1 Samuel 25

Samuel died. All the Israelites gathered to mourn for him, and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David set out and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

1And Samuel died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

NoteSamuel was the prophet who had anointed Saul as Israel's first king and later anointed David; his death closes a long stretch of the story. Ramah was his home town. Burial "in his house" means on the family's own property, in a tomb belonging to the household, the normal practice, not burial under the floor of a dwelling. The wilderness of Paran is far to the south, in the Sinai region; some ancient copies read "Maon" here instead, which is the district the rest of the chapter takes place in.

2There was a man from Maon whose property and business were in Carmel. He was a very rich man. He owned three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

2And there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

NoteThis Carmel is a town in the hill country of Judah, several miles south of Hebron, not the famous Mount Carmel on the northern coast. Maon was a neighboring town. Wealth in this world was counted in livestock, so three thousand sheep and a thousand goats marks Nabal as one of the richest men in the region.

3The man's name was Nabal, and his wife's name was Abigail. She was a wise woman and beautiful, but her husband was hard and cruel in the way he dealt with people. He was from the family of Caleb.

3Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.

Note"From the family of Caleb" identifies Nabal's clan. Caleb was the man who, generations earlier, was given the territory around Hebron as his share of the land, so the name marks Nabal as belonging to one of the leading landholding families of the area.

4While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep.

4And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep.

NoteSheep-shearing was the year's payday for a livestock owner, and it was celebrated with a large feast and open-handed hospitality to neighbors and dependants. That is why David chooses this moment to send his request: at shearing time a rich man was expected to give generously.

5So David sent out ten of his young men. He told them, "Go up to Carmel, go to Nabal, and greet him for me.

5And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name:

6Say this to the man who is living so well: 'Long life to you! Peace to you, peace to your household, and peace to everything you own.

6And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be both to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast.

7I have heard that you have shearers with you. Your shepherds were with us, and we never harmed them. Nothing of theirs went missing the whole time they were in Carmel.

7And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel.

NoteDavid's men had been camped in the same open country as Nabal's shepherds. An armed band in that position could either raid a flock or protect it from others who would; David is pointing out that he did the second. Payment for such protection was customary, though nothing had been formally agreed, which is what makes his request sit close to a demand.

8Ask your own young men, and they will tell you so. Please treat my young men kindly, for we have come on a day of feasting. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can spare.'"

8Ask thy young men, and they will shew thee. Wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David.

Note"Your son David" is deferential speech, not a family claim. A man asking a favor of a wealthier or older man would call himself the other's "son" or "servant" as a courtesy. "A day of feasting" is the shearing celebration itself, when refusing a request for food was a public insult.

9David's young men went and said all of this to Nabal in David's name. Then they waited for his answer.

9And when David’s young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased.

10But Nabal answered David's servants, "Who is David? Who is this son of Jesse? These days there are plenty of servants running away from their masters.

10And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master.

NoteCalling David "the son of Jesse" instead of by name is a snub: it implies he is nobody, known only by an obscure father. The jab about runaway servants is aimed at David's situation: he was a fugitive from King Saul, leading a band of men who had left their own households and masters to follow him.

11Am I supposed to take my bread and my water and the meat I killed for my shearers, and hand it over to men who come from I don't know where?"

11Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?

12So David's young men turned around and went back. They came to David and told him everything Nabal had said.

12So David’s young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings.

13David said to his men, "Every man strap on his sword." So every man strapped on his sword, and David strapped on his too. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed behind with the supplies.

13And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff.

NoteDavid at this point commands a private force of about six hundred men who had gathered around him while he was on the run from Saul. Leaving part of the force with the baggage was standard practice; those men were not being excluded from the action's rewards.

14Meanwhile, one of Nabal's young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, "Listen, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, and he shouted insults at them.

14But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them.

15But those men were very good to us. They never harmed us, and we never lost a thing the whole time we were out in the fields near them.

15But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields:

16They were like a wall around us, night and day, the whole time we were with them watching the sheep.

16They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.

17So think it over now and decide what you are going to do, because disaster has been decided against our master and his whole household. He is such a worthless man that no one can talk to him."

17Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household: for he is such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him.

NoteThe King James "son of Belial" is a Hebrew idiom meaning something like "a man of worthlessness", a person of no honor, with whom normal dealing is impossible. It is an insult about character, not a name or a title.

18So Abigail hurried. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already butchered and prepared, about five measures of roasted grain, a hundred bunches of raisins, and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys.

18Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.

NoteThe "measures" are seahs, a dry measure of roughly seven or eight liters each, so about forty liters of roasted grain in all. Wine was carried in whole animal skins sewn shut, not in bottles. The quantities are calculated: this is enough food for six hundred men, which is exactly the size of the force coming toward her.

19She told her servants, "Go on ahead of me. I am coming right behind you." But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

19And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal.

20As she rode her donkey down under the cover of the hill, David and his men were coming down toward her, and she met them.

20And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the covert of the hill, and, behold, David and his men came down against her; and she met them.

NoteThe cover of the hill is a ravine or gully where the slope hid each party from the other until they were suddenly face to face, which is why the meeting happens so abruptly.

21David had just been saying, "It was all for nothing that I guarded everything this man owns out in the wilderness. Nothing of his went missing, and he has paid me back evil for good.

21Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he hath requited me evil for good.

22May God punish David's enemies, and worse, if by morning light I leave a single male alive out of everyone who belongs to Nabal."

22So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.

Note"May God punish David's enemies, and worse" is a standard oath formula, in which the speaker calls down an unnamed disaster on himself if he fails to do what he swears. The Hebrew text here reads "the enemies of David" rather than "David", many take this as an ancient copyist's softening, to avoid writing a curse against David himself; the old Greek translation simply reads "David." The phrase rendered "a single male" is a blunt Hebrew idiom, literally "anyone who urinates against a wall."

23When Abigail saw David, she quickly got down off the donkey. She fell facedown in front of David and bowed to the ground.

23And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground,

NoteGetting down off the animal and lying face to the ground was the formal gesture of submission owed to a superior, and the ordinary way to open a plea for mercy. It says nothing about worship.

24She fell at his feet and said, "My lord, put the blame on me, on me alone. Please let me, your servant, speak to you, and hear what I have to say.

24And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid.

Note"Your servant" is the polite way a person addressed someone of higher standing, roughly like saying "I" while acknowledging the other's authority. Abigail uses it repeatedly through the speech; "my lord" is its counterpart for David.

25Please, my lord, pay no attention to this worthless man Nabal. He is exactly what his name says: his name means Fool, and foolishness goes with him. But I, your servant, never saw the young men my lord sent.

25Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.

NoteIn Hebrew a "fool" of this kind is not someone of low intelligence but someone morally senseless, coarse, aggressive, contemptuous of ordinary obligations. Whether Nabal was actually named this or given the nickname later is not clear; Abigail turns the word into her argument, in effect saying he is beneath David's notice.

26Now, my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and as surely as you live, the LORD has kept you from shedding blood and from taking revenge with your own hand. May your enemies, and all who want to harm you, end up like Nabal.

26Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.

Note"As surely as the LORD lives and as surely as you live" is a fixed oath formula, the strongest way of guaranteeing that what follows is true.

27And now let this gift your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow you.

27And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord.

28Please forgive your servant's offense. The LORD will certainly give my lord a lasting family line, because my lord fights the LORD's battles, and no evil has been found in you all your life.

28I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the LORD, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days.

Note"House" here means a family line that continues, descendants holding position after the man himself is dead. Abigail is saying David's line will endure, which is why he does not need to secure himself by killing today.

29Someone has risen up to chase you and to try to take your life. But the life of my lord will be kept safe in the bundle of the living with the LORD your God, while he will fling away the lives of your enemies like stones from a sling.

29Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.

Note"Bound in the bundle of the living" draws on the practice of tying valuables or important documents into a pouch for safekeeping. The contrast is with a sling, the shepherd's weapon that hurls a stone away and out of sight.

30And when the LORD has done for my lord everything good that he has promised about you, and has made you ruler over Israel,

30And it shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel;

31then you will not have this on your conscience, or feel any guilt over shedding blood for no reason or taking revenge yourself. And when the LORD has been good to my lord, please remember your servant."

31That this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself: but when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid.

Note"Remember your servant" is a request for future favor: she is asking that when David comes to power he keep her in mind. It is the closing move of a formal petition.

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

32And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me:

33And blessed be your good sense, and blessed be you, for keeping me today from shedding blood and from taking revenge with my own hand.

33And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.

34For as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, the one who held me back from harming you, if you had not hurried out to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by morning light."

34For in very deed, as the LORD God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.

35So David took from her hand what she had brought him. He said to her, "Go home in peace. See, I have listened to you and I grant what you asked."

35So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person.

36Abigail went back to Nabal. He was in his house holding a feast fit for a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk, so she told him nothing at all until morning light.

36And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.

NoteThe feast is the shearing celebration. Being "in high spirits" translates a phrase about the heart being merry, the standard expression for the good mood produced by wine.

37In the morning, when the wine had worn off, his wife told him what had happened. His heart failed inside him, and he became like a stone.

37But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.

Note"His heart failed within him" uses heart in its Hebrew sense: the seat of a person's courage, will and vitality, not the emotions alone. "He became like a stone" describes him going rigid and unresponsive, the description fits a stroke, though the text does not name a cause.

38About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal, and he died.

38And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died.

39When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Blessed be the LORD. He took up my case against the insult Nabal gave me, and he kept his servant from doing wrong. The LORD has brought Nabal's own wickedness down on his head." Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife.

39And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil: for the LORD hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him to wife.

Note"Took up my case" is courtroom language: David pictures God as the judge who has given a verdict in his favor, sparing him from settling the score himself. Sending messengers to negotiate a marriage, rather than going in person, was the ordinary formal procedure.

40When David's servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, "David sent us to you, to take you to him as his wife."

40And when the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spake unto her, saying, David sent us unto thee, to take thee to him to wife.

41She stood up, then bowed facedown to the ground and said, "Here is your servant, ready to wash the feet of my lord's servants."

41And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.

NoteWashing the feet of arriving guests was the job of the lowliest servant in a household. Abigail accepts the proposal by claiming even that rank, a formal expression of humility, not a condition of the marriage.

42Abigail got ready quickly. She got on a donkey, and with five of her young women following her, she went with David's messengers and became his wife.

42And Abigail hasted, and arose, and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of hers that went after her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.

43David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, so both of them were his wives.

43David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they were also both of them his wives.

NoteThis Jezreel is a village in the hill country of Judah near Carmel and Maon, not the northern valley of the same name. A man of standing having more than one wife was ordinary in this period, and for a leader it also built ties with the families involved.

44But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Phalti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

44But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti the son of Laish, which was of Gallim.

NoteMichal was Saul's daughter and had been given to David as his wife earlier in the story. By handing her to another man, Saul was treating the marriage as dissolved, and cutting David's tie by marriage to the royal family, which could otherwise support a claim on the throne.