Knowledge, however unwelcome, fixes responsibility on the soul and exposes it to judgment.
The words quoted there from Romans 1:28 come from an older translation; the ESV reads, "they did not see fit to acknowledge God."
The verse reads like ordinary household news. Commentators see God's hand behind it, because nobody could speak to the master himself.
But the hand of God intervened in grace. He moved one of Nabal's young servants to tell Abigail how Nabal had treated David's servants... The servant knew people would expect David to avenge Nabal's insulting words. He saw that both Nabal and his whole household were in immediate danger. Some of the servants had tried to reason with Nabal. They found him such a son of Belial — a worthless man — that they could not speak to him.
The danger was real. Commentators fault David as well:
David does not think of consulting the Lord. He decides at once to hit back at Nabal's insulting treatment, taking four hundred armed men with him... When people treat us in a proud, contemptuous way, we give way far too easily to our own outrage. We are ready to take revenge. Yet when we take these matters into our own hands, we are almost always exposed to an unrighteous reaction. We end up doing WORSE to the offender than he did to us.
The same news reached two people in that house and produced opposite results. Abigail did not wait for her husband's consent. Commentators see faith in that, not disloyalty.
She hears about her husband's folly from one of the young men. She acts at once in faith, and so without consulting her husband. Nature could only see a runaway servant in David. Faith does not look at outward circumstances. In the hunted and needy David, faith sees the coming king.
Her move was open to misreading from every side, and commentators admit it:
The pathway of faith sometimes looks suspicious, and what Abigail did might have seemed to an outside observer quite open to blame, whether you think of David or of her husband. But Abigail saw the will and glory of God, and where faith sees what He is doing, all questions are settled. Whatever it might look like, whatever it might cost, her mind was made up: and God vindicated her, and judged Nabal.
- Taken. Nabal let David's men guard his possessions, then refused David himself. He kept the benefit and rejected the man.
- Pretended. "Who is David?" was not a real question. Commentators call it willing ignorance, and the knowledge he refused still fixed his responsibility.
- Reported. One servant carried the truth to the one person who could act. God's grace came through the lowest voice in the house.
- Threatened. Vengeance was already on the road. Commentators fault David too, for arming himself instead of consulting the Lord.
- Answered. Abigail heard the same report and acted in faith. She saw the coming king in the hunted man, where Nabal saw only a runaway.
And the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we anything, as long as we companied with them, when we were in the fields.
David's messengers told Nabal that his shepherds had come to no harm while David's men camped nearby. Nabal answered with insults. This verse is the reply of the shepherds themselves, the men who were there. It raises the question the whole chapter turns on: what do you owe someone whose kindness you have enjoyed?
David's claim could be tested. The shepherds who were there gave their answer.
Had David exaggerated the service that he and his band had rendered? What could the shepherds say? "The men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything... They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep." Most would think that service like this normally calls for repayment. But David did more than that. Through his messengers he gave the rich sheep owner a chance to serve the Lord's anointed in his time of trial. That message tested Nabal in two ways. Would he repay kindness, and would he care for the king after God's own heart?
What the shepherds remembered about David's men was not what they took, but what they gave.
In the course of his wanderings, he, and his followers, went about doing good; for the shepherds of one Nabal have to own that David and his men "were very good to us." They protected the shepherds and their flocks night and day; so that, as long as David and his men were in their neighbourhood, they lost nothing.
Another writer names what those flocks were guarded against.
While hiding in the area where Nabal kept his flocks, David and his men had not trespassed on his rights. Instead, they had acted as a wall to protect his flocks from attacks by savage beasts, and by men more savage still. So David makes a frank appeal for recognition by Nabal. Would he not give him a small portion of that which he had in such abundance?
No law required Nabal to give David anything. The claim on him was of another kind.
Of course Nabal was under no legal obligation to David, though there is no doubt he ought to have felt himself under a moral one. The message reminds Nabal that while David and his men were in the same area as his shepherds, they had protected them rather than stolen from them, as many armies would do. None were hurt, and no sheep were missing. They suggest that Nabal ask his shepherds about it, to confirm it.
Nabal had gained something real from these men. His answer shows what he valued.
This was just Nabal's way of acting. He took all the advantage he could from David. But the moment David put in his claim for sympathy and help, his worldly spirit showed itself. Nabal could understand the value of David's protection well enough, though he cared nothing for David himself. As long as David's men were a wall around his possessions, he would tolerate them. But once they became a burden, he rejected them and shouted abuse at them.
Commentators read this as more than an old quarrel over food. One applies it to the heart that wants the benefits of Christ and nothing more.
It is one thing to be a Christian, as people say, and another thing to confess Christ before men. It is hard to find anything more selfish than the state of heart that takes all Jesus has to give, and gives Him nothing in return. "Provided I am saved, all the rest is unimportant." This is the secret thought of many a heart.
Another turns it on a world that enjoys mercies it never traces to their source.
How has the world imitated Nabal in his churlish refusal of David's request! It too has its sheep-shearing, its time of gathering in rich results to which it has contributed little or nothing. It has not realized that every earthly mercy it enjoys was bought by the death of Christ, and that He has been their unseen protector and provider. He makes His claim — not a harsh or unjust one — that out of their abundance they give freely to Him.
- Verified. The shepherds confirm David's account. No harm, no losses, nothing missing — his claim rested on plain fact, not on a boast.
- Unpaid. David's men guarded the flocks from wild animals and violent men, night and day, and no one had paid them for it.
- Owed. No law made Nabal give anything. His debt was a moral one, and that is the kind a selfish heart ignores most easily.
- Kept, but only the useful part. Nabal valued David's protection but cared nothing for David himself. He put up with the wall while it cost him nothing.
- Repeated. The same sum is still worked out today. People take all Christ gives and return nothing, and a world enjoys mercies it never credits to its unseen protector.
They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the while we were with them feeding the sheep.
One of Nabal's servants goes past his master and tells Abigail, his master's wife, what really happened out in the fields. His plain words about the wall decide two things: whether David was right to ask Nabal for anything, and what Abigail will do next.
David had claimed that Nabal's shepherds lost nothing while his men were nearby. The shepherds' own answer settles that, and turns his request into a test.
Had David exaggerated the service that he and his band had given? What could the shepherds say? … Most people would think that services like these called for some repayment. But David's message did far more. Through his messengers he gave the flock owner a chance to serve the Lord's anointed in his time of trial. That message sent to Nabal tested him in two ways. Would he repay kindness, and would he care for the king after God's own heart? … God's interests on earth at that time meant nothing to Nabal. So he lost his chance to take God's side in his day, and lost it for ever.
A wall keeps danger out. Here the danger was wild animals, and men who were worse.
David and his men were hiding near the place where Nabal kept his flocks. They had not trespassed on his rights. Instead, they had acted as a wall to protect his flocks from savage beasts, and from men more savage still. So David makes a frank appeal to Nabal for recognition. Would he not give him a small portion out of what he had in such abundance?
The servant does not argue with Nabal — others had tried and failed. He speaks to the one person in the house who will act. God's hand was behind it.
But the hand of God stepped in with grace. He moved one of Nabal's young servants to tell Abigail how Nabal had treated David's men. They had never oppressed the shepherds or taken anything from them. Instead they had acted as a wall of defence for them by night and day (v. 16). He knew people would expect David to avenge Nabal's insulting words. He saw that both Nabal and his whole household were in immediate danger. Some of the servants had clearly tried to reason with Nabal. They found him such a son of Belial — such a worthless man — that they could not speak to him.
What the servant hands Abigail is information; what she does with it is faith.
The pathway of faith sometimes looks suspicious. To an outsider, what Abigail did might have seemed quite blameworthy — whether you think of David or of her husband. But Abigail saw the will and glory of God. Where faith sees what He is doing, all questions are settled.
Nabal had enjoyed every benefit the wall gave him. His anger flares only when the men who provided it ask for something back.
This was exactly Nabal's way of acting. He took all the advantage he could from David. But the moment David made his claim for sympathy and help, his worldly spirit showed itself… Nabal could well understand the value of David's protection, though he cared nothing for David's person. As long as David's men were a wall around his possessions, he would tolerate them. But as soon as they became a burden, he rejected them and abused them.
Nabal is not the last to enjoy a harvest he did not protect.
Apply this in a spiritual way. How the world has copied Nabal in his rude refusal of David's request! It too has its sheep-shearing, its time of gathering in rich results to which it has contributed little or nothing. It has not realised that the death of Christ purchased every earthly mercy it enjoys. It has not seen that He has been their unseen protector and provider.
The problem goes deeper than bad manners. It is a failure to see who Christ is.
It takes the clear sight of faith to see the true glory of Christ, and to hold to Him in the time when He is rejected… You can hardly find a state of heart more selfish than this: taking everything Jesus has to give, and giving Him nothing in return.
- Wall — David's men guarded Nabal's shepherds night and day, from wild animals and from worse men. They took nothing.
- Witness — the shepherds confirm that David told the truth. Nabal cannot plead ignorance.
- Test — the request tested Nabal twice: would he repay kindness, and would he honour God's chosen king?
- Verdict — Nabal valued the wall and despised the man who built it. He welcomed David's men until they cost him something.
- Warning — the world still lives behind a wall it did not build. Faith sees the Protector, not just the protection.
And now know and consider what thou wilt do, for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household; and he is such a son of Belial, that one cannot speak to him.
A servant runs to Abigail with a warning her husband will never hear. David is coming, the whole household is in danger, and the one man who could stop it is the one man nobody can talk to.
The warning comes from one of Nabal's young servants. One commentator traces his speaking up to God's own working.
But the hand of God intervened in grace. He influenced one of Nabal's young servants to tell Abigail how Nabal had treated David's servants. He knew everyone would expect David to do something to avenge Nabal's insulting words. He saw that both Nabal and all his household were in immediate danger. Some of the servants had clearly tried to reason with Nabal, but found he was such a son of Belial (a worthless man) that they could not speak to him.
The ESV reads "such a worthless man"; older translations render it "a son of Belial." The phrase is not a name but a description of character.
The Hebrew word means 'worthless, lawless.' It is not a proper name. It stands as a picture of evil, so we read of a 'son of Belial' and a 'daughter of Belial' (Deut. 13:13; Judges 19:22; 1 Sam. 1:16; 1 Sam. 25:17, 25). In the New Testament it is set in contrast with Christ, as if it meant Satan (2 Cor. 6:15).
The man's own name pointed the same way. Abigail later admits it openly to David:
Nabal was a man of Belial (that is, a worthless fellow). As his name was, so was he; Nabal (that is, a fool) was he, and folly was with him.
Nabal had brushed aside the question of who David was. That one blind spot cost him everything.
God gave him a chance to own His anointed, the future king, and to serve him — a chance that would not have gone unrewarded. But he had no faith. He was tested here and found wanting. He failed to take the opportunity, and so lost everything, even his own life... Everything depended on what he thought of the one who asked the favour. Blind to this, Nabal laid himself open to God's righteous judgment. But the Spirit of God shows the truth to Abigail and moves her to act at once, turning away the threatened judgment from the whole household — except its guilty head, on whom destruction fell very soon after.
One writer sees in Nabal a picture reaching beyond his own day:
Nabal means "fool." He is a picture of the natural man, and especially of those who reject the Lord and His message of peace. His words — "my bread," "my water," "my flesh," "my shearers" — and the whole story remind us of that other fool our Lord spoke about. He also spoke of "my barns" - "my fruits" - "my goods" (Luke 12:16-21).
The household was not the only one in danger. One writer shows David slipping into danger of another kind.
This was terrible! And David was rashly taking himself out of the place of dependence — the only happy, the only holy place. Nor was it on behalf of the congregation of the Lord. No, it was to avenge himself on one who had treated him badly. Sad mistake! It was a happy thing for him that there was an Abigail in Nabal's house. God was about to use her to keep David from answering a fool according to his folly. This was just what the enemy wanted. Satan used Nabal's selfishness to trap David, and Abigail was the Lord's instrument to deliver him.
The servant hands Abigail a decision, not a discussion. The clock is the point.
Now Abigail's opportunity had come. Would she use it? Or would she hide behind her husband, let the precious moments pass, and so be caught in the destruction that Nabal in his folly was inviting? She had only a short time to decide. Putting it off for a day would have been fatal.
Stepping past her husband could look like disloyalty. One writer answers that charge:
The path of faith sometimes looks suspicious. To an outsider, what Abigail did might have seemed worth blaming, whether you think of David or of her husband. But Abigail saw the will and glory of God, and where faith sees what He is doing, every question is settled. Whatever it might look like, whatever it might cost, her mind was made up. God vindicated her, and judged Nabal.
- Refused. God gave Nabal the chance to own His anointed king, and Nabal threw it away. Everything turned on what he thought of the one who asked.
- Unreachable. "Worthless" is not a name but a character — lawless, and so closed that his own servants could not get a word through to him.
- Endangered. One man's folly put a whole household under sentence, and Satan used that same folly to pull David out of dependence on God.
- Decided. The warning demanded action within hours. If Abigail had hidden behind her husband, she would have shared his ruin.
- Delivered. Abigail acted on what faith saw God doing. It looked questionable from outside, but God vindicated her, judged Nabal, and kept David from avenging himself.
And Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two skin-bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched [corn], and a hundred raisin-cakes, and two hundred fig-cakes, and laid them on asses.
A warning has just reached Abigail: David is coming in anger. She does not argue and she does not wait. She loads donkeys with the food her husband refused, and tells him nothing.
She heard the warning and treated it as true. One writer applies her haste to every reader who has heard that judgment is coming.
She learns that "evil is determined" against Nabal and against his whole household. At once she prepares everything her husband had refused David, and much more besides, without holding back. Then she goes quickly to meet him. Oh, that souls who have heard that evil is decided against them might do the same. There is no time to lose: haste is essential; the avenger is already on His way. When someone receives the announcement of judgment as testimony from God, he hurries to escape it. This is faith. The only way out is to go and meet the One who is coming to judge. Abigail had one fear only: that she might not reach David before his sword was drawn. She knew that then it would be too late. But she had no fear about how the meeting would end, because she knew the character of the man she was going to speak to.
Nabal's folly had put the whole house in danger. The decision now fell to his wife.
Now came Abigail's opportunity. Would she use it? Or would she hide behind her husband and let the precious moments pass? Then she too would be caught up in the destruction that Nabal in his folly was inviting. She had only a short time to decide, and putting it off for a day would have been fatal.
She acted without telling her husband, and that could look like disloyalty.
The pathway of faith sometimes looks suspicious. What Abigail did might have seemed open to criticism from the outside, whether one thinks of David or of her husband. But Abigail saw the will and glory of God, and where faith sees what He is doing, no question remains. Whatever it might seem, whatever it might cost, she had made up her mind. God vindicated her, and judged Nabal.
The supply was large, and she organised it herself.
Abigail was a woman of action. She had large provisions made up, of bread, wine, ready dressed sheep, corn, raisins and figs (v.18). She did not tell Nabal anything about it, but took enough servants to care for the donkeys that carried the food. She did not have to go far to meet David, who with his men was on the way to attack Nabal (v.20).
The verse counts two hundred cakes of figs. A dictionary of Bible terms explains what such cakes were.
People made figs into cakes by pressing them together. 1 Sam. 25:18; 1 Sam. 30:12.
She gave generously, and thought little of what she gave.
When she heard of him, she responded to his claims without a moment's hesitation. She sent him a generous offering, yet humbly admitted it was unworthy of him. She bowed before him to the ground. She looked for mercy and took her husband's guilt on herself, for she judged Nabal's conduct to be completely wrong.
Her errand kept Nabal's household alive. One writer looks at what it did for David.
The value of Abigail's service was not that she saved Nabal from David's sword. It was that she kept David from drawing the sword at all.
- Warned. She learned that ruin was fixed against the whole household. She believed the report and acted the same hour.
- Hurried. Delay was the one fatal choice. Her haste was faith, because the avenger was already on the way.
- Loaded. She prepared everything Nabal had refused, and much more: bread, wine, dressed sheep, grain, fig cakes and raisins.
- Lowly. The gift was generous, yet she called it unworthy of him. She bowed to the ground and took her husband's guilt as her own.
- Rescued. Nabal's house lived. But the greater rescue was David's: she kept him from drawing the sword to avenge himself.
And she said to her young men, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
Abigail has just loaded donkeys with food for a man her husband insulted, and she tells him nothing about it. Was this a wife going behind her husband's back, or a believer acting before it was too late?
The verse does not say why she kept silent. One writer explains what talking to Nabal would have achieved.
It was well that Nabal had a wise wife. One of Nabal's servants told Abigail, Nabal's wife, what had happened, and that David was on the warpath. Abigail acted at once to put things right. To refer the matter to Nabal would have been a waste of time. Without asking her husband, she prepared a large supply of good food for David and his men. She went to meet him before David could take revenge on her husband.
The warning itself did not arrive by accident. Everyone under that roof stood to lose their lives, and the alarm came through an unnamed servant.
But the hand of God intervened in grace. He influenced one of Nabal's young servants to tell Abigail how Nabal had treated David's servants. David's men had not oppressed Nabal's people or taken anything from them. They had been a wall of defence for them by night and day. He knew people would expect David to avenge Nabal's insulting words. He saw that both Nabal and his whole household were in immediate danger.
Why did she see David so differently from her husband? One writer traces it to faith rather than nature.
She hears about her husband's folly from one of the young men. She acts at once in faith, and so without consulting her husband. Nature could only see a runaway servant in David. Faith does not look at mere outward circumstances. It sees the coming king in the hunted and needy David. So she takes her place as a subject of the king, and acts with the deference that is fitting in the presence of a king.
Her move can look wrong: a wife acting alone, for a man her husband had just turned away. One writer meets that objection head on.
The pathway of faith sometimes looks suspicious. To someone looking on from outside, what Abigail did might have seemed quite open to blame, whether one thinks of David or of her husband. But Abigail saw the will and glory of God. Where faith sees what He is doing, all questions are settled. Whatever it might seem, whatever it might cost, she had made up her mind. God vindicated her, and judged Nabal.
She sends the gift on ahead and follows behind it. That is the plan of someone with almost no time left.
Abigail was a woman of action. She did not tell Nabal anything about it, but took enough servants to care for the donkeys that carried the food. She did not have to go far to meet David, who with his men was on the way to attack Nabal. He had given himself no time to calm down before acting.
The same opportunity had come to Nabal first.
He lost his opportunity of taking God's side in his day, and lost it for ever. Has Nabal had no successors? Has he no representatives on earth today?
She could have stayed silent and left the responsibility with her husband.
Now, however, came Abigail's opportunity; would she use it? Or would she hide behind her lord and let the precious moments pass? That would leave her caught up in the destruction which Nabal was inviting by his folly. She had only a short time to decide; putting it off for a day would have been fatal.
Her silence saved her household. It also rescued David from himself.
Sad mistake! It was a happy thing for him that there was an Abigail in the house of Nabal. God was about to use her to keep him from answering a fool according to his folly. This was just what the enemy wanted. Satan used Nabal's selfishness to trap David, and Abigail was the Lord's instrument to deliver him.
- Danger — A young servant carried the warning. The whole household, not just Nabal, stood under the threat.
- Discernment — Nature saw only a runaway servant in David. Faith showed Abigail the coming king, and she acted on what she saw.
- Decision — Nabal lost his opportunity for good; Abigail took hers. Asking her husband first would have achieved nothing, and one day's delay would have been fatal.
- Deliverance — God vindicated what looked questionable from outside. Her household was safe, and He judged Nabal.
- Double rescue — The same act saved her home and stopped David from avenging himself. She became God's instrument to deliver the very man she went out to appease.
And as she was riding on the ass, and coming down by the covert of the hill, behold, David and his men came down opposite to her; and she met them.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Now David had said, Surely, in vain have I kept all that this [man] had in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that was his; and he has requited me evil for good.
Nabal has insulted David, whose men had guarded his property for nothing. This verse lets us hear what David said as he rode out armed to take revenge. The complaint is true — and that is what makes the question hard: what do you do with a wrong that really happened?
David's facts are not in dispute. What is wrong is where he has put himself while he says them.
This was terrible! And David was rashly taking himself out of the place of dependence — the only happy, the only holy place. Nor was it on behalf of the congregation of the Lord. No, it was to avenge himself on one who had treated him badly. Sad mistake!
The writers do not pretend the insult was small. They also show where a wronged man is meant to take it.
It was deeply trying to meet such base ingratitude from a man to whom he had been a wall of defence. It stung, too, to be reproached on the very ground of the circumstances that faithfulness had put him in. He was accused of running away from his master. And this at the very time when he was being hunted like a partridge through the mountains. All this was hard to bear. In the first outburst of feeling, David speaks words that would not stand up to examination in the sanctuary. "Every man strap on his sword!" That was not the language we would expect from a man who had walked until now in such a meek and gentle spirit. Scripture gives the poor brother his resource: to cry to the Lord, not to draw his sword for revenge.
David had spared Saul, a man who wanted him dead. Nabal only insulted him, and Nabal is the one David sets out to destroy.
He had given himself no time to calm down before acting. Verse 21 tells us what he had said. He said it was useless for him to have shown kindness to Nabal's men and possessions in the wilderness. Nabal had only returned him evil for good. He was forgetting that he himself had returned good for evil to Saul. And now he had another opportunity to do the same to Nabal.
The failure is sharpest because the test was easier this time. It also raises a question about what still lives underneath a changed man.
David has no cause whatever to fear him, nor does he for a moment suppose he has. With such a man, how easy to show the generosity that, in Saul's case, cost so much to show! Yet it is precisely here that David fails entirely... Can this be the same man we have just been admiring for his noble control and self-forgetfulness? It is the same, and not the same. It is David, no longer under the control of the presence of God... Is there, then, a Saul living even beneath a David? Is it ready to show itself as soon as the guard on it is removed, unchanged from what it was before faith came? Yes, it is even so. Our best remedy is to be conscious of it, so that we realize how completely we depend on God at all times.
David's contempt shows in the words "this fellow." The problem is not Nabal at all.
When the soul is out of communion, it gets distracted by secondary causes and lesser agents. That is what happened to David when he looked at Nabal. If he had paused to look at the matter calmly before God, we would never have had these words: "In vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness." He would have passed on and left "this fellow" to himself.
David never carried out the plan he had just announced.
This is only a lapse, however, and not the bent of his heart. God mercifully steps in. He keeps His servant from carrying out a vengeance that would have remained the regret of his life. The instrument God chose is striking — Abigail, the wife of Nabal.
David never needed to lift the sword he had strapped on. Within days the matter was closed.
Only ten days later God took away Nabal's life (v.38). What control then did he have over all those things he had called his own (v.11)? We are certainly reminded here of God's words, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord" (Romans 12:19).
- Grievance. David's complaint was true. He guarded Nabal's property and got insult back. A real wrong is where the danger begins, not where it ends.
- Drift. Rehearsing the wrong took him out of the place of dependence. What followed was not for God's people but to avenge himself.
- Blind spot. He returned good for evil to Saul, who wanted him dead. He forgot that lesson before Nabal, who only insulted him.
- Interruption. God sent Abigail to stop a vengeance that would have been a lifelong regret. The rescue came from inside Nabal's own house.
- Repayment. Ten days later God took Nabal's life. David never needed the sword at all.
So and more also do God to the enemies of David, if I leave of all that is his by the morning light any male.
David is on the road with four hundred armed men, and verse 22 is the oath he swears while marching. He uses God's name to swear that no male in Nabal's house will live to see morning — yet he had spared Saul, who wanted him dead.
Nabal's insult was real, and David answered at once. He swore by God's own name. One writer places the fault not in the sting David felt, but in the speed:
He had given himself no time to calm down before acting. In verse 21 he says that his kindness to Nabal's men and property in the wilderness was wasted, for Nabal had only returned him evil for good. He was forgetting that he himself had returned good for evil to Saul. Then he used God's name to call down vengeance on the enemies of David. He declared that he would not leave one male alive in all of Nabal's household. We would expect him to make only Nabal suffer for his insulting words. But his temper would not let him make any distinction.
Nabal was rude; the oath condemns every male in his house. The same writer sets David's two enemies side by side:
David never thought of asking the Lord. He decided at once to strike back at Nabal's insulting treatment, and he took four hundred armed men with him. Nabal had not set out to kill David, as Saul had. Yet David is ready to kill Nabal, though he would not kill Saul when he had the chance. When people treat us with contempt, we give way far too easily to our own outrage, and we are ready to take revenge. Yet when we take these matters into our own hands, we are nearly always in danger of an unrighteous reaction. We do WORSE to the offender than he did to us.
Most readers feel for David here. But sympathy is not the test:
Nabal's answer to David's messengers was surely meant to stir up any hidden resentment David may have had. It was so uncalled for, so brutal, that most of us can only say we would probably have done the same. But the question is not whether his resentment was natural. Was it an expression of the faith, patience and self-denial that had made his life so beautiful until now? There can be only one answer. David failed badly here. He was ready to take his case into his own hands instead of waiting on God alone.
David had sworn the oath and armed his men. What stopped him came from outside himself:
This is only a lapse, as we have said, and not the true bent of his heart. In mercy God steps in to stop His servant from carrying out a vengeance that would have stayed the regret of his life. The one God chose is striking too — Abigail, the wife of Nabal. God has often used the lips of a woman to call His people back to the path of faith and obedience.
Keeping this oath would have cost David more than it won him. One writer names what was at stake:
She took the blessed place of intercession. David, in his anger, was just about to strike the blow. He would have avenged himself with his own hand, instead of leaving the case in God's hand. This would have taken away one of the most blessed features in David's character — his leaving of all things to God.
David never carried out the oath. One writer counts up what that failure saved and what it gained:
By this wise and well-timed action Abigail saved the lives of herself and her household. She also won an honoured standing in Israel. She became the chosen companion of the Lord's anointed, in hard times as well as good ones. David not only avoided the guilt of shedding innocent blood. His heart was comforted and strengthened beyond words by this proof of God's guard, care, and working on his behalf. The danger was past and his needs were met. David's heart was now so full of the goodness of the Lord that he could only worship where he had meant to fight.
- Insult. Nabal returned evil for good. The provocation was real — most of us would have done the same.
- Oath. David gave himself no time to cool. He used God's name for his own revenge, and swore away a whole household for one man's words.
- Excess. He spared Saul, who wanted him dead. He condemned Nabal, who only insulted him. Revenge nearly always does worse to the offender than the offender did.
- Rescue. God stepped in through Abigail. He spared His servant a vengeance that would have been the regret of his life.
- Worship. David kept the finest feature of his character — leaving everything in God's hands — and he worshipped where he had come to fight.
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,
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, [upon] me let the iniquity be; but let thy handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine ears, and hear the words of thy handmaid.
David and his men are on their way, ready to fall on Nabal and his whole household. Abigail rides out to meet him, falls at his feet, and asks him to lay her husband's guilt on her — though she had no part in the insult.
Her opening words are not a defence. She knew nothing about the insult, yet she refuses to use that as an excuse.
Here again Abigail makes haste. She hurries to acknowledge David's lordship, his rights over her, and her own unworthiness. She begs him, and so admits that she depends on his good pleasure. More than that, by taking this attitude she, the woman of faith, admits that she is guilty. She takes on herself all the consequences of her ties to Nabal. She does not come to plead her innocence, although she knew nothing of what had happened (v. 25). In David's presence she wants only to find herself guilty. She hurries to confess it, because she knows David's grace.
Anyone can bow. Her words went further than the bow, and they included the truth about her own husband.
What a beautiful contrast Abigail makes to both Nabal and David here! She fell on her face before David and bowed to the ground (v. 23). But the humility of her words goes further than the humility of her bow (v. 24). She tells David that she will take the blame for Nabal's evil, and she humbly asks David to hear what she has to say. Though Nabal was her husband, she would not hide the truth about his harsh character.
Twice in this verse she calls herself David's servant. Older translations read "handmaid." Other women in Scripture used the same word.
These words often refer in Scripture to a female slave, as applied to Hagar the Egyptian, Gen. 25:12; but they were also used by women themselves as a term of humility, as when Hannah spoke to the Lord and to Eli, 1 Sam. 1:11, 16, 18; as Abigail did to David, 1 Sam. 25:24-41; and as Mary and Elizabeth did, as handmaids of the Lord. Luke 1:38, 48.
She went out to meet the danger instead of waiting for it. One thing worried her, and one thing did not.
When she learns that "evil is determined" against Nabal and against all his household, she hurries to act. She prepares everything her husband had refused David, and much more besides, holding nothing back. Then she goes quickly to meet him. Oh, that souls who have heard that evil is decided against them might do the same! There is no time to lose. Haste is essential; the avenger is already on His way… Abigail had only one fear: that she might not meet David before he drew his sword. She knew that then it would be too late. But she had no fear about the outcome of their meeting, because she knew the character of the one she would speak to.
Nabal's household deserved what was coming. That is what makes her plea remarkable.
Fitting punishment hung in the balance. All were ready to rush on Nabal and his household… What a fine witness to the power of the Spirit of grace, where the carrying out of judgment was so well deserved! She had an instinctive spiritual conviction about it. The matter was best left in the hands of Him who would deal solemnly with her guilty husband.
The obvious reading is that Abigail saved her household. One writer points to a second rescue that mattered more.
Abigail's service was precious not because she saved Nabal from David's sword, but because she kept David from drawing the sword at all.
David had no throne yet and no safety. Her closing words show what she saw in him.
Abigail serves David. More than that, she saw the God-given dignity resting on him in the middle of the sorrows of his outcast place. She meets him in a way that fits it. To her, Saul is only "a man" (v. 29). She cares so much for David's reputation that she pleads with him on that ground for her unworthy husband, identifying herself with his iniquity. And she asks one thing only: that David would remember her "when he comes into his kingdom."
- Guilt owned. She knew nothing of the insult, yet she refused to plead that. She asked David to lay her husband's guilt on her instead.
- Grace trusted. She hurried to confess because she already knew David's grace. Her one fear was arriving too late.
- Words below the bow. Her posture was humble; her words went lower. She called herself his servant and told the truth about her husband.
- Judgment deserved. Her plea shines because the punishment hanging over Nabal's house was deserved.
- The king spared. The greater rescue was not Nabal's life but David's own hand, kept from drawing the sword.
Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, Nabal; for as his name is, so is he Nabal is his name, and folly is with him; and I thy handmaid did not see the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.
David is coming down the hill armed, set on wiping out Abigail's household. She rides out to meet him and asks him to ignore her husband, because the man's name says everything: Nabal means "fool," and folly is what he is.
The name carried a fixed meaning. One writer ties it to the way Scripture uses "folly" everywhere else:
We are now introduced to a man of Israel. He lives in Maon, and his possessions are in Carmel. But he is Nabal, "a fool," and he is struck down for his folly… He is, as already said, Nabal. That is the word used where it is written, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" Indeed, this is what Scripture mostly connects or identifies folly with, just as Scripture also says, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
God uses the same word in Luke 12. He says it to a rich man who felt safe in what he owned:
His home is at Maon, "a dwelling-place." That perhaps suggests a sense of security in earthly things. He is much like the man in Luke 12, who said, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry." Indeed, God's answer to him, "Fool!" is a translation of Nabal, which means "folly." His end, too, like Nabal's, stands in solemn contrast to the luxury around him.
Abigail's other word for him is "worthless fellow" — "man of Belial" in older translations. It was never anyone's name:
The Hebrew word means "worthless, lawless." It is not a proper name. Scripture uses it as a picture of evil itself, so we have "son of Belial," "daughter of Belial," and so on: Deuteronomy 13:13; Judges 19:22; 1 Samuel 1:16; 1 Samuel 25:17, 25. In the New Testament it stands in contrast to Christ, as though it meant Satan (2 Corinthians 6:15).
Nabal treated everything he owned as his own. God gave him one chance to serve the king He had chosen, and he threw it away:
Nabal had claimed full and absolute right and control over everything God had given him in His fruitful garden ("Carmel"). He spoke of it as "my bread," "my water," "my flesh." God gave him a chance to own and serve His anointed, the future king, and it would not have gone unrewarded. But he had no faith. He fell short here, failed to seize the moment, and so lost everything, even his own life… God alone has absolute right over all things. Man is only a steward, and must give account of it all to God… All hangs on the person of David.
Abigail does not defend her husband, and she does not soften him either:
Though Nabal was her husband, she would not hide the truth about his harsh character. She plainly admits he is a man of Belial — a worthless man. She tells David that his name, Nabal, meaning "fool," described his character. She had not seen the men David sent, so she did not know until afterwards what had happened.
She could have pleaded her own innocence, since she never saw David's messengers. She does not:
By taking this attitude she, the woman of faith, recognises that she is guilty. She takes on herself all the consequences of being tied to Nabal. She does not come to plead her innocence, even though she knew nothing of what had happened (v. 25). In David's presence she wants only to find herself guilty. She hurries to confess it, because she knows David's grace.
Abigail leaves the matter of judgment with God:
What a fine witness to the power of the Spirit of grace, where the carrying out of judgment was so richly deserved! She had the instinctive spiritual conviction that it was best left in God's hands. He would deal solemnly with her guilty husband.
- Name. "Nabal" means fool, the Bible's word for the man who says in his heart there is no God — and his name matched his life.
- Folly. He claimed everything as his own — "my bread," "my water" — and left no room for God's anointed.
- Opportunity. God gave him a chance to serve the coming king. He had no faith in who David was, so he lost everything, even his life.
- Honesty. Abigail tells David the truth about her husband. She still refuses to plead her own innocence.
- Grace. She stands in the guilty man's place and asks for mercy, because she knows David's grace. She leaves judgment to God.
And now, my lord, [as] Jehovah liveth, and [as] thy soul liveth, seeing Jehovah has restrained thee from coming with bloodshed, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.
Abigail meets David as he rides out with armed men to destroy Nabal's household. Her first words treat the killing as already stopped, and she gives God the credit, not herself.
Her plea has three parts: an oath, a claim about who stopped David, and a wish about his enemies.
In verse 26 she pleads with David on the basis that the Lord lives and that David's soul lives. Was it not clear that the Lord had sent her to hold David back? He was about to kill in order to avenge himself with his own hand. She does not excuse Nabal. She wishes that David's enemies, and all who seek his harm, would be as Nabal. What did she mean? Not that they should prosper in wealth as Nabal had done. She wanted them left in God's hands, for Him to deal with in His own way. David had left Saul in God's hands; now Nabal would be left there too. In fact, God dealt with him more quickly than David would have imagined. It seems this wise woman was speaking prophetically.
David had a real grievance against Nabal. The question is what spirit moved him.
Look again at David: he was in danger, not only of failing to overcome, but of being overcome and falling into deep sin. How did he act as the servant of God, meekly bearing Nabal's taunts and cutting insults? Did he take it up in the name of God? No; it was in the spirit of his own wounded pride.
Behind the wounded pride stood a plain command David was about to break.
She was humble. She didn't take the credit for what she was doing. She credited it to the Lord. It was He who had restrained David and kept him from shedding Nabal's blood in revenge. David had been in grave danger. He was about to break a command of the Lord: "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev. 19:18).
David was not wrong that Nabal deserved judgment. He was wrong about the timing, and about whose hand would deliver it.
Before receiving this teaching from the mouth of godly Abigail, David had strapped on his sword and had ordered his companions to do the same. He was getting ahead of the moment for vengeance; the hour of judgment had not yet struck; it would come through One greater than David. Of Him it is said: "Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty" (Ps. 45:3); but as long as David was a stranger in his inheritance it was still the time of grace.
Commentators differ on whether Abigail spoke as a prophet. One writer stops short of that, and still sees God's hand in her words.
It is good not to avenge ourselves. There is no indecision in her words. We need not claim a prophetic spirit for her, yet we can see — and she is not the only case — that God not only listens and hears, but also suggests when He sees fit, and confirms it perhaps far beyond anything she herself expected.
God used the least likely person in the story.
This weak woman, knowing what was appropriate to grace, becomes God's instrument to keep the greatest of His servants, the very anointed of the Lord himself, from evil. Only one Man never needed a reminder of the feelings that suited the position He had taken here on earth. He is Grace in person, the grace of God which has appeared to all men, and He never errs.
The same faith is open to us when someone wrongs us today.
Think of the most trying things that happen to us. If we can by faith link ourselves with God, if we can see Him with us as our friend — the One who has said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord" — we shall never feel inclined to avenge ourselves. We shall think of nothing except intercession for those who have grieved and wronged us. God's present dealings are in grace and mercy. "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
- Restrained — Abigail gives God the credit. The Lord held David back from bloodguilt and from avenging himself with his own hand.
- Provoked — David drew his sword for wounded pride, not for God's honour. It would have broken the command to love his neighbour as himself.
- Early — Nabal did deserve judgment, but David was ahead of the clock. He acted in the hour of grace with a sword that belongs to a greater King.
- Sent — a weak woman became God's instrument to keep the anointed king from evil. God's help often arrives in the weakest hand.
- Left — her wish for David's enemies means handing them to God. He dealt with Nabal more quickly than David would have imagined.
And now this blessing which thy bondmaid has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men that follow my lord.
Abigail meets David on the road with the food her husband had refused him. She asks nothing for herself. She asks only that her gift go to the men who follow him, and she speaks to David as a king, though he is a hunted man with no crown.
Two people looked at the same fugitive and saw opposite things. Her faith shaped the gift she brought.
Nature could see nothing in David but a runaway servant. Faith does not look at outward circumstances. Faith sees the coming king in this hunted and needy man. So she takes her place as a subject of the king. She acts with the deference that is fitting in the presence of a king. She prepares her present, and when she meets David she falls at his feet, bows to the ground, and owns David as her lord. She takes sides with David against both her husband and king Saul. She admits that Nabal, though her husband and a great man in the world, is acting in a godless and foolish way, and that Saul, though the reigning king, is only a man opposing God's anointed.
She calls herself David's servant. Older translations use the word "handmaid." Women in Scripture chose that word for themselves.
These words often refer in Scripture to a female slave. They are used of Hagar the Egyptian, Genesis 25:12. But women also used them of themselves as a term of humility. Hannah spoke this way to the LORD and to Eli, 1 Samuel 1:11, 16, 18. Abigail spoke this way to David, 1 Samuel 25:24-41. Mary and Elizabeth called themselves handmaids of the Lord, Luke 1:38, 48.
The bowing does not stop with her body.
She fell on her face before David and bowed to the ground (v.23). But the humility of her words goes further than her lowly posture (v.24).
She does not hand the food to David for himself. She directs it to the men in his company, and the only thing she asks for herself is pardon.
She begs David to receive the supplies she has brought for the young men who followed him (v.17). She asks him to forgive her own trespass, because she was sure the Lord would make David a sure house.
Later, when David sends for her as his wife, the same instinct shows again: she reaches for the lowest place among those who serve him.
Abigail ministers to David. More than that, she saw the God-given dignity that rested on him in the sorrows of his outcast place, and she meets him as that dignity deserves. She bows to the earth before his messengers, and she speaks the most perfect words a humble heart can speak — "Let your handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord." (Compare John 13:5, 14.)
David was on his way to avenge himself. Abigail met him before he arrived.
In Abigail we see someone who was used to correct David himself. The value of Abigail's service was not that she saved Nabal from David's sword. It was that she kept David from drawing the sword at all.
David takes the food, and later he takes the woman who brought it. He leaves Nabal to God.
David accepted her person and her present, and left Nabal in God's hands. The next morning Abigail told Nabal the danger he had escaped, and his heart died within him. About ten days later God struck him and he died. So God avenged the insult against His servant during his rejection, and saved David from avenging himself.
- Sight — Nabal saw a runaway servant. Abigail saw the coming king, and her present was what that sight required.
- Self — she calls herself David's servant. Hannah, Mary and Elizabeth used that same word of themselves. Her words humble her further than her bowed body does.
- Reach — the gift goes past David to the young men who follow him. Later the same heart asks to wash the feet of his servants.
- Rescue — the value of what she carried was not that it saved Nabal from the sword. It was that it kept David from drawing it.
- Reward — David accepted her person along with her present, and left Nabal to God. Ten days later God struck Nabal, and God spared David the guilt of avenging himself.
I pray thee, forgive the transgression of thy handmaid for Jehovah will certainly make my lord a lasting house; because my lord fights the battles of Jehovah, and evil has not been found in thee all thy days.
Abigail meets David while he is riding out in anger. Her plea for her household rests on nothing about herself. It rests on who David is and on what God has promised him. Two things stand side by side in her words: she confesses guilt that was not hers, and she is certain of a throne no one can yet see.
Abigail's opening is not a defence. She asks pardon as if the wrong were her own.
Abigail hurries to acknowledge David's lordship, his rights over her, and her own unworthiness. She begs him, and so admits that she depends on his good will. More than that, by taking this place she, the woman of faith, admits that she is guilty. She takes on herself all the results of her tie to Nabal. She does not come to plead her innocence, although she had had no knowledge of what had happened. In David's presence she has no other wish but to find herself guilty, and she hastens to confess it, for she knows David's grace.
Nabal and Abigail looked at the same man and reached opposite verdicts.
Who David was, and what he was, was all plain to her; there was nothing mysterious about it. She knew that he fought the Lord's battles, and that no evil had been found in him all his days. What folly, then, to be against him... A runaway servant he was in Nabal's eyes; one fighting the Lord's battles he was in Abigail's eyes. In this she was right. To refuse him help, then, was to take sides against God.
The same words also set David apart from Saul.
Abigail, in verse 28, shows the clear faith that recognised David as the king of God's choice even while he was in exile. She knew that David cared about fighting the battles of the Lord. Saul was the opposite. He thought only of fighting his own enemies — real or imagined.
She said this at the worst possible moment — David was on his way to kill. Naming his true work was itself a rebuke.
She shows him the evil of taking revenge for himself. She shows the weakness and folly of the man he means to take revenge on. She reminds him of his proper work: "fighting the battles of the LORD." This must have brought home to his heart how humbling it was that Abigail met him as he rushed out to fight his own battle.
Her praise was true of David as a picture of Christ, yet it outran the man himself.
"My lord is fighting the battles of the LORD, and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live." How could the sight of perfection in a man fail to draw her heart? Yet David, a picture of Christ, is in himself only an imperfect man. Christ would never have been in danger of seeking justice for Himself. Only the grace of God kept David back, when he had already decided to leave none of his enemies alive.
"A sure house" means a lasting family line. Abigail speaks of it as already settled.
Abigail speaks of Saul as a man. The LORD, she says, will make a sure house for David. This is the insight of faith. On this point it is the truth of God's purpose, and in its fulness. Without knowing it, she was forming for herself the place of the church, in the future she was preparing for herself.
Pointing him forward was also how she cooled his anger.
The leading point in this address is the special reference to the future. All these references to David's future blessing and glory were well suited to draw his heart away from his present grievance. The sure house, the bundle of life, and the kingdom were far better than Nabal's flocks and herds. In view of these glories, David could well afford to leave Nabal his portion, and to leave him to it.
Her verdict on David also settled how she saw everyone else around her.
She had seen David's true character and position. Nabal, her husband, is a worthless man — Saul, the king, is only a man. But David was fighting the battles of the Lord, and he would yet reign over Israel. When David was the chief figure before her eyes, the whole political history of her day was plain to Abigail. How plain, too, things can become now, when the Lord Jesus Christ is before the soul.
- Faith confesses. Abigail does not argue her innocence. She takes the guilt of her house on herself and trusts David's grace.
- Faith identifies. She names David by his true work: fighting the battles of the LORD. Saul fought his own battles. Nabal saw only a runaway servant.
- Faith is honest about the man. Her words describe perfection. Only grace kept David from the revenge he had already decided on. The full picture belongs to Christ.
- Faith is certain of the future. "A sure house" is God's own purpose, grasped by faith. Without knowing it, Abigail was preparing her own place in it.
- Faith reorders the present. The kingdom ahead outweighed Nabal's flocks. With God's King in the foreground, she saw everything else at its real size.
And if a man is risen up to pursue thee and to seek thy life, the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with Jehovah thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out from the hollow of the sling.
David is riding out to take revenge when Abigail meets him on the road. She does not plead for her household. She tells him what God thinks of him: the LORD keeps his life safe, and his pursuers will be flung away. In one sentence she reduces King Saul to "a man" and lifts a fugitive into the keeping of God.
Abigail is not guessing at the future. She knows God's mind about David, and that changes how she sees everyone else — even the king.
Everything Abigail says is the fruit of her communion with God's thoughts. It is not prophecy, but she knows what will happen to David because she knows what God thinks of him. Saul, the king of Israel, is in Abigail's estimation only "a man … risen up to pursue [David] and to seek [his] life." In his opposition to David, the son of Jesse, he does not even deserve to have his name mentioned.
The ESV calls it "the bundle of the living"; the writers quote older translations that say "the bundle of life." Abigail is promising more than survival. She says God has taken David up, and for ever.
She was right. Speaking in the power of the Spirit she says, "the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD your God." She sees him taken up by God intimately and for ever: this alone explains and justifies her conduct.
The same verse has a second image. A sling holds a stone only to throw it away. Abigail's own husband Nabal proved the point within days.
Returning to her husband, Abigail finds him disgracing himself at a drunken feast. When he is sober, he hears what has happened. At once "his heart died within him, and he became as a stone." About ten days later the Lord struck him. To use Abigail's own figure, he is flung aside in judgment just as a stone is slung from the middle of a sling (29, 36-38).
David was riding out to avenge himself. Abigail answers by pointing him to three things God had promised him.
Notice that the leading point in this address is the special reference to the future. "The LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house." "The soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD your God." "When the LORD shall have done to my lord," and so on; "and shall have appointed you ruler over Israel." All these references to David's future blessing and glory were well suited to draw his heart away from his present grievance. The sure house, the bundle of life, and the kingdom were far better than Nabal's flocks and herds; and in view of these glories, David could well afford to leave him to his portion, and his portion to him.
What makes the bundle safe is not the people inside it. And what lies outside it is not safe at all.
"The bundle of life" — the phrase used by the woman who confessed David's glory on the day of his humiliation — is a firm bundle, well packed and sure. It holds because the Lord Himself is in it, as He was long ago in the burning bush. In man's thoughts that bundle looks weak and despised, like a bramble bush. Yet outside its limits everything is tottering.
The picture reaches past David. Believers now share the one life that is in Christ.
The love of God gathers us into the presence of God Himself. It gives the life of His Son to those dead in trespasses and sins. They have a life locked up in the Son, and nothing can touch it. Life hidden with Christ in God! If Christ Himself, up there, is my life, it links me up with Him in whom is the whole bundle of life. Why can the head never say, "I have no need of you," to the weakest member passing through the trials and sorrows of this wilderness? Because we are bound up in one bundle of life.
- Sight — Abigail speaks from God's thoughts, not from fear. That is why the reigning king is only "a man" to her, while David belongs to the LORD.
- Safety — The bundle means more than escaping a pursuer. God has taken David up, closely and for ever.
- Sling — The same verse promises the opposite end for David's enemies. Nabal, struck within ten days, was the first stone flung out.
- Settled — Next to a sure house, the bundle of life and the kingdom, Nabal's flocks were not worth a sword. The promised future drained the anger out of the quarrel.
- Sureness — The bundle holds because the Lord Himself is inside it. Everyone joined to Christ shares the life locked up in the Son.
And it shall come to pass, when Jehovah shall do to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning thee, and shall appoint thee ruler over Israel,
David is riding out to avenge himself on Nabal, and Abigail meets him on the road. She points him past the insult of the moment to the day God will make him prince over Israel, and asks what that day will say about this one.
Abigail is not guessing. She speaks about David's future because she has already weighed what God thinks about him.
Everything Abigail says is the fruit of her communion with God's thoughts. It is not prophecy, but she knows what will happen to David because she knows what God thinks of him... Saul, the king of Israel, is in Abigail's estimation only "a man... risen up to pursue David and to seek his life." In his opposition to the son of Jesse he does not even deserve to have his name mentioned.
The "good" God had spoken was not a vague hope. It was God's settled purpose, written out later in 2 Samuel 7.
The Lord, she says, will make a sure house for David. This is the understanding that faith gives. It is the truth of God's counsels (2 Samuel 7:11), in its fullness as far as this point goes.
Nabal had the same facts his wife had. The difference was faith: she was sure David's rule would come by God's own appointment.
She knew that he fought the Lord's battles, and that no evil had been found in him all his days. What folly, then, to be against him... And she was no less clear about his future. She was sure... that he would rule by divine appointment over Israel... In Nabal's eyes he was a runaway servant; in Abigail's eyes he was a man fighting the Lord's battles.
Her argument is simple. David is about to fight over something far smaller than what God has promised him. (Where these writers quote "the bundle of life," ESV reads "the bundle of the living.")
Notice that the leading point in this address is the special reference to the future. "The Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house." "The soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord your God." "When the Lord has done to my lord... and has appointed you prince over Israel." All these references to David's future blessing and glory were well suited to draw his heart away from his present grievance. The sure house, the bundle of life, and the kingdom were far better than Nabal's flocks and herds. In view of these glories, David could well afford to leave Nabal to his portion, and his portion to him.
Abigail does not name the throne as flattery. She turns it into a test: judge today's act by the day you will sit there.
With wise foresight she speaks of the day he ascends the throne. On that day he would be most thankful to have no record of shedding blood without cause, and no record of taking the law into his own hands to avenge himself (v. 31). If such a blot was on his past record, it would remain a great grief to his own heart.
Her concern went beyond David's reputation to his soul.
How sweet to see, in a dark and cloudy day, a woman of Israel whose faith lets her see clearly, and feel such concern — not only for the unstained honour of the future king of Israel, but also that his soul should be kept, simply and to the end of the trial, from what was contrary to the grace of the Lord.
What steadied Abigail can steady us. If God has said He will repay, we have nothing left to repay.
The place of faith is always to look beyond present circumstances, on to the time of the end. Then we begin to see and judge things according to God. That is how it was with Abigail. When we realise our association with God, and the appointed end of glory, we shall act as she did. In the most trying things that happen to us, if by faith we can see God with us as our friend, the One who has said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord," we shall never feel inclined to avenge ourselves.
Because she is sure of the throne, her only request is to be remembered when He reaches it — a request commentators repeatedly connect to another.
In view of that glory, and in confidence in the king, she can say, "When the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant." Those words cannot help recalling that far greater scene, when a dying thief saw in a crucified Man the Lord of glory and the King of kings... So the high-born Abigail and the low-born thief, with the same faith, look beyond the present. They act and speak in the light of the future, and the future proves their faith right.
- Promise. The "good" God spoke about David was His settled purpose, written out later in 2 Samuel 7 — not Abigail's guess.
- Perception. She knew the future because she knew God's mind about David; Nabal had the same facts and saw only a runaway servant.
- Proportion. A sure house, the bundle of life and a kingdom outweighed a quarrel over one man's flocks.
- Protection. She wanted the coming throne to carry no record of blood shed without cause — a blot that would have grieved David's own heart.
- Petition. Certain of his reign, she asks only to be remembered in it — the same faith the dying thief showed toward a crucified King.
that this shall be no stumbling-block to thee, nor offence of heart for my lord, either that thou hast shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself. And when Jehovah shall deal well with my lord, then remember thy handmaid.
Abigail meets David on the road with his sword already drawn. Her closing argument is not about her household at all. It is about what David will feel later, when the LORD makes him prince over Israel. She asks him to weigh his anger now against his coming glory, and then asks one thing for herself: remember me.
She asks David to imagine himself already reigning, then to look back at the deed he is about to do. One writer draws out what that test would have done to him:
If David had looked ahead like this to the time of his glory, he would never have thought of raising his hand to give the blow, or of shedding blood without cause. Yet we know he came close to staining his hands with the blood of the very young men who spoke so well of him to Abigail. Had he thought, "How, in the hour of my glory, will this action appear to me?" he would have been checked.
Abigail does not argue David out of his anger. She fills his view with something larger than the insult. One writer traces that thread through her whole speech, quoting her words from an older translation:
Notice that the leading point in this address is the special reference to the future. "The Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house." "The soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord your God." "When the Lord shall have done to my lord … and shall have appointed you ruler over Israel." All these references to David's future blessing and glory were well suited to draw his heart away from his present grievance. The sure house, the bundle of life, and the kingdom were far better than Nabal's flocks and herds; and in view of these glories, David could well afford to leave Nabal to his portion, and his portion to him.
The danger was not mainly to Nabal's household. It was to something in David himself that had marked him out all along:
She took the blessed place of intercession. David, in his anger, was about to strike the blow. He would avenge himself with his own hand instead of leaving the case in the hand of God. That would have taken away one of the most blessed features in the character of David — leaving all things to God.
Her care ran in two directions at once:
How sweet to see, in the dark and cloudy day, a woman of Israel whose faith lets her see clearly and care so deeply. Her care was not only for the unstained honour of the future king of Israel. She also wanted his soul kept, in simplicity and right to the end of the trial, from what was contrary to the grace of the Lord.
Judgment was coming. David's mistake was the timing and the hand:
Before godly Abigail taught him this, David had strapped on his sword and had ordered his companions to do the same. He was getting ahead of the moment for vengeance. The hour of judgment had not yet struck. It would come through One greater than David. Of Him it is said: "Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty" (Ps. 45:3); but as long as David was a stranger in his inheritance it was still the time of grace.
Her last words look past the present to the day of David's power. The answer went further than the asking:
A very striking parallel may be drawn between Abigail and the criminal crucified beside Jesus. Abigail's prayer is, "When the LORD has dealt well with my lord" — that is, when David should sit on the throne of Israel — "then remember your servant." The criminal prayed, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."… David answered Abigail's request at once, and accepted her person. As soon as Nabal died, he married her. So he made her his companion in rejection while he waited for the kingdom… In both cases the answer went far beyond the prayer. And such is grace — divine grace. It loves to go beyond our desires, and to bless according to the heart of the Giver rather than according to the need we put into words.
- Test it by the throne. Abigail asks David to weigh today's act by how it will look in the day of his glory. A deed that brings no regret then is safe now.
- Self-avenging costs the avenger. Striking Nabal would have stripped David of the very thing that marked him: leaving his cause with God.
- Grace has an hour. Judgment was coming, but not yet and not by David's hand. While he was still a stranger in his inheritance, it was the time of grace.
- Love guards character. Abigail cared for the future king's unstained honour. She cared just as much that his soul be kept from what was contrary to the grace of the Lord.
- Remembered beyond asking. She asked only to be remembered in the kingdom. David accepted her at once and made her his companion in rejection. Grace blesses from the Giver's heart, not by the size of the asking.
And David said to Abigail, Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, who sent thee this day to meet me.
David is on his way to destroy Nabal's household when Abigail meets him on the road with food and a plea. His first words after hearing her are not to her but to God — and that order tells you what he saw.
David does not treat the meeting as luck or as a clever woman's timing. He traces it back to the One who arranged it.
David had no choice but to recognize that it was the Lord who had sent Abigail. He blessed God first for His great grace in this matter. Then he blesses Abigail's wise advice, and then Abigail herself. She had prevented David from carrying out his purpose of shedding blood and avenging himself with his own hand. He tells her the terrible truth: if she had not hurried to meet him, he and his men would have killed every male in Nabal's household. He stresses again that it was the Lord God of Israel who had kept him back from harming Abigail by the destruction he had planned for her household. Otherwise he would not have controlled his own temper until it was too late.
The rebuke came from a woman of the very household he was riding out to destroy. What gave her words weight was her faith.
It was a remarkable thing for David to find a faith greater than his own. And yet who can doubt that, in this at least, no faith in Israel that day matched Abigail's?
That a hidden, obscure believer could correct the anointed king is part of the point.
Abigail, in her quiet, hidden life, stood far more in communion with the truth than David did. She was able to check the wrong feeling of even the man of faith. David was lost, as it were, in the mist of his own thoughts. Abigail brought the clear light of the truth to bear on his actions. And David owned it, and thanked God for her counsel.
Abigail did not argue about whether Nabal deserved it. She talked about David's throne, his sure house, his future — and that is what drained the anger out of him.
Notice that the leading point in this address is the special reference to the future. All these references to David's future blessing and glory were well suited to draw his heart away from his present grievance. The sure house, the bundle of life, and the kingdom were far better than Nabal's flocks and herds. In view of these glories, David could well afford to leave Nabal to his portion, and his portion to him.
The same test works in reverse. A believer heading into revenge is not thinking about how it will look later.
If David had looked ahead like this to the time of his glory, he would never have thought of raising his hand to give the blow, or of shedding blood without cause. Yet we know how close he came to staining his hands with the blood of the very young men who spoke so kindly of him to Abigail. Had he thought, "How will this action appear to me in the hour of my glory?" it would have stopped him.
Most people resent the one who blocks them. David blesses her. That puts him in the opposite place from Saul, the king hunting him.
Happy David! He has found a wife after his own heart, a wife whom he blesses and whose wisdom he blesses (v. 33), a true helper in the difficulties of his career. He blesses her for stopping him from doing evil which would have dishonoured his God. Saul had blessed the Ziphites, who had offered themselves to carry out his evil plans against David. In the name of the Lord he had hailed as deliverers the men who would have helped him make war against His anointed!
Commentators also read the chapter as a picture. Abigail comes out to meet the rejected David before judgment falls on Nabal, and that has a larger meaning.
Nabal (Israel) is set aside, the one who rejected David; and Abigail becomes the wife of the despised one, while he is in the wilderness. This is not the church in the strict sense, but she stands on the principle of the church. Abigail goes to meet David before the death of Nabal: so it is with the church before the nation is judged. The faith of this woman is very remarkable.
- Sent. David sees a chance meeting on the road as God's own doing. His first blessing goes to the Sender, not to the messenger.
- Stopped. David blesses God and Abigail for what they stopped: no blood shed, no revenge taken by his own hand.
- Spoken. The correction came from an unknown woman whose faith outran his own. David took it instead of resenting it.
- Steered. Abigail moved his eyes off Nabal's sheep and onto his coming kingdom. What looks small in the light of glory loses its grip now.
- Shown. David blesses the person who blocked his revenge. Saul blessed the men who offered to help him do evil.
And blessed be thy discernment, and blessed be thou, who hast kept me this day from coming with bloodshed, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.
David is on his way to Nabal's house to avenge himself when Abigail meets him on the road. His words in this verse bless her judgment and bless her person for one reason: she stopped him from shedding blood and from settling his own score.
One writer points out what Abigail's faith saw, and what it was jealous to protect:
How sweet to see, in the dark and cloudy day, a woman of Israel whom faith enables to see clearly. She felt such jealousy — not only for the unstained honour of the future king of Israel, but also for his soul. She wanted it kept free, right to the end of the trial, from what was contrary to the grace of the Lord.
David meant to settle it by his own hand, and not on behalf of God's people. One writer shows the danger in that:
This was terrible! And David was rashly taking himself out of the place of dependence — the only happy, the only holy place. Nor was it on behalf of the congregation of the Lord. No, it was to avenge himself on one who had treated him badly. Sad mistake! It was a happy thing for him that there was an Abigail in the house of Nabal. God was about to use her to keep him from answering a fool according to his folly. This was just what the enemy desired. Satan used Nabal's selfishness to trap David, and Abigail was the Lord's instrument to deliver him.
In this verse David blesses her discretion, then Abigail herself. He starts further back:
David had no alternative but to recognize that it was the Lord who had sent Abigail. He blessed God first for His great grace in this matter. Then he blesses Abigail's wise advice, and then Abigail herself. She had stopped him from carrying out his purpose of shedding blood and avenging himself with his own hand. Then he tells her the terrible truth. If she had not hurried to meet him, he and his men would have killed every male in Nabal's household.
David calls her judgment blessed. One writer shows where its power lay:
Notice that the leading point in this address is the special reference to the future. "The Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house." "The soul of my lord will be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God." "The Lord... will have appointed you ruler over Israel." All these references to David's future blessing and glory were well suited to draw his heart away from his present grievance. The sure house, the bundle of life, and the kingdom were far better than Nabal's flocks and herds. In view of these glories, David could well afford to leave Nabal to his portion, and his portion to him.
The man of faith was the one corrected, and the correction came from a quiet home:
Abigail, in her place of quiet retirement, stood much more in the place of communion with the truth than David. She was able to check the wrong feeling of even the man of faith. David was wandering, as it were, in the fog of his own thoughts. Abigail brought the clear light of the truth to bear on his actions. And David owned her counsel, and thanked God for it.
Another writer describes what her reproof did for David:
The words of the righteous Abigail reproved David. They proved an excellent oil for his head. They anointed him with a spirit of wisdom and of the fear of the Lord, and turned him away from the counsel of his heart.
What kept David's hand down is meant to keep ours down too:
The place of faith is always to look beyond present circumstances, on to the time of the end; then we begin to see and judge things according to God. So it was with Abigail... In the most trying things that happen to us, faith can associate us with God. We can see Him with us as our friend, the One who has said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." If we do, we shall never feel inclined to avenge ourselves, or think of anything except intercession for those who have grieved and wronged us. The present dealings of God are in grace and mercy... "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
- Danger. Taking revenge pulled David out of the place of dependence. Satan used Nabal's selfishness to set the trap.
- Deliverance. Abigail was the Lord's instrument. Without her hurried ride, David would have killed every male in Nabal's house by morning.
- Discretion. Her words pointed David to the sure house and the kingdom ahead, so the present grievance lost its grip.
- Discernment. The check came from a woman in quiet retirement. She saw the truth more clearly than the man of faith she corrected — and David thanked God for it.
- Duty. Vengeance belongs to God. Our part now is to pray for those who wrong us, and to overcome evil with good.
But indeed, as Jehovah the God of Israel liveth, who has restrained me from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, there had not been left to Nabal by the morning light any male.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
So David received of her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, Go up in peace to thy house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person.
David has already decided to leave none of his enemies alive, and Abigail has come to him with a gift and a plea. Verse 35 records what he does with both her gift and with her — and why he no longer needs to settle the score himself.
David takes the supplies. He does not go on to take Nabal. One summary of the chapter puts both halves of that decision side by side:
Abigail hurried to calm David's anger. David accepted her person and her present, and left Nabal in God's hands. The next morning, when Abigail told him the danger he had escaped, his heart died within him. About ten days later God struck him and he died. So God avenged the insult done to His servant while he was rejected, and saved him from taking revenge himself.
David, the future king, takes correction from Abigail. One writer names what was rare in it. Her faith went further than his own:
How good to see, in a dark and cloudy day, a woman of Israel whose faith made her see clearly and care so deeply. She cared not only that the future king of Israel keep his honour unstained. She cared that his soul be kept in simplicity, right to the end of the trial, from what was against the grace of the Lord… It was a rare thing for David to find a faith greater than his own. Yet who can doubt that, in this at least, no faith like Abigail's was seen in Israel that day?
Nabal escaped David's sword. But one writer points to a greater rescue:
The value of Abigail's service was not that she saved Nabal from David's sword. It was that she kept David from drawing the sword at all.
David had already made up his mind. The change in this verse did not come from him:
Only the grace of God keeps David, when he had already decided to leave none of his enemies alive. God uses Abigail to make him take back that decision, and to keep him from losing the character of grace that fits the Lord's anointed.
Nabal had not wanted peace. David now gives that same word to Abigail, and it sends her home to wait:
And so David blesses her. He will indeed remember her, just as she asked. Her "Remember your servant" finds an ear as ready as the "Remember me" of the converted thief much later. David sends her back to her house with the peace Nabal had not wanted, and with the assurance of his favour (vv. 6, 35). There she will patiently wait for the message of the beloved one calling her to himself.
Some older translations end the verse, "I have accepted your person." David welcomes the woman, not just her supplies. And what she asked for was small:
To her, Saul is only "a man" (v. 29). She cares so much for David's good name that she pleads with him on this ground for her unworthy husband, taking his guilt as her own. She only asks to be remembered by David "when He comes into his kingdom." A crucified thief could ask the same, and it was fitting… David received Abigail's offering, listened to her voice, and accepted her person (v. 35). Ten days later Nabal died under the Lord's judgment, and David sent and spoke with Abigail to take her as his wife.
One writer reads the whole scene as a picture of Christ and His people. David is in rejection, and Abigail is what he gains in that day:
Abigail is a picture of the Church. And since David here pictures the Lord, she makes up to him, in the day of his rejection, for all he had lost in the kingdom. She is with him where even Jonathan cannot follow. She becomes his wife and shares his suffering, and later she shares his throne and glory.
- Received. David takes the present from her hand and stops there. He leaves Nabal in God's hands. Within ten days God settles the account David wanted to settle himself.
- Heard. "I have obeyed your voice" means a king took correction from a woman whose faith ran ahead of his own.
- Rescued. Her real success was not saving Nabal from the sword. It was keeping David from ever drawing it, so he kept the grace that fits the Lord's anointed.
- Peace. Nabal did not want peace, so David gives that word to Abigail. She goes home in favour, to wait for the call that comes later.
- Accepted. David welcomed not just her gift but her person. She asked only to be remembered, and that small ask, like the thief's "remember me," was enough.
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 drunken to excess; so she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.
Abigail has just turned David's sword away from her household. She comes home to find her husband feasting — drunk, cheerful, and with no idea how close he came to death that day.
This was no ordinary meal. One writer reads the whole of human nature in it.
Such is man! Nabal puts himself in David's place and thinks only of treating himself well. He becomes drunk and is in no condition to know anything of what awaits him. His doom is fixed.
David's men had asked Nabal for help and got nothing. The feast that same evening shows what kind of refusal it was.
This "harsh and evil" man (v. 3) refused to give anything. Yet we read in verse 36, "he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king." It mattered little to him that outside, the servants of David were in dire need of help. He was keeping for himself what he had, and enjoying himself with it all. But God was displeased and struck him... We should also be careful about what we keep for ourselves and what we spend on ourselves. Otherwise people may see us living like a king while the Lord's servants go without.
Nabal felt safe that evening. One writer says that feeling is the most ordinary thing in the world.
This is the way of the world. When an awful judgment was just about to fall on him suddenly, he was utterly insensible to his danger. Men have no conscience about the past and no fear of the future. So they throw themselves into self-indulgence, standing on the very edge of God's devastating judgment!
Abigail had just come from stopping the bloodshed. Now she had to walk in and watch this.
What a picture of a man of the world, enjoying himself and crying out that all is peace and safety while destruction hangs over him. What must Abigail have felt as she watched that? Could she have stayed quietly at home and joined in that feast?
Nabal was alive that night only because someone had stood between him and David's anger.
David spared Nabal, but God was about to deal with him in His own way. He cared for none of the things happening around him. He did not understand them. Someone had interceded for him, and he was careless about it; he had received mercy, and he passed it by.
The next morning, sober, he heard the whole story. Another writer weighs what he did with it.
He had lost the opportunity of repaying David's kindness. Was there any regret for the past, any repentance for what he had done? There is not a trace of it... He never showed kindness to David when he had the power to do it. And he never repented of his foolishness when the chance to repent came.
Abigail said nothing while the wine was in him. She waited until he was sober enough to hear her.
Abigail returned from her meeting with David and found Nabal "very drunk," so she told him nothing at all until the morning light. In the morning the wine had gone out of him. His wife told him what had happened, and "his heart died within him, and he became as a stone." What a sad picture of a man of the world! He sank into drunkenness during the night. When morning came, terror struck him, and the arrow of death pierced him.
- Blind. Nabal feasted like a king on the night his household came closest to destruction. He never felt the danger at all.
- Selfish. He refused David's men any help, then spent everything on himself. What we keep back and what we spend on ourselves both get noticed.
- Spared. He was alive that evening only because Abigail interceded. He received mercy without knowing it, and passed it by once he was told.
- Hardened. The morning gave him a second chance, this time to repent. Commentators find no trace of regret in him, only terror.
- Timed. Abigail stayed silent while he was drunk, and told him everything in the morning.
And it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, that his wife told him these things; and his heart died within him, and he became [as] a stone.
Abigail met David on the road and saved her household, but she told her drunk husband nothing that night. In the morning Nabal hears how near he came to death, and the news kills something in him ten days before he dies.
The verse hinges on a change of state: the night's drinking is over, and reality arrives with daylight. One writer sets the two halves of that night side by side:
Abigail returned from her interview with David and found Nabal "very drunk." So she told him nothing at all, less or more, until the morning light... What a sad picture of a man of the world! Sunk in drunkenness during the night, and when the morning dawned, struck with terror, pierced by the arrow of death.
The same writer reads the wine as a picture of something wider than one man's drinking:
How solemnly like the crowds the enemy has lured in every age! He makes them drunk on the passing joys of a world that lies under the curse of God. That world waits for the fire of His judgment. "Those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night." But the morning is near. Then the wine — a fitting symbol of this world's joy — will have all evaporated.
The danger had already passed when Abigail spoke. The report alone was enough to undo him:
The foolish man had no idea this was coming, and when he heard it his heart died within him and he became as a stone (v. 37). Clearly he was so terrified that he became like a man paralysed. But fear of judgment does not save a man's soul, and it does not soften his heart to respond to God: his heart became as hard as a stone.
Fear is not the same as repentance. Here the verse turns from fright to something more serious:
The next morning, when he was sober, Abigail told him of the danger she had stepped in to prevent. He was filled with fear. His heart died within him, and he became as a stone. He had lost the opportunity of repaying David's kindness. Was there any regret for the past, any repentance for what he had done? There is not a trace of it. His wife's account now gave him a chance to judge his past ways, and he neglected that too. How intensely foolish he appears. He showed no kindness to David when he had the power to do it. He did not repent of his folly when the chance came.
The stone is not only Nabal's reaction. One writer sees in it how God deals with a man who has already hardened himself:
Man hardens himself against God by his own choice. In time God answers by hardening that heart Himself, as Judge and Ruler. Then the grace of God can no longer reach him: he becomes dead while he lives.
The same writer asks who this hardening falls on:
About God, Romans 9:18 tells us: "He hardens whomever He wills." This is the result of a man hardening his own heart. Whom does God will to harden? Those who will not repent.
Another writer sees the outcome settled before the blow fell:
His doom is fixed... He is already dead before being struck dead ten days later.
What Abigail reported was good news — rescue, not threat. That is what makes his reaction so dark:
Intercession had been made for him; he was careless about it. He had received mercy, and he passed it by... But when the feast was over, his wife simply told him what had happened — a story of mercy and of grace. Yet though she told it in plain truth, it was like words of death to Nabal. It withered his heart, and "he became as a stone." The hand of God was against him.
The same writer names the feeling this pictures:
One day this will be felt in full. People will look back at mercies they received. But they will see themselves cut off from every blessing, and from the God who gave them. This is remorse. Nothing is so painful as remorse. It is the sense that times of mercy have gone for ever, and that the person who received them is separated from God for ever.
- Wine wears off. The feasting at night and the terror at dawn are the same man, hours apart. This world's joy evaporates and leaves the sober facts standing.
- Mercy arrives. What Abigail brought him was rescue he had done nothing to earn — a story of mercy and grace laid at his feet.
- Mercy passed by. He was careless about the intercession made for him. Then he let the second chance go by — the chance to judge his past. Not a trace of repentance.
- Fear hardens. Terror is not conversion. Fear of judgment neither saves the soul nor softens the heart; his heart instead became hard as stone.
- Judgment lands. Ten days later the Lord struck him. But the writers see a man already finished at verse 37 — "dead while he lives."
And it came to pass in about ten days that Jehovah smote Nabal, and he died.
Ten days pass between Abigail's report and the blow. In that gap the case changes hands: David sheathes his sword, and the Lord acts instead. Two questions follow — why God settled the account rather than David, and why terror did not save a terrified man.
Abigail met David with a gift, and he left the matter with God. One summary of Nabal's life shows the two results that followed:
David accepted her person and her present, and left Nabal in God's hands. The next morning, when Abigail told him the danger he had escaped, his heart died within him. About ten days later God struck him and he died. In this way God avenged the insult given to His servant while he was rejected. He also saved him from avenging himself.
Another writer asks what Nabal's wealth was worth to him after that, and points to God's own word on vengeance:
Only ten days later God took away Nabal's life (v.38). What control did he then have over all those things he had called his own (v.11)? We are certainly reminded here of God's words, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord" (Romans 12:19).
One writer reads Nabal's collapse at the news as the real end, with the stroke ten days later only confirming it:
His doom is fixed. When he does learn of it, "his heart died within him, and he became as stone." He was already dead before the stroke ten days later struck him dead.
Another writer weighs what Nabal did with those ten days:
He did not show kindness to David when he had the power to do it. He did not repent of his foolish acts when the chance to repent came. Can we wonder that God at length took up the matter with him? The Lord struck him, and he died. His time of testing had ended, and his future was fixed beyond changing.
Fear is not faith. One writer explains why Nabal's terror left him worse off than before:
When he heard it, his heart died within him and he became as a stone (v.37). Clearly he was so terrified that he became like a man paralysed. But fear of judgment does not save a man's soul. It does not soften his heart to respond to God. Instead his heart became as hard as a stone. We are told about God in Romans 9:18: "He hardens whomever He wills." This is the result of a man hardening his own heart. Whom does God will to harden? Those who will not repent.
Nabal feasted, sobered up, and died. One writer sums up that sequence:
What a sad picture of a man of the world! He sank in drunkenness during the night. Then morning dawned, and terror struck him — the arrow of death pierced him.
The same writer looks from Nabal's fear to a far greater meeting:
Nabal did not even meet David face to face; yet the very thought of his avenging sword filled his soul with deadly fear. How much more terrible will it be to meet the gaze of a despised and rejected Jesus! Then the Abigails and the Nabals will find their places, those who had known and loved the true David, and those who had not.
Nabal escaped David's sword and met something far heavier:
The rest of the chapter sets out the judgment that fell on Nabal at once. There is no judgment so solemn as when a man falls into the hand of the living God.
One writer turns the whole story into a single question for every reader:
People's fate hangs on this choice. Do they despise Christ today while He is rejected? Or do they value Him as God values Him and appeal to His grace, which alone can "accept their person"?
- Insult. Nabal's sin was contempt for God's servant at a time when that servant was rejected.
- Restraint. David left the case with God. God then avenged the insult and kept His servant from taking revenge.
- Delay. The ten days were Nabal's last chance. Abigail told him the truth, but he never repented, and his time of testing ran out.
- Stone. Nabal was terrified, not changed. Fear of judgment does not save a soul; here it only left his heart harder.
- Choice. One question still divides people: do they despise Christ while He is rejected, or value Him as God values Him?
And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be Jehovah, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil; but Jehovah has returned Nabal's evil upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her as his wife.
David's men had drawn their swords against Nabal's household. Only Abigail stopped them. Ten days later the man who insulted David is dead, and David never touched him. His response is not a victory cry but a blessing of God's name — and then a message sent to the widow.
David had set out to fight. The news of Nabal's death found him with nothing left to fight for.
The danger was past and his needs were met. David's heart was now so full of a sense of the goodness of the Lord that he could only worship where he had thought to fight.
Notice which of the two things David blesses God for first. It is not Nabal's death but his own escape.
When David hears the news (v.39) he is afresh reminded of the great mercy of the Lord that had kept him back from the evil of avenging himself. He blessed God for taking this matter into His own capable hand. God rewarded the evil-doer himself and did not punish the men of his household, as David was ready to do.
Another writer points to how quickly God acted:
A few days are enough to show that there is never any need for someone to avenge himself. God strikes Nabal, and his lamp of life goes out in hopeless gloom.
David says God "returned the evil of Nabal on his own head." The hand that returned it was God's own.
The rest of the chapter sets out the judgment that fell on Nabal at once. No judgment is as solemn as when a man falls into the hand of the living God.
Nabal had two chances, and he let both go.
He neither showed kindness to David when he had it in his power, nor did he repent of his follies when the chance to repent came. Can we wonder that God at last took up the matter with him? The Lord struck him, and he died. His time of testing was over, and nothing could change his future now. Nabal might have been remembered as a man who served the Lord's anointed in the days when he was hunted. Instead he stands out on the page of history as a harsh man, a worthless man, and a fool.
The second half of the verse answers Abigail's one request: that David would remember her when things went well for him. She asked to be remembered, and received a marriage.
This request is remarkably like the one the dying thief made to the Lord Jesus. It teaches us much, especially when we remember that, as far as sight went, neither of them had anything to build a hope on. In both cases too, the answer went far beyond the request. In about ten days the Lord struck Nabal so that he died, and David took Abigail to be his wife, to suffer with him and to reign.
Abigail leaves before David's fortunes have changed.
There is no delay. She hurries to meet the one who loves her, the king of grace. She does not wait for better times, when David's throne would be secure. She leaves everything without a thought for what she was leaving behind.
Writers read this marriage as a picture of something later, and they differ on how far to press it. One sees the church in it:
Death sets Abigail free from the chain of such a marriage. David then brings her into his own household and links her with himself. It may picture the Church — sinners who recognised our Lord in the time of His rejection. Set free from the bondage of sin, they are brought into bridal relationship with the Lord in glory.
Another writer stops short of naming her the church, but keeps the principle:
Nabal (Israel) is set aside, the man who rejected David; and Abigail becomes the wife of the despised one while he is in the wilderness. She is not the church itself, but she stands on the principle of the church.
- Restraint. David's first praise is for what God stopped him doing. His escape from his own vengeance mattered more to him than his enemy's death.
- Vindication. He left his case with God, and God took it up. Only the guilty man fell, not the household David would have destroyed.
- Forfeit. Nabal had two chances: to serve the Lord's anointed, then to repent. He let both go, and his time of testing ran out.
- Freedom. The judgment that ended Nabal set Abigail free. Her plea to be remembered became a place at David's side.
- Reign. She left everything behind to follow a rejected king. She suffered with him first, and shared his throne after.
And the servants of David came to Abigail to Carmel, and spoke to her, saying, David has sent us to thee, to take thee as his wife.
Nabal is dead, and from the wilderness the rejected king sends word to the widow at Carmel. His offer raises one hard question: what does it cost to marry a king before his kingdom comes?
Abigail could not be David's wife while Nabal lived. Commentators read her release as a picture of how a believer is freed for Christ.
She sees in David God's anointed king. Death sets her free from Nabal, that harsh and mean man, and she becomes the wife of David's wilderness wanderings. Believers, too, are set free from sin and the law by death, so that they may be married to another, to Christ. For now they share His rejection. When they have suffered a while, they will also "reign with Him."
David's messengers ask, and Abigail does not weigh the offer. One writer links her quick answer to her faith in God's promise that David would reign.
There was no hesitation on Abigail's part. She was willing to leave her former wealth and identify herself with David in exile and danger. We know the reason. She had already expressed her unquestioning faith in God's promise to David that he would reign over Israel (vv. 29-30). Because of this, she feels herself worthy only of the lowliest service in David's household: "a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord" (v. 41). True faith and humility always go together.
Haste marks Abigail all through this chapter, and it marks her here too. Another writer notes that the honour offered to her does not lift her up. It bends her down.
This is when David calls her to be his companion in suffering, and later to share his reign… There is no delay. She hurries to meet the one who loves her, the king of grace. She does not put off leaving until better times, when David's throne would be secure. She leaves everything without thinking for an instant of what she was leaving behind. She even calls herself unworthy of such an honour, for hers is the most humble place… She understands the pattern. If the king's favour calls her to share his sufferings, and so raise her afterwards to the highest place, then serving the king must humble her to take the lowest place. What humility in the wife of a king! Only fellowship with grace, with Jesus, will enable us to humble ourselves in the dust like this. But as Abigail humbles herself, the king grows in dignity and majesty. That is what his wife's heart desires.
Abigail was a rich man's widow. Set beside Ruth, who married into wealth, her move runs the opposite way.
Ruth was poor, and she left her poverty to share the wealth of the "mighty man of wealth." Abigail did the opposite. She left the house of a very rich man, who had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, to share David's rejection, poverty and wandering. The church leaves her poverty in this world to have a part in the glorious inheritance she has "in Christ" (Eph. 1:11). But it is also her privilege to give up this world, with the wealth and glory it offers, and to share Christ's place outside — not to be rich where He was poor.
Jonathan loved David, yet stayed with Saul to the end. That contrast sets off what Abigail does here.
Jonathan never separated from the system he stood in. He loved David, but he never joined himself to David, and he never shared his sufferings. But Abigail identifies herself with him. Her existing ties do not stop her from acknowledging David, and she joins him after her husband's death… Jonathan does not suffer with David, and he does not reign with him. He stays with Saul, and in that position his career ends with Saul.
One writer carries the picture past David. Christ also has a companion in His rejection, and she has a name.
His own special portion is in her. As Abigail was to David, so she is the companion of His rejection. She is the brightest jewel of redemption, and she is known as "the Bride of the Lamb" (Rev. 21:9).
- Freed. Death ended her tie to Nabal. Only then could the king's messengers come — a soul set free by death, to be married to another.
- Called. The call reaches her while David is still hunted; she answers a king who has messengers but no throne yet.
- Ready. She does not hesitate, and she does not wait for better times. She already believed God's promise that David would reign.
- Lowly. Raised to be his wife, she asks only to wash his servants' feet — faith and humility travel together.
- Sharing. Jonathan loved David but stayed with Saul. Abigail shares the rejection first, and the reign afterward.
And she arose and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thy handmaid be a bondwoman to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.
David has just asked Abigail to marry him. He is still a hunted man with no throne. Her answer is not a celebration. She offers to take the lowest job in his household. Why would a wealthy widow, called to be a king's wife, ask to wash the feet of his servants?
Her words name a job, not a feeling. One writer ties that choice to what she already believed about David's future.
There was no hesitation on Abigail's part. She was willing to leave her former wealth and identify herself with David in exile and danger. We know why. She had already expressed her unquestioning faith in God's promise that David would reign over Israel. Because of this she feels worthy only of the lowest service in David's household — "a maid to wash the feet of my lord's servants." True faith and humility always go together.
The honour could have fed her pride. Instead it pushed her lower.
Such a destiny cannot fill her with pride. She understands the reason. If the king's favour calls her to share his sufferings, and then to raise her to the highest place, serving the king must humble her to take the lowest place. What humility in this wife of the king! Only fellowship with grace, with Jesus, will let us humble ourselves in the dust like this. But as Abigail lowers herself, the king grows in dignity and in majesty, and this is what his wife's heart desires.
Her modest words were no excuse to hold back. The next verse shows her acting on David's word at once.
This was true humility. It fit exactly with the complete obedience she gave to David's word. She acted in a way suited to one who was to be his wife, for she "hurried and rose and mounted a donkey, and her five young women attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife."
Another writer notes how fast she moved, and what she did not wait for.
She does not delay. She hurries to meet the one who loves her, to meet the king of grace. She does not put off her departure until better times, when David's throne would be made firm. She leaves everything without thinking for a moment about what she was leaving behind.
One writer sets her words beside the foot washing in John 13.
She bows to the earth before his messengers, and speaks the most perfect expression of a truly humble heart. (Compare John 13:5, 14.)
Another writer measures her humility against Jonathan, who loved David but kept his own position.
Jonathan loved David as his own soul, and yet did not sacrifice his position for him. Abigail's love was just the sense that such a man could love her — she who was only "a servant to wash the feet of the servants of her lord."
The contrast runs deeper than feeling.
Jonathan never separated from the system he stood in. He loved David, but he never joined himself to David and never shared his sufferings. But Abigail identifies herself with him... Jonathan does not suffer with David, and does not reign with him.
Taking the servant's place meant real loss before any reward arrived.
She leaves her high position, and the ease and comfort that a wealthy woman would normally enjoy. She joins herself to David in his sufferings and wanderings. On this new path she will know suffering and hardship. David's enemies will even carry her off captive in the day of Ziklag. But she will also share his throne in the day of his reign at Hebron.
Commentators differ on how far to press the picture. One stops short of calling her the church.
Nabal (Israel) is set aside, he who rejected David; and Abigail becomes the wife of the despised one, while he is in the wilderness. This is not exactly the church, but she is on the principle of the church.
Another states it more plainly:
Abigail, like Rebecca, is one of the rare types in the Old Testament who prefigures the Church; she is the Bride, David's voluntary, humble, joyful associate during the days of his rejection.
- Faith first. She already believed God's promise that David would reign. The lowest place is what such faith produces — "true faith and humility always go together."
- Place chosen. Called to the highest honour, she asks for the lowest job. Serving the king means taking the servant's place.
- King exalted. Her going down is not loss: as she lowers herself, the king grows in dignity and majesty.
- Obedience follows. Lowly words did not delay her; she rose, followed the messengers, and became his wife.
- Throne shared. Jonathan loved David but kept his position. He neither suffered nor reigned with him. Abigail left hers, shared the wilderness and the captivity, and shared his throne at Hebron.
And Abigail hasted, and arose, and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of hers that followed her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.
Nabal is dead, and David — still an outcast, still waiting for the throne God had called him to — sends servants to ask Abigail to be his wife. Her answer is not a word but a journey: she leaves a wealthy household to follow a despised man she knew God had chosen.
The verse opens with haste, and that haste is the point. She did not wait for a better moment.
There is no delay. She hurries to meet the one who loves her, the king of grace. She does not put off leaving until better times, when David's throne would stand firm. She leaves everything without thinking for an instant of what she was leaving behind. And she even declares herself unworthy of such an honour; for hers is the most humble place. On the other hand, such a destiny cannot fill her with pride. She understands this: if the king's favour is calling her to share his sufferings, and then to raise her to the highest place, the service of the king must humble her to take the lowest place.
The same writer draws a line between two kinds of hurry — one belongs to faith, the other does not.
Let us not forget, dear Christian readers, that one of faith's characteristics is to hasten. Abraham made haste when it was a matter of the Lord's service (Gen. 18:6-8). Zacchaeus did the same when the Saviour invited him to receive Him into his house (Luke 19:6). So did Mary, when the Lord called her to come to Him (John 11:29). If it is a matter of Him and of His Person, can we ever hasten enough? But should we not also guard against the haste that so often marks the flesh and the old man?
Her decision rested on a view of David that her husband never shared.
All these things Abigail knew — knew as matters of faith. She knew David, and knew his high destinies. By faith she recognised in the despised outcast the future king of Israel. Nabal did not know David. He was a man of the world, swallowed up with present things. Nothing mattered more to him, nothing weighed more with him, than "my bread, my meat, my shearers." It was all self. There was no room for David or his claims.
Marrying David meant trading security for hardship. One writer traces where that road led — through loss first, then honour.
Having obtained her freedom by death, Abigail becomes the wife of David. She leaves her high position, and the ease and comfort that belonged to a wealthy woman, to join David in his sufferings and wanderings. On this new path she will know suffering and hardship. David's enemies will even take her captive in the day of Ziklag. But she will also share his throne in the day of his reign at Hebron (1 Sam. 30:5; 2 Samuel 2:2).
Writers read this marriage as a picture of something later. One is careful to say what kind of picture it is.
She is not a picture of the whole church, but she seems to picture the church's position during this present time. In her we see those of the remnant who, as a kind of firstfruits, were joined to the Lord and added to the church (Acts 2). They will soon share as the Bride in the exaltation and glory of the Bridegroom, though for now, for a season, they are despised. She renounces her own position, whatever it was after Nabal's death, to share in the sorrows of David, whom Nabal (Israel) despised, but whom she knew to be chosen of God. David's present circumstances had no weight with her. He was suffering because God had called him to the throne, and that was enough for Abigail's faith.
Her ride is not only history. What Abigail did with David, this writer says, faith still does with Jesus.
Blessed be God, there are some who have ears to hear. They hear the testimony about the kindness and grace of Jesus, and about His coming judgement too. So it was with Abigail. She believed the truth about David, and acted on it. And all who believe the truth about Jesus will separate themselves in earnest from this present world.
- Hurry. Faith hurries toward the one who calls it. Abigail did not wait for David's throne to be secure.
- Leave. She walked away from ease and wealth without one thought for what she left behind.
- Stoop. Called to the highest place, she asked for the lowest. The king's favour humbled her.
- Share. Her marriage brought her into his wanderings first, including capture at Ziklag. His reign at Hebron came after.
- Follow. She believed the truth about a rejected king and acted on it. That is what separates a believer from this present world.