The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Abigail Intercedes for Nabal
1 Samuel 25:18–38 — Abigail Intercedes for Nabal. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
18Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five butchered sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs. She loaded them on donkeys
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ʾă·ḇō·ḡa·yil wat·tə·ma·hêr wat·tiq·qaḥ mā·ṯa·yim le·ḥem ū·šə·na·yim niḇ·lê- ya·yin wə·ḥā·mêš ʿă·śå̄·wōṯ ṣōn wə·ḥā·mêš sə·’îm qā·lî ū·mê·’āh ṣim·mu·qîm ū·mā·ṯa·yim də·ḇê·lîm wat·tā·śem ‘al- ha·ḥă·mō·rîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-hastened Abigail and-took two-hundred bread, and-two skins-of wine, and-five sheep made-ready, and-five seahs-of roasted-grain, and-a-hundred raisin-cakes, and-two-hundred fig-cakes — and-she-set [them] upon the-donkeys.
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The LXX. alter the measure into five ephahs, thinking the quantity in the text ridiculously small for such an host as followed David.Ellicott reports the ancient and modern attempts to enlarge the number, then refuses them: the point is that this is a present for David's own company, not commissary for an army.
which she did without his leave, and against his mind, because it was a case of apparent necessity, for the preservation of herself, and husband, and all the family from imminent ruin.
Then Abigail took as quickly as possible a bountiful present of provisions, - two hundred loaves,
19and said to her young men, “Go ahead of me. I will be right behind you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wat·tō·mer lin·‘ā·re·hā ‘iḇ·rū lə·p̄ā·nay hin·nî ’a·ḥă·rê·ḵem bā·’āh lō hig·gî·ḏāh ū·lə·’î·šāh nā·ḇāl
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-she-said to-her-young-men: “Pass-over before-my-face; behold-me after-you coming.” But-to-her-husband, to-Nabal, she-did-not-tell.
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People in the East always try to produce an effect by their presents, loading on several beasts what might be easily carried by one, and bringing them forward, article by article, in succession.JFB reads the staged procession as deliberate technique; the Hebrew says only that she sent them ahead.
Because she knew his crooked nature, that he would rather die than agree to her enterprise.
and no doubt she was directed by the Spirit of God to do what she did; and this being an extraordinary case, is not to be drawn into an example.Gill feels the moral problem — a wife disposing of her husband's goods behind his back — and solves it by appeal to the Spirit and to the case being extraordinary. The text itself offers no such warrant; his caution against making it a precedent is his own.
20As Abigail came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, she saw David and his men coming down toward her, and she met them.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·hā·yāh hî rō·ḵe·ḇeṯ ‘al- ha·ḥă·mō·wr wə·yō·re·ḏeṯ hā·hār bə·sê·ṯer wə·hin·nêh ḏā·wiḏ wa·’ă·nā·šāw yō·rə·ḏîm liq·rā·ṯāh wat·tip̄·gōš ’ō·ṯām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-it-was — she riding upon the-donkey and-going-down in-the-covert-of the-mountain — and-behold, David and-his-men going-down to-encounter-her; and-she-came-upon them.
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Abigail was apparently riding down a defile between two hills, which is called “the covert” (lit. “the secret place of the mountain”), because it was concealed from observation.
It is perhaps mentioned that she came by this "secret place," because she chose this path to escape the observation of her husband or of anyone else.Barnes's motive for the route is inference, not text; the verse says only that the place was hidden.
When she came down riding upon the ass by a hidden part of the mountain, David and his men came to meet her, so that she lighted upon them.
21Now David had just said, “In vain I have protected all that belonged to this man in the wilderness. Nothing that belongs to him has gone missing, yet he has paid me back evil for good.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·ḏā·wiḏ ’aḵ ’ā·mar laš·še·qer šā·mar·tî ’eṯ- kāl- ’ă·šer lā·zeh bam·miḏ·bār wə·lō- mik·kāl ’ă·šer- lōw mə·’ū·māh nip̄·qaḏ way·yā·šeḇ- lî rā·‘āh ta·ḥaṯ ṭō·w·ḇāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-David had-said: “Surely for-the-lie have-I-kept all that-belongs to-this-one in-the-wilderness, and-nothing was-missed of-all that-is-his — and-he-has-turned-back to-me evil in-place-of good.”
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which shows that lie was in a violent passion, and had Nabal in the utmost contempt and indignation, in that he mentions not his name, only says "this", this man or follow;The public-domain text as transmitted reads “lie” for “he” and “follow” for “fellow”; the observation itself — that David withholds Nabal's name in contempt — is sound and follows the Hebrew demonstrative.
Only to be deceived and disappointed. The same word is used in Jeremiah 3:23 .
but David had said, Only for deception (i.e., for no other purpose than to be deceived in my expectation) have I defended all that belongs to this man (Nabal) in the desert,
22May God punish David, and ever so severely, if I let one male belonging to Nabal survive until morning.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’ĕ·lō·hîm kōh- ya·‘ă·śeh ḏā·wiḏ lə·’ō·yə·ḇê wə·ḵōh yō·sîp̄ ’im- mik·kāl ’ă·šer- lōw ’aš·’îr ‘aḏ- hab·bō·qer maš·tîn bə·qîr
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“So may-God-do to-the-enemies-of-David, and-so may-he-add, if I-leave-remaining of-all that-is-his until the-morning one-pissing against-a-wall.”
Where the English smooths the original
But is this the voice of David? Can he speak so unadvisedly with his lips? Has he been so long in the school of affliction, and learned no more patience therein? Lord, what is man?
“The enemies of David” may possibly be an euphemism, introduced by a corrector who was unwilling to let David invoke vengeance upon himself for an oath which he afterwards broke.Cambridge's euphemism theory is a conjecture about the text's transmission; Ellicott, Poole and K&D hold the received Hebrew to be original. The unit's apparatus records both.
Nor is his rage and passion to be vindicated, or the rash vow he made to destroy Nabal and his family; his crime, though great, yet not to be published with death;The received text reads “published” where “punished” is plainly meant; Gill's point is that Nabal's insolence was not a capital crime, so the vow was unjust as well as rash.
23When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off the donkey, fell facedown, and bowed before him.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’ă·ḇî·ḡa·yil ’eṯ- wat·tê·re dā·wiḏ wat·tə·ma·hêr wat·tê·reḏ mê·‘al ha·ḥă·mō·wr wat·tip·pōl ‘al- pā·ne·hā wat·tiš·ta·ḥū ’ā·reṣ lə·’ap·pê ḏā·wiḏ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Abigail saw David, and-she-hastened and-came-down from-upon the-donkey, and-she-fell upon her-face before David, and-bowed-herself-down to-the-earth.
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Dismounting in presence of a superior is the highest token of respect that can be given
This act of obeisance, and, in fact, the whole tone of the wise wife of Nabal in her address to David, seems to betoken her consciousness that she was addressing the anointed of Jehovah, the future king
David ( 1 Samuel 24:8 ) only stooped with his face to the ground before Saul.Pulpit offers two readings of the depth of her obeisance — faith in David's kingship, or the low standing of women in the period — and does not decide between them.
24She fell at his feet and said, “My lord, may the blame be on me alone, but please let your servant speak to you; hear the words of your servant.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wat·tip·pōl ‘al- raḡ·lāw wat·tō·mer ’ă·ḏō·nî he·‘ā·wōn bî- ’ă·nî nā ’ă·mā·ṯə·ḵā ū·ṯə·ḏab·ber- bə·’ā·zə·ne·ḵā ū·šə·ma‘ ’êṯ diḇ·rê ’ă·mā·ṯe·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-she-fell at his-feet and-said: “Upon-me, I, my-lord, [be] the-iniquity; and-let-speak, please, thy-handmaid in-thine-ears, and-hear thou the-words-of thy-handmaid.”
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impute Nabal’s sin to me, and, if thou pleasest, punish it in me, who here offer myself as a sacrifice to thy just indignation.
Apparently she first prostrated herself and did the usual obeisance as soon as she saw David, while he was still some distance off, and then afterwards approached and knelt down at his feet in the posture of a suppliant to make her petition.
She takes the guilt upon herself, because she hopes that David will not avenge it upon her.K&D reads her substitution as calculation; Poole and Benson read it as self-offering. The Hebrew supports both and settles neither.
25My lord should pay no attention to this scoundrel Nabal, for he lives up to his name: His name means Fool, and folly accompanies him. I, your servant, did not see my lord’s young men whom you sent.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’ă·ḏō·nî ’eṯ- ’al- nā yā·śîm lib·bōw ’el- haz·zeh ‘al- hab·bə·lî·ya·‘al ’îš nā·ḇāl kî hū ḵiš·mōw ken- šə·mōw nā·ḇāl ū·nə·ḇā·lāh ‘im·mōw wa·’ă·nî ’ă·mā·ṯə·ḵā lō rā·’î·ṯî ’eṯ- ’ă·ḏō·nî na·‘ă·rê ’ă·šer šā·lā·ḥə·tā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“Let-not my-lord set his-heart, please, toward this man-of-worthlessness, toward Nabal — for as-his-name, 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.”
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Nabal in the Hebrew signifies a fool, though not one by nature, but rather through pride and insolence.
she observes it not to reproach him with it, but to excuse his sin, his rudeness and ingratitude and preserve his life;
The prudent woman uses a good argument; for a wise man should pardon a fool" (Seb. Schmidt).K&D is here quoting the seventeenth-century Lutheran commentator Sebastian Schmidt, whom he cites repeatedly through this chapter.
26Now, my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, since the LORD has held you back from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, may your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be like Nabal.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·‘at·tāh ’ă·ḏō·nî Yah·weh ḥay- nap̄·šə·ḵā ’ă·šer wə·ḥê- Yah·weh mə·nā·‘ă·ḵā mib·bō·w ḇə·ḏā·mîm wə·hō·wō·šê·a‘ lāḵ yā·ḏə·ḵā wə·‘at·tāh ’ō·yə·ḇe·ḵā wə·ham·ḇaq·šîm rā·‘āh ’el- ’ă·ḏō·nî yih·yū ḵə·nā·ḇāl
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-now, my-lord — as-lives Jehovah and-as-lives thy-soul, whom Jehovah has-restrained-thee from-coming into-bloods and-from-saving-thyself [with] thy-own-hand — and-now, let-them-be like-Nabal thine-enemies and-those-seeking evil toward my-lord.”
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Literally, As true as that the Lord liveth, so true is it that the Lord hath withholden thee, &c., from coming into blood-guiltiness.Ellicott is quoting the Speaker's Commentary on the grammar of the oath; the point is that the formula affirms a fact rather than swearing an undertaking.
Abigail begins her appeal by affirming that it was Jehovah who thus made her come to prevent bloodshed;
As foolish, and consequently as little able to injure thee. In view of Nabal’s fate, the words are almost prophetic.
27Now let this gift your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow you.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·‘at·tāh haz·zōṯ ’ă·šer- hab·bə·rā·ḵāh šip̄·ḥā·ṯə·ḵā hê·ḇî la·ḏō·nî wə·nit·tə·nāh lan·nə·‘ā·rîm ham·miṯ·hal·lə·ḵîm bə·raḡ·lê ’ă·ḏō·nî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-now this the-blessing which thy-bondmaid has-brought to-my-lord — let-it-be-given to-the-young-men who-walk-about at-the-feet of-my-lord.”
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Of this Abigail makes little account—it was simply an expression of her homage and good will.
A present is termed a blessing, not only because the matter of it comes from God’s blessing, but also because it is given with a blessing, or with a good will.
It is only in the third line that she finally mentions the present, but in such a manner that she does not offer it directly to David, but describes it as a gift for the men in his train.
28Please forgive your servant’s offense, for the LORD will surely make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because he fights the LORD’s battles. May no evil be found in you as long as you live.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
nā śā ’ă·mā·ṯe·ḵā lə·p̄e·ša‘ kî Yah·weh ‘ā·śōh- ya·‘ă·śeh ne·’ĕ·mān ba·yiṯ la·ḏō·nî kî- ’ă·ḏō·nî nil·ḥām Yah·weh mil·ḥă·mō·wṯ wə·rā·‘āh lō- ṯim·mā·ṣê ḇə·ḵā mî·yā·me·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“Lift-away, please, the-transgression of-thy-handmaid — for making Jehovah will-make for-my-lord a-house faithful, because the-wars-of-Jehovah my-lord fights, and-evil shall-not be-found in-thee from-thy-days.”
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but the unconscious prophetess, we may be sure, never dreamed of that glorious and holy One in whose person, far down the stream of ages, the Eternal would make good her wordsEllicott's christological extension is his own; the preceding sentences, where he suggests she learned the promise at Samuel's Naioth, are conjecture he marks as such (“perhaps”).
Abigail's firm persuasion of David's kingdom stands upon the same footing as Rahab's conviction of God's gift of Canaan to the Israelites Joshua 2:9-13 . Both testified to God's revelation and their own faith. This is doubtless the reason why Abigail's speech is recorded.
If the form of Abigail's address was most humble, the matter of it was brave and noble.
29And should someone pursue you and seek your life, then the life of my lord will be bound securely by the LORD your God in the bundle of the living. But He shall fling away the lives of your enemies like stones from a sling.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yā·qām ’ā·ḏām lir·ḏā·p̄ə·ḵā ū·lə·ḇaq·qêš ’eṯ- nap̄·še·ḵā ne·p̄eš ’ă·ḏō·nî wə·hā·yə·ṯāh ṣə·rū·rāh ’êṯ Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā biṣ·rō·wr ha·ḥay·yîm wə·’êṯ yə·qal·lə·‘en·nāh bə·ṯō·wḵ ne·p̄eš ’ō·yə·ḇe·ḵā kap̄ haq·qā·la‘
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-should-rise a-man to-pursue-thee and-to-seek thy-soul — then-shall-be the-soul of-my-lord bound-up in-the-bundle of-the-living with Jehovah thy-God; but the-soul of-thine-enemies he-shall-sling-out in-the-hollow of-the-sling.”
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This is one of the earliest and most definite expressions of a sure belief in an eternal future in the presence of God, and Hebrew tradition from the very earliest times down to our day has so regarded it.Ellicott's claim goes well beyond what the verse states, and K&D and Cambridge both restrict the primary sense to preservation in this life. The thread on this verse is flagged accordingly.
The words do not refer primarily to eternal life with God in heaven, but only to the safe preservation of the righteous on this earth in the grace and fellowship of the Lord.K&D nevertheless goes on to say that one so hidden in the Lord's fellowship will not be allowed to perish even in temporal death — a carefully staged, not a flat, denial.
The comparison is especially appropriate as addressed to David, whose feat with his sling was so celebrated
The figure is taken from the practice of binding up valuables in a bag or bundle.
30When the LORD has done for my lord all the good He promised, and when He has appointed you ruler over Israel,
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wə·hā·yāh kî- Yah·weh ya·‘ă·śeh la·ḏō·nî kə·ḵōl ’ă·šer- haṭ·ṭō·w·ḇāh dib·ber ’eṯ- wə·ṣiw·wə·ḵā lə·nā·ḡîḏ ‘al- ‘ā·le·ḵā yiś·rā·’êl
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-it-shall-be, when Jehovah does for-my-lord according-to-all the-good which he-has-spoken concerning-thee, and-commands-thee as-leader over Israel —”
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Abigail’s prudence, and her familiarity with the true idea of the theocratic king which was to be realised in David, suggest that she may have received instruction from Samuel, or some other prophet.
Abigail manifests such an advance and maturity in the life of faith, as could only have been derived from intercourse with prophets.K&D concedes in the same paragraph that this cannot be historically sustained; he argues it from the analogy of the companies gathered around Elijah and Elisha.
for he was both appointed and anointed already; and this Abigail knew, and was now well known in Israel, and the common talk of the people.
31then my lord will have no remorse or guilt of conscience over needless bloodshed and revenge. And when the LORD has dealt well with my lord, may you remember your servant.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
la·ḏō·nî ṯih·yeh wə·lō zōṯ lə·ḵā lə·p̄ū·qāh ū·lə·miḵ·šō·wl lêḇ ḥin·nām wə·liš·pāḵ- dām ’ă·ḏō·nî lōw ū·lə·hō·wō·šî·a‘ Yah·weh wə·hê·ṭiḇ la·ḏō·nî wə·zā·ḵar·tā ’eṯ- ’ă·mā·ṯe·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“— then-this shall-not-be to-thee for-a-staggering and-for-a-stumbling-block of-heart to-my-lord: both-to-shed blood for-nothing, and-my-lord's-saving-himself. And-when-Jehovah deals-well with-my-lord, then-remember thy-handmaid.”
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The Heb. word, which occurs nowhere else, probably means stumbling-block.
thy mind and conscience will be free from all the torment which the guilt and shame of such an action would cause in thee.Poole reads her rhetoric as deliberate — she “cunningly insinuates” the damage to David's glory — while Benson gives the same sentences without imputing craft.
For though Nabal had been guilty of abominable rudeness and ingratitude, yet he had done nothing worthy of death by the laws of God or of man.
32Then David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me this day!
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
dā·wiḏ way·yō·mer la·’ă·ḇî·ḡal bā·rūḵ Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·hê yiś·rā·’êl ’ă·šer šə·lā·ḥêḵ liq·rā·ṯî haz·zeh hay·yō·wm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-David said to-Abigail: “Blessed [be] Jehovah, God-of Israel, who sent-thee this day to-encounter-me!”
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33Blessed is your discernment, and blessed are you, because today you kept me from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ū·ḇā·rūḵ ṭa‘·mêḵ ū·ḇə·rū·ḵāh ’āt ’ă·šer hay·yō·wm haz·zeh mib·bō·w kə·li·ṯi·nî ḇə·ḏā·mîm wə·hō·šê·a‘ yā·ḏî lî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-blessed [be] thy-taste, and-blessed [be] thou, who hast-restrained-me this day from-coming into-bloods, and-from-saving-myself [with] my-own-hand.”
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Never had a more solemn vow been taken than David’s that morning, when he took a solemn oath that he would murder the whole house of Nabal; and yet, before the sun set he is convinced of the wickedness of his purpose, and sooner than carry it out he deliberately breaks the oath.Ellicott's comparison with Saul at Michmash and with Jephthah is his own framing of a genuine biblical contrast: those two kept rash oaths; David breaks one.
Thanks be to God, and to thee for it, being wise, good, and seasonable; or "thy taste" (g), thy good sense, knowledge, as the Targum, discretion, prudence, and understanding
34Otherwise, as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, then surely no male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by morning light.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’ū·lām Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·hê yiś·rā·’êl ḥay- ’ă·šer mə·nā·‘a·nî mê·hā·ra‘ ’ō·ṯāḵ kî lū·lê wat·tå̄·ḇō·ṯī mi·hart liq·rā·ṯî kî ’im- maš·tîn lə·nā·ḇāl nō·w·ṯar ‘aḏ- hab·bō·qer ’ō·wr bə·qîr
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“But-truly, as-lives Jehovah God-of Israel, who has-restrained-me from-doing-evil to-thee — for if thou-hadst-not hastened and-come to-encounter-me, surely there-had-not been-left-over to-Nabal until the-light-of the-morning one-pissing against-a-wall.”
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35Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him, and he said to her, “Go home in peace. See, I have heeded your voice and granted your request.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
dā·wiḏ ’êṯ way·yiq·qaḥ mî·yā·ḏāh ’ă·šer- hê·ḇî·’āh lōw ’ā·mar wə·lāh ‘ă·lî lə·ḇê·ṯêḵ lə·šā·lō·wm rə·’î šā·ma‘·tî ḇə·qō·w·lêḵ wā·’eś·śā pā·nā·yiḵ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-David took from-her-hand that-which she-had-brought to-him, and-to-her he-said: “Go-up to-thy-house in-peace. See — I-have-heard thy-voice, and-I-have-lifted thy-face.”
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done as she desired, forgave the offence, and so lifted her up, as the word signifies, and made her countenance cheerful
Here in a good sense = I have granted thy petition.Cambridge flags the idiom's neutral range: “to lift the face” can also mean partiality in judgment; here it is favour granted, as at Genesis 19:21.
36When Abigail returned to Nabal, there he was in the house, holding a feast fit for a king, in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing until morning light.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’ă·ḇî·ḡa·yil wat·tā·ḇō ’el- nā·ḇāl wə·hin·nêh- lōw bə·ḇê·ṯōw kə·miš·têh miš·teh ham·me·leḵ nā·ḇāl ṭō·wḇ ‘ā·lāw wə·hū wə·lêḇ ‘aḏ- mə·’ōḏ šik·kōr wə·lō- hig·gî·ḏāh lōw dā·ḇār qā·ṭōn wə·ḡā·ḏō·wl ‘aḏ- hab·bō·qer ’ō·wr
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Abigail came to Nabal — and-behold, a-drinking-feast in-his-house like-the-feast-of the-king, and-the-heart-of Nabal good upon-him, and-he drunk unto exceedingly. And-she-told him nothing, small or-great, until the-light-of the-morning.
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The contrast between him and his wife, the high-minded and wise Abigail, is very striking.
as the manner was upon those solemn occasions. Sordid covetousness and vain prodigality were met together in him.
The sheep-shearing season was always a very joyous occasion. Masters usually entertained their shepherds; and even Nabal, though of a most stubborn disposition, prepared festivities on a scale of sumptuous liberality.
37In the morning when Nabal was sober, his wife told him about these events, and his heart failed within him, and he became like a stone.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·hî ḇab·bō·qer min·nā·ḇāl bə·ṣêṯ hay·ya·yin ’iš·tōw ’eṯ- wat·tag·geḏ- lōw hā·’êl·leh had·də·ḇā·rîm lib·bōw way·yā·māṯ bə·qir·bōw wə·hū hā·yāh lə·’ā·ḇen
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-it-was in-the-morning, when-went-out the-wine from-Nabal, and-his-wife told him these words — and-his-heart died within-him, and-he became like-a-stone.
Where the English smooths the original
His heart overnight merry with wine, next morning heavy as a stone; so deceitful are carnal pleasures, so soon passes the laughter of the fool; the end of that mirth is heaviness.
Probably his violent anger at hearing it brought on a fit of apoplexy to which he was disposed by the drunken revel of the night before.“Apoplexy” is Barnes's diagnosis, shared by Cambridge, Ellicott and Pulpit; the Hebrew says only that his heart died and he became as a stone.
The cause of it was not his anger at the loss he had sustained, or merely his alarm at the danger to which he had been exposed, and which he did not believe to be over yet, but also his vexation that his wife should have made him humble himself in such a manner
38About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal dead.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·hî ka·‘ă·śe·reṯ hay·yā·mîm Yah·weh ’eṯ- way·yig·gōp̄ nā·ḇāl way·yā·mōṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-it-was, about-ten the-days — and-Jehovah struck Nabal, and-he-died.
Where the English smooths the original
His death was a divine judgment none the less that a partly natural cause may be assigned for it in his intemperance and passion.
In the language of these old divinely inspired writers, disease and sickness are often spoken of as the special “shafts” aimed by the Most High, as in fact they are.Ellicott is at pains to say the death needed no more than natural causes; his point is about the idiom of Scripture, not about the mechanism.
Worldly sorrow, mortified pride, and an affrighted conscience, sometimes end the joys of the sensualist, and separate the covetous man from his wealth; but, whatever the weapon, the Lord smites men with death when it pleases him.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit opens on an inventory and a verb. וַתְּמַהֵ֣ר (mâhar, H4116) governs everything: she hastens (v. 18), she hastens down from the donkey (v. 23), and David himself says the word back to her — “if thou hadst not hastened” (v. 34). Ellicott records that the LXX and Ewald both tried to enlarge the quantities, thinking them “ridiculously small for such an host as followed David,” and refuses the emendation: this is a present for the men at David's feet, not rations for an army. Cambridge and Barnes agree on the physical facts — nebel skins holding gallons, dᵉbêlâh figs pressed into cakes — and Cambridge notes the store was already standing, “prepared for the shearing feast.” Poole and Benson both say plainly what the Hebrew leaves unsaid, that she acted “without his leave, and against his mind.” Then the narrator does something strange with the meeting itself: both verbs of approach, qârâʼ (H7122) and pâgash (H6298), are collision words, used of hostile encounter. The rescue is written in the grammar of ambush.
K&D rightly calls vv. 21-22 “a circumstantial clause introduced parenthetically”: the narrative stops, and we are put inside David's mouth on the road. He will not say Nabal's name — Gill catches the bare demonstrative, “he mentions not his name, only says 'this'.” He calls his own protection sheqer, a lie (Cambridge cross-refers Jeremiah 3:23). And then he swears, in the doubled oath-formula (ʻâsâh + yâçaph), by the rare idiom מַשְׁתִּ֥ין בְּקִֽיר. K&D's note is the decisive one: that phrase “is only met with in passages which speak of the destruction of a family or household to the very last man,” and he lists them — 1 Kings 14:10; 16:11; 21:21; 2 Kings 9:8. Every one is a prophetic sentence on a royal house. Benson refuses to protect David here: “But is this the voice of David? … Lord, what is man?” Gill adds that Nabal's insolence “deserved resentment, but were not capital crimes.” Ellicott and Cambridge divide over whether “the enemies of David” is original Hebrew or a scribe's pious deflection; the apparatus below keeps both.
She gets down, falls, and prostrates — shâchâh (H7812), the verb of worship. Pulpit makes the comparison that stings: David himself “only stooped with his face to the ground before Saul.” Her first clause is a substitution: בִּי־אֲנִ֥י ... הֶֽעָוֺ֑ן, “upon me, me, my lord, be the guilt” (K&D's rendering keeps the doubled pronoun). Poole reads it as offering herself “as a sacrifice to thy just indignation”; K&D reads it as shrewdness, since she hopes David will not avenge it on her. Both may be true, and the Hebrew decides neither. Her second move is the pun: Nâbâl / nᵉbâlâh (H5037 / H5039), name and folly from one root, which JFB says “gave pertinence to his wife's remark.” Gill defends her for traducing her husband — she says only “what they all knew concerning him” (Poole) — and notes that she does it “to excuse his sin … and preserve his life.” Only third does she mention the gift, and K&D notices the tact: “she does not offer it directly to David, but describes it as a gift for the men in his train.” Benson and Pulpit both dwell on the word she uses for it, Bᵉrâkâh, a blessing: Benson says a present is so called “because the matter of it comes from God's blessing,” and Pulpit, that “the gift is something that comes not from the donor, but from God.”
Here the speech turns from petition to prophecy. נֶאֱמָ֗ן בַּ֣יִת — a faithful house (H539 + H1004), the formula of 1 Samuel 2:35 and 2 Samuel 7:16, on the lips of a Carmelite sheep-master's wife. Barnes measures her faith against Rahab's: “Abigail's firm persuasion of David's kingdom stands upon the same footing as Rahab's conviction of God's gift of Canaan … This is doubtless the reason why Abigail's speech is recorded.” K&D says her words “almost amount to prophecy,” and both he and Cambridge suspect she had been taught by Samuel or the prophetic schools. Ellicott goes further than anyone: “the unconscious prophetess, we may be sure, never dreamed of that glorious and holy One in whose person … the Eternal would make good her words.” Then comes the unit's most quoted line, the bundle of the living (tsᵉrôr, H6872), answered by the sling (qelaʻ, H7050) — an image Barnes notes is “especially appropriate as addressed to David, whose feat with his sling was so celebrated.” Ellicott catalogues the Jewish reception, down to the phrase on gravestones; K&D reins it in: the words “do not refer primarily to eternal life with God in heaven, but only to the safe preservation of the righteous on this earth.” Her last argument is conscience: pûqâh, a word Cambridge says “occurs nowhere else,” a staggering, a thing you trip on — Poole's gloss is that a clear mind “will be free from all the torment which the guilt and shame of such an action would cause in thee.”
David answers with bârûwk three times in two verses — God, her discernment, herself. Poole: “He rightly begins at the fountain of this deliverance, which was God; and then proceeds to the instruments.” What he blesses in her is טַעְמֵ֖ךְ (ṭaʻam, H2940), literally her taste — Gill lists the Targum's range, “discretion, prudence, and understanding.” Then the oath breaks. Ellicott states the case without flinching: “Never had a more solemn vow been taken … and yet, before the sun set he is convinced of the wickedness of his purpose, and sooner than carry it out he deliberately breaks the oath,” and he sets it beside Saul at Michmash and Jephthah, who kept theirs. Benson draws the rule: “oaths, whereby men bind themselves to any sin, are null and void; and, as it was a sin to make them, so it is adding sin to sin to perform them.” Note whose verb David uses for his own restraint: mânaʻ (H4513) in v. 34 — the very word Abigail had put in God's mouth in v. 26. He has accepted her account of who stopped him.
The chapter's second hinnêh shows her the house: “and behold — a feast, like the feast of the king.” JFB describes the shearing-revel as ordinary hospitality kept on a lavish scale; Poole's verdict is sharper — “Sordid covetousness and vain prodigality were met together in him.” Ellicott draws the full contrast between the churl and “the good angel of the household.” She says nothing, “small or great,” till morning light — the same Hiphil of nâgad she withheld in v. 19. When she does speak, וַיָּ֤מָת לִבּוֹ֙: his heart died within him and he became like a stone. Barnes and Cambridge read an apoplexy brought on by rage; Ellicott weighs terror against fury and prefers terror; K&D adds a third cause, “his vexation that his wife should have made him humble himself in such a manner.” Ten days later the narrator drops the medical question entirely: the LORD struck Nabal (nâgaph, H5062, the plague-verb). Cambridge holds both together: “His death was a divine judgment none the less that a partly natural cause may be assigned for it.” Henry's summary is the plainest thing said in this chapter: “whatever the weapon, the Lord smites men with death when it pleases him.”
⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested. The chapter is usually read as a portrait of a wise woman, and it is one. But read the verbs and it becomes something harder: a study of who is permitted to take vengeance. David's oath in v. 22 borrows a formula (mashtîn bᵉqîr) that Scripture otherwise reserves for God's sentence on a royal house — Jeroboam's, Baasha's, Ahab's. The man who has twice refused to stretch out his hand against the LORD's anointed is, over a refused meal, about to pronounce a divine judgment in his own name. Abigail's argument is not that Nabal is innocent; she concedes he is a fool and a worthless man. Her argument is jurisdictional: Jehovah has withheld thee (v. 26), Jehovah will make my lord a faithful house (v. 28), He shall sling out the souls of thine enemies (v. 29). Every clause moves an action from David's hand to God's. And the narrative then does what she said: the LORD strikes Nabal (v. 38), and David's hands are clean of it. What she gave David was not merely a rescue from a crime; she gave him the doctrine that the crown he was about to seize by the sword would be given, and that a king who avenges himself has already stopped waiting for it. If that is right, then her plea and the stroke of v. 38 are one argument with two halves, and the sharpest sentence in the unit is not about Nabal at all but about David: a man's conscience is a thing he must be able to carry into his own reign (v. 31).
She did not ask him to spare a fool; she asked him to leave the vengeance where it already belonged. (⚙ A line of this tool's own reading — not a verse of Scripture.)
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
David's vow in v. 22 — and his admission in v. 34 — hangs on מַשְׁתִּ֥ין בְּקִֽיר (shâthan, H8366, with qîyr, H7023). The Verifier finds the lexeme shared with the judgment oracles on the houses of Jeroboam, Baasha and Ahab, and it is a genuinely rare word: six verses in the whole canon. K&D independently lists exactly these passages and concludes the phrase “is only met with in passages which speak of the destruction of a family or household to the very last man.” The link is verbal and the point is jarring: over a refused provision, David reaches for the language in which the LORD, through prophets, ends a royal line. Gill's judgment stands — the offence “deserved resentment, but were not capital crimes worthy of death.”
1 Kings 14:10 · 1 Kings 16:11 · 1 Kings 21:21
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H8366 shâthan (in 6 vv) — rare — with H7023 qîyr (in 64 vv); the same idiom in every occurrence. Not a quotation of one text by another but a fixed formula; K&D names the identical set of passages.
Two of the items on Abigail's donkeys are rare words: צִמֻּקִ֖ים (tsammûwq, H6778) and דְּבֵלִ֑ים (dᵉbêlâh, H1690). The Verifier finds both, with lechem, in 1 Samuel 30:12 — the abandoned Egyptian whose spirit returns to him when David's men feed him a fig-cake and raisin-cakes, and who then leads David to the recovery of everything he had lost. The same cluster appears in 1 Chronicles 12:40, the provisions brought when all Israel comes to Hebron to make David king, a passage Cambridge cites here. The link is lexical, not quotational: the identical rations pass from a woman's peace-offering to a starving slave's revival to a coronation feast, and each time they arrive in David's hands from someone else's stores.
1 Samuel 30:12 · 1 Chronicles 12:40
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H1690 dᵉbêlâh (in 5 vv) and H6778 tsammûwq (in 4 vv) — both rare — plus H3899 lechem (in 277 vv) and H3196 yayin (in 134 vv). A real verbal link between provision-lists, with no claim that either text quotes the other.
Abigail's נֶאֱמָ֗ן בַּ֣יִת (v. 28) uses the pairing ʼâman (H539) + bayith (H1004). A Verifier pair-check confirms the shared lexemes with 1 Samuel 2:35 — the man of God's oracle against Eli, promising a faithful priest and “a sure house” — and with 2 Samuel 7:16, where the LORD himself says David's house shall be made sure. Barnes, Cambridge, K&D and Gill all cite the same two texts. The tier is deliberately held at structural: ʼâman and bayith are common words, so the weight rests on the fixed phrase and on the unanimous witness of the commentators, not on lexical rarity. What is striking is the order: the woman says the formula in ch. 25; God says it to David in 2 Samuel 7.
1 Samuel 2:35 · 2 Samuel 7:16
basis: Verifier pair-check 1 Samuel 25:28 ↔ 2 Samuel 7:16: shared H539 ʼâman (in 99 vv), H1004 bayith (in 1709 vv); ↔ 1 Samuel 2:35: the same plus H3117 yôwm. Both lexemes are common, so the link is the fixed idiom, not a rare word — held at structural rather than verbal.
Verse 29 pairs a bound bundle with a hurled stone. A Verifier pair-check confirms tsᵉrôwr (H6872, in 9 vv) shared with Genesis 42:35, where each brother finds his bundle of money bound in his sack — the image Barnes and Cambridge both name as the background: what is precious is tied up so it cannot be lost. The counter-image, יְקַלְּעֶ֔נָּה (qâlaʻ, H7049, in 7 vv), is shared with Jeremiah 10:18, where the LORD says he will sling out the inhabitants of the land. Both are rare lexemes. Barnes notes the personal edge: the metaphor is “especially appropriate as addressed to David, whose feat with his sling was so celebrated” (1 Samuel 17:49). She is telling a slinger that God does the slinging.
Genesis 42:35 · Jeremiah 10:18 · 1 Samuel 17:49
basis: Verifier pair-checks: 1 Samuel 25:29 ↔ Genesis 42:35 shares H6872 tsᵉrôwr (in 9 vv, rare); 1 Samuel 25:29 ↔ Jeremiah 10:18 shares H7049 qâlaʻ (in 7 vv, rare) with H6887 tsârar (in 52 vv). Rare shared lexemes; no claim that either text cites the other.
Abigail never cites Torah, but Poole and Benson both hear it under her plea: self-avenging is “directly contrary to God's law, Leviticus 19:18, Deuteronomy 32:35, compared with Romans 12:19.” That is the recorded provenance of this link — commentary, not lexical computation. Because the New Testament leg is Greek, no shared Strong's number can exist between 1 Samuel 25 and Romans 12; the connection is structural and ethical. It is nonetheless exact: Paul quotes Deuteronomy 32:35 to forbid precisely what David swore in v. 22 and thanked God for being prevented from in v. 33 — “from avenging myself by my own hand.”
Leviticus 19:18 · Deuteronomy 32:35 · Romans 12:19
basis: Cross-Testament (Greek ↔ Hebrew): shared Strong's numbers are impossible in principle, so no verbal tier is available. Basis is the recorded citation by Poole (on 25:31) and Benson (on 25:31), plus the shared prohibition of self-avenging; the Hebrew leg does share the theme-word yâshaʻ (H3467, “save/help oneself”) across 25:26, 25:31, 25:33 within this unit.
Ellicott calls v. 29 “one of the earliest and most definite expressions of a sure belief in an eternal future in the presence of God,” cites the Babylonian Talmud (Shabbath 152b) and the Avoth of Rabbi Nathan, and proposes that the verse is the original behind John's vision of the souls under the altar (Revelation 6:9). Gill likewise reports the Talmudic tradition and Maimonides. But K&D flatly denies the primary sense: the words “do not refer primarily to eternal life with God in heaven, but only to the safe preservation of the righteous on this earth.” Cambridge agrees — “the immediate reference is only to the safe preservation of David's temporal life” — while noting the later Jewish interpretation. This thread is flagged: the rabbinic reception is real and well attested by these editors, but the derivation of Revelation 6:9 from 1 Samuel 25:29 is Ellicott's own proposal, with no verbal basis available across the testaments, and the primary sense of the Hebrew is contested among the very commentators quoted here. Verify the Talmudic citations independently before repeating them.
Revelation 6:9
basis: Contested provenance. No cross-Testament lexical basis is possible (Greek ↔ Hebrew). The proposed dependence of Revelation 6:9 on 1 Samuel 25:29 is asserted by Ellicott alone among the voices here, and K&D and Cambridge deny that eternal life is the verse's primary reference. Talmudic citations (Shabbath 152b; Avoth of R. Nathan) are reported at second hand through Ellicott and Gill and are not independently verified in this brief.
The Verifier's highest-scoring neighbours are the surrounding verses of Abigail's own story: the servant's warning (25:14), David's blessing at Nabal's death and his proposal (25:39), her presence among the wives carried off at Ziklag (30:5), and the two lists that name her at Hebron (2 Samuel 2:2; 3:3). The shared basis is the proper name itself. That is a narrative and prosopographic link, not a theological one, and the tier is set accordingly — but it matters for reading this unit, because the woman who says “remember thine handmaid” (v. 31) is in fact remembered, and the household whose destruction David swore becomes the household he marries.
1 Samuel 25:39 · 1 Samuel 30:5 · 2 Samuel 2:2 · 2 Samuel 3:3
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H26 ʼĂbîygayil (in 17 vv) and H5037 Nâbâl (in 18 vv) — both rare, but rare only because they are proper names confined to this narrative. Named-character continuity, deliberately not tiered verbal.
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
✦ Ellicott says it outright at v. 28: the Israelite lady repeats a promise whose reach she did not know, and “the unconscious prophetess, we may be sure, never dreamed of that glorious and holy One in whose person, far down the stream of ages, the Eternal would make good her words.” Barnes, Cambridge, K&D and Gill all read נֶאֱמָ֗ן בַּ֣יִת through 2 Samuel 7:16, and the apostolic reading of that oracle — the throne of David given to one whose kingdom has no end — is as old as Gabriel's words in Luke 1:32-33 and Peter's sermon at Pentecost. ⚙ What this unit adds is the setting: the promise of an unending house is first spoken aloud, in Scripture, by a woman kneeling in a ravine to stop its heir from massacring a household. The covenant that will establish a house is invoked to keep David from destroying one.
2 Samuel 7:16 · Luke 1:32-33 · Acts 2:30
⚙ This is the tool's own reading, and no commentator in this brief makes it. Abigail's first words are a transfer of liability: בִּי־אֲנִ֥י ... הֶֽעָוֺ֑ן — the article on ʻâvôn (H5771), the word that in Hebrew idiom carries both the guilt and its punishment. Poole understands the offer as real: “punish it in me, who here offer myself as a sacrifice to thy just indignation.” She is innocent of the offence (v. 25, “thy handmaid saw not the young men”), she names the guilty party without excusing him, and she asks to stand in his place — and the household under sentence is spared. The pattern is the one Paul writes to Philemon in the plainest terms: “If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account.” ⚙ I mark this novel rather than ancient: the substitution is genuinely in the Hebrew, but the figural reading is mine, and K&D offers a competing and unflattering account of her motive — that she takes the guilt because she expects David will not avenge it on her. A reader should weigh that before taking the type.
1 Samuel 25:24 · Philemon 1:18 · Isaiah 53:6
✦ Three times in this unit the same idiom appears: God “withheld thee from saving thyself with thine own hand” (v. 26), the deed would have been “that my lord hath avenged himself” (v. 31), “and from avenging myself by my own hand” (v. 33) — each built on yâshaʻ (H3467), the verb whose noun is salvation and from which the name Jesus is formed. Poole, citing Leviticus 19:18 and Deuteronomy 32:35 “compared with Romans 12:19,” makes the ethical link explicit, and Benson draws the rule about sinful oaths. ⚙ The verbal irony is my own observation and I do not press it as a proof: the man who refuses to save himself by his own hand is the ancestor of the one of whom it was said, “He saved others; himself he cannot save,” and who “when he was reviled, did not revile in return, but entrusted himself to him who judges justly.” The restraint David learned from a woman in a ravine is the posture the New Testament calls the imitation of Christ. The ethic is ancient and widely held; the wordplay on yâshaʻ is mine, and it is a resonance, not an argument.
Matthew 27:42 · 1 Peter 2:23 · Romans 12:19
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
⚙ Honesty notes for this unit. Text. Verse 22 has a real textual problem: the received Hebrew curses “the enemies of David,” while the LXX (and per Ellicott the Syriac and Arabic) read simply “David.” BSB follows the versions (“May God punish David”); the interlinear in this brief preserves לְאֹיְבֵ֥י דָוִ֖ד. Ellicott, Poole, Benson and K&D defend the Hebrew as original and explain it as euphemism or as an argument from lesser to greater; Cambridge proposes instead that a corrector introduced it, unwilling to let David curse himself over an oath he then broke. Nothing here decides it, and the literal rendering above follows the Hebrew, not BSB. Forms. K&D notes ʿăśāwōṯ in v. 18 as “a rare form,” and wat·tå̄·ḇō·ṯī in v. 34 as “very unusual” — possibly a copyist's error, possibly an intensified second-person feminine imperfect; he prefers the latter. Pûqâh in v. 31 is, per Cambridge, a word that “occurs nowhere else,” so its sense (staggering / stumbling-block) is established from context and cognates, not from usage. Measures. The size of a seah is reported differently by the sources quoted: Cambridge says one third of an ephah, K&D computes five seahs as “an ephah and two-thirds,” and Gill cites Bishop Cumberland for roughly two wine gallons. The LXX read ephahs, and Ewald conjectured 500; Ellicott and Pulpit both reject the enlargement. Indices. The word indices used as note keys follow this brief's Berean interlinear ordering, which in several verses places a word ahead of its position in the Masoretic clause order (e.g. 25:18 word 0, 25:23 word 1, 25:36 words 26 and 25). Two items in 25:21 (words 13 and 17) and several elsewhere carry no Strong's number in the source. Unverified at second hand. Ellicott's and Gill's Talmudic citations on v. 29, Gill's appeal to Ben Gersom and Jarchi, and K&D's quotations of Seb. Schmidt are reported through those editors and have not been checked against the primary sources here. Medical claim. “Apoplexy” in vv. 37-38 is the diagnosis of Barnes, Cambridge, Ellicott and Pulpit, not of the text; the Hebrew says only that his heart died within him, that he became like a stone, and that ten days later the LORD struck him (nâgaph, H5062).
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)