1 Samuel 25:1 Then Samuel died; and the Israelites gathered together and lamented for him, and buried him at his home in Ramah. And David arose and went down to the Wilderness of Paran.
“Perhaps rather than honours, for a long time the old prophet had lived apart from the court, and alienated from the king he had chosen and anointed.” (Ellicott's Commentary) But a dead prophet is a threat to no one. “Then Samuel died and the Israelites gathered together and lamented for him," likely even king Saul came for a show of piety.
"'And they buried him in his house at Ramah.’ Not literally: ‘in his house,’—this would not have accorded (Leviticus 19:16) with the Jewish purification laws.” (Lange's Commentary) "'In his house,'— The meaning of this is uncertain because in 2 Chronicles 3:20, it is recorded that Manasseh was buried ‘in his house’; but the parallel passage in 2 Kings 21:18, states that the burial was ‘in the garden of his house.” (Coffman Commentary)
Contact with the dead is prohibited, likely to prevent eventual attempts to communicate with the spirits of the dead. This renders a man or woman ritually or spiritually unclean. So Samuel was buried in the garden of his home in Ramah, where he will sleep until resurrection morning. At that time, he will be raised unto judgment— surely the first resurrection, that of the just, along with his son David: “I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day... For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: ‘Yahweh said to my Lord, sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.’ [Ps 110:1] Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2:29; 34-36)
David was there, probably in disguise, but then “arose and went down to the Wilderness of Paran”— being still full of the Spirit.
1 Samuel 25: Nabal- The Obstinate Fool
2 Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel, and the man was very rich. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3 The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance; but the man was harsh and evil in his doings. He was of the house of Caleb.
4 When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep, 5 David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. 6 And thus you shall say to him who lives in prosperity: ‘Peace be to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that you have! 7 Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds were with us, and we did not hurt them, nor was there anything missing from them all the while they were in Carmel. 8 Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David.’”
9 So when David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David, and waited.
10 Then Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, “Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master. 11 Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they are from?”
David acted as deliverer to Nabal and his household. “‘Nabal’ means ‘obstinate fool’... It seems most unlikely that any parent would have named a son ‘Nabal,’ and the name may therefore be explained as an epithet assigned to him by his contemporaries who so judged his character.” (Coffman Commentary) And Abigail- his wife’s name- means, “the joy of her father.” “Her name, too, was most likely given her by the villagers on her husband’s estate, as expressive of her sunny, gladness-bringing presence. Her early training, and the question respecting the sources whence she derived her wisdom and deep, far-sighted piety.” (Ellicott's Commentary) “‘And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance; but the man was harsh and evil in his doings.”
Nabal “‘was of the house of Caleb.’—But nothing like him. Virtue is not, as lands, heritable.” (John Trapp)— “He was as his heart, as his heart was bad, so was he; some men, their outside is better than their inside; but this man was no hypocrite, he was as bad outwardly as he was inwardly.” (John Gill) “Many versions consider Caleb (dog) not as a proper, but a common noun, and render it 'he was snappish as a dog.’” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown) But “house of dogs” is an unlikely phrase to be used.
David bids his ten young men to greet Nabal. “‘And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity’—… tacitly minds him of the distress in which he and his men were.” (John Wesley)—> “‘’Peace be to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that you have!’ So David’s prayer is very comprehensive, reaching to his soul, and body, and wife, and children, and servants, and all his estate.“ (Matthew Poole)— “‘Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds were with us, and we did not hurt them, nor was there anything missing from them all the while they were in Carmel. Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day.’ “Sheepshearing was conducted as a festival (comp. Gen 38:12; 2Sa 13:23), when strangers and the poor were feasted.” (Preacher's Complete Homiletical)— “Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David.’ By referring to himself as Nabal’s ‘son’ ( 1 Samuel 25:8) David was placing himself in a subordinate position to Nabal…” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable) in Israel, as he had done to King Saul.
Many commentators think that David was responding as was custom of “Arab chiefs, who protect the cattle of the large and wealthy sheep-masters from the attacks of the marauding border tribes or wild beasts. Their protection creates a claim for some kind of tribute, in the shape of supplies of food and necessaries, which is usually given with great good-will and gratitude; but when withheld, is enforced as a right. Nabal's refusal, therefore, was a violation of the established usage of the place.” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown) But I think it is more likely that David was showing "himself the protector of his people." (Keil & Delitzsch)
“David’s armed followers had been patrolling the wilderness of Paran in Judah where Nabal’s shepherds had been tending his flocks. They had made that area safe from raiding Amalekites, Philistines, and occasional wild animals that might have harassed Nabal’s shepherds… [It was now a feast time for Nabal and his household.] Sheep-shearing was a happy time for shepherds and usually involved feasting (cf. 2 Samuel 13:23-24)... We can see in these verses that David, as one committed to the Mosaic Law and as the Lord’s anointed, was a blessing and an indirect source of fertility to his companions.” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable) .
“So when David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David, and waited.” “David, in a season of feebleness, sought to rest himself upon Nabal’s gratitude, and he found that be was trusting in the staff of a broken reed which pierced him. In his necessity he made an appeal to Nabal’s generosity, and he found it was as vain as trying to quench his thirst with the waters of Marah.” (The Biblical Illustrator- C. Vince)— “And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, ‘Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master etc.…’ Thus, in order to justify his own covetousness, he set down David as a vagrant who had run away from his master.” (Keil & Delitzsch)—
“‘And I should take my bread and my water (i.e., my food and drink), and my meat [cattle] , ... and give them to men whom I do not know whence they are? ”— “He reproaches them all as a company of fugitives and vagabonds; and, in effect, taxes David with infidelity to his master Saul; a most rude and brutish answer to such a civil message and humble request.” (Joseph Benson) Nabal “is a type of natural man and especially those who reject the Lord and His message of peace. His words ‘my bread; ’my water’; ’my flesh'; ’my shearers’— and the whole story reminds us of that other fool of whom our Lord spoke. He also spoke of ‘my barns’; ’my fruits’; ’my goods’ (Luke 12:16-21).” (Arno Gaebelein)
12 So David’s young men turned on their heels and went back; and they came and told him all these words. 13 Then David said to his men, “Every man gird on his sword.” So every man girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword. And about four hundred men went with David, and two hundred stayed with the supplies.
“‘And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword,’ to take revenge for this insult. ‘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,’ guarding the camp. Nabal is a type of a covetous fool, whose heart has been hardened against every form of distress and want, who is willing enough to accept services at the hand of others, but wants to know nothing of services on his part.” (Paul E. Kretzmann) Nabal lived in the present without spiritual eyes. Everyone knew that David was chosen by Samuel to follow Saul in leading the nation of Israel. He was in effect rejecting the prophet. This kind of irreverence cannot- yea, must not- be allowed in Israel!
Thus it will be in the Day of Jesus' reign on earth that those ritualist who refused to share the sacraments and of divine ordinances with the stranger will be cutoff in the second death and deprived of eternal life.
1 Samuel 25: Abigail Had Ears to Hear
14 Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master; and he reviled them. 15 But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, nor did we miss anything as long as we accompanied them, when we were in the fields. 16 They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the time we were with them keeping the sheep. 17 Now therefore, know and consider what you will do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his household. For he is such a scoundrel that one cannot speak to him.”
“Now one of the young men”— of Nabal’s camp— “told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying: ’Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master’; Hebrew, ‘to bless [him]’ (see 1 Samuel 13:10; 2 Kings 4:29); ‘and he railed on them.’ Literally, ‘flew upon them like a bird of prey.’— ‘But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt.’ Literally, ‘not put to shame.’…—Hebrew, ‘as long as we went about with them.’ etc.— 'They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the time we were with them keeping the sheep.’— i.e.. a sure protection both against wild beasts and Amalekite and other plunderers.” (The Pulpit Commentaries)
“‘Now, therefore, know and consider what thou wilt do,’ Abigail was to find some way to avert a probable calamity; ‘for evil is determined against our master and against all his household,’ this they might count on as firmly settled.” (Paul E. Kretzmann) “‘For he’— Nabal— ‘is such a scoundrel’, literally “son of Belial", which means or son of "lawlessness” or “destruction”— ‘that one cannot speak to him or reason concerning David, nor spiritual things. He has no regard for the Law or Torah (Teachings) of Yahweh. ”’Belial’ is often rendered as a proper noun. Thus, such translations as ‘sons of Belial’ appear (Jgs 19:22; 1 Sm 2:12, KJV), ‘daughter of Belial’ (1 Sm 1:16), or ‘children of Belial’ (Dt 13:13; Jgs 20:13) Newer translations generally prefer the common noun form and give such readings as ’worthless rabble’ or simply ‘worthless’ and the like (Dt 13:13; Jgs 19:22; 20:13; 1 Sm 1:16; 2:12; 10:27; Prv 6:12).... Intertestamental literature often used ‘Belial’ as a proper noun and thus prepared the way for its NT usage. In the NT the term.. is identified with Satan, the personification of all that is evil.” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary)
“Come let us reason together,” says Yahweh. But Nabal would not; his mind was firm. His nature was carnal. He would not listen to these messengers, nor eyewitnesses within his own camp, nor the prophet of Israel, who had anointed David as king... and who had long predicted the coming of Messiah. Jesus spoke to some people with similar dispositions as Nabal in his day: “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.” (John 8:44a)
“And” Paul asks knowingly, “what concord has Christ with Belial? or what part has he that believes with an infidel?” (2 Cor 6:15) Though they come from good descent, they are not Israelites (Romans 9:6). They are enemies of truth. The believer is being prepared by the Spirit for eternal life; but all obstinate fools, as this son of Belial, are pitted for destruction. “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
1 Samuel 25 Abigail Act
18 Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19 Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20 As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them. 21 David had just said, “It’s been useless—all my watching over this fellow’s property in the wilderness so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. 22 May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!”
23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground. 24 She fell at his feet and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord, and let me speak to you; hear what your servant has to say. 25 Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name—his name means Fool, and folly goes with him. And as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my lord sent. 26 And now, my lord, as surely as Yahweh your God lives and as you live, since Yahweh has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, may your enemies and all who are intent on harming my lord be like Nabal. 27 And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you.
28 “Please forgive your servant’s presumption. Yahweh your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because you fight the Lord’s battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live. 29 Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by Yahweh your God, but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling. 30 When Yahweh has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel, 31 my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when Yahweh your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant.”
Abigail acted quickly without telling her foolish husband for expediency, as David was bent on the destruction of Nabal and all of the males in his house. “She leaves her house in the night for David’s camp: but how is she surprised to meet the prince and his army at the foot of her own hill! Another hour of delay, and all had perished.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)— a just compensation for his foolish disbelief. And none of the males stoop up.
Her present “was more than David would necessarily have originally expected, but she knew that the extra would be needed if there was to be any hope of appeasing him. The fact that the sheep were ready dressed demonstrates that the feast was still going on.” (Peter Pett)
“Then she told her servants, ‘Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.’ They carried the present, that David, beholding it, might be a little mitigated before she came to him.”— (Joseph Benson) “As Abimelech had done earlier (1 Sam 21:4), Abigail prepared to sustain the Lord’s anointed and his men with food. Compare Jacob’s similar scheme to placate Esau (Gen 32:13-21).” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable) She knows the stories of faith.
“‘When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground.’ This very abject obeisance may have been grounded on her belief in David's future kingship, or it may simply mark the inferior position held by women in those days (see 1 Samuel 25:41).” (The Pulpit Commentary)
Either way, he was her lord in Israel. “Accompanying this act of courtesy with the lowest form of prostration, she not only by her attitude, but her language, made the fullest amends for the disrespect shown by her husband, as well as paid the fullest tribute of respect to the character and claims of David.” (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown)
She was willing to die in the place of the many. "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. This whole speech of Abigail shows great wisdom. By an absolute submitting to mercy, without any pretence of justification of what was done.”(Joseph Benson)
“But first hear my defence, and then do thy pleasure.” (John Trapp): “Pardon your servant, my lord, and let me speak to you; hear what your servant has to say.—> “Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this son of Belial, Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him.’ His noted folly and stupidity is a more proper object for thy pity than anger. His sordid answer to thy servants did not proceed from any ill design, or deep malice, but from brutish sottishhess, and want of the understanding of a man in him. It may be thought a great crime, that she traduceth her husband in this manner; but this may be said for her, that she told them nothing but what they all knew concerning him, and that she only seemed to take away that which he never had indeed, to wit, his good name, that she might preserve that which he had, and which was more dear and important to him, even his life and soul.” (Matthew Poole)
“‘And as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my lord sent.’ Though I freely submit myself to the punishment for the transgression, it was a sin of ignorance. “Abigail, whose wont and business it was to set things to rights, ‘saw not the young men’, and so was unable to save them from her husband's rudeness.” (Pulpit Commentary) “‘As surely as Yahweh your God lives and as you live, since Yahweh has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands,’ So confident is this pious and wise woman that she is doing the Lord’s work, and that He is standing by her, that, in presence of the armed band and their angry leader, she speaks as though the danger to her husband’s house was a thing of the past, and that David had real cause for thankfulness in that he had been prevented from doing a wanton, wicked act.” (C. J. Ellicott)
“‘May your enemies and all who are intent on harming my lord be like Nabal’ — “equally harmless.” (C. J. Ellicott) — “And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you.”
“Please forgive your servant’s presumption”- behavior that was “arrogant, disrespectful, and transgressing the limits of what is permitted or appropriate.” For I know “’Yahweh your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because you fight the Lord’s battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live.’ There was a recognition here by Abigail that Saul, who should have been fighting the battles of the Lord was not doing so.” (Burton Coffman)
“‘Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life,'- even Saul- 'the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by Yahweh your God.’ The thought is that his being bound up in a bundle made up of God’s life, and of the lives of His chosen ones, makes him invulnerable. Death cannot penetrate it. His life is safe in God’s hands. Today we would say, ‘your life is hid with Christ in God’ (Col 3:3). The picture is a vivid one. Those who are true to God are tied up with Him in His bundle of life safe and secure in His hands.— 'But the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling.’...[they] would be put in the pouch of YHWH’s sling to be slung out far and wide away from YHWH’s protection. This would include both Nabal and Saul. And to be far from YHWH could only result in death in contrast with life. It was to live in the shadows and then finally be destroyed.” (Peter Pett)
THUS: “When Yahweh has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel, my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when Yahweh your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant.’”
1 Samuel 25: David Accepts Abigails Person… and Forgives the Sin of the Household
32 Then David said to Abigail: “Blessed is Yahweh God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! 33 And blessed is your advice and blessed are you, because you have kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand. 34 For indeed, as the Yahweh God of Israel lives, who has kept me back from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely by morning light no males would have been left to Nabal!” 35 So David received from her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have heeded your voice and respected your person.”
David had shown his patience in his willingness to wait on Yahweh’s timing of his kingdom on earth. He was completely loyal to King Saul as he waited. But here we see that he needed a lesson in how to deal with infidels with whom he had no clear Word of Yahweh. He was ready to destroy all. But vengeance is Mine! I will repay,” says the Yahweh.
Yahweh wanted to save some of the house of Nabal! David had sworn, “May God do so, and more also, to the enemies of David," The Syriac and Arabic Versions, followed by some commentators, instead of ‘enemies of David,’ read ‘his servant David.’ The LXX., as usual, boldly cuts the knot by leaving out the word of difficulty, and reads ‘David’ simply, omitting ‘enemies.’” (C. J. Ellicott) It may, therefore, read better,
“May God do so, and more also, to David, if I leave any males”— or according to some “any” at all— “who belong to him… etc.”
“The revengeful purpose and rash vow of David were... formed under the influence of excitement.“ (Expositor's Bible Commentary) He likely supposed that these were like the inhabitance of the land unto whom probation had ended. But they were not.
Probation had only ended for Nabal. And David showed piety by listening to Abigail and repenting of the intended evil towards the whole. “Wise David, who listened to the words of a woman who was a stranger to him, contrasts with foolish Nabal, who would not listen to the words of his wise wife or his fearful servants.” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable) Vows, "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.” (Joseph Benson)
Then David said to Abigail—>
“‘Blessed is Yahweh God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me!’— He rightly begins at the fountain of this deliverance; and then proceeds to the instruments.” (Joseph Benson)—> “’And blessed is your advice.’ Above all, in spiritual things, we need advice. We can’t devise and scheme and succeed there all by ourselves. It is often said in the story of David’s life, that he ‘inquired of the Lord.’” (Christian World Pulpit) Though here we have no word of David inquiring of the Lord, yet nonetheless, He sends a messenger to His anointed man.— “’and blessed are you, because you have kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand. For indeed, as the Yahweh God of Israel lives, who has kept me back from hurting you,’ not that he intended to kill her, but the males only; as was noted in 1 Samuel 25:22. But their destruction was a dreadful affliction and damage to her.” (Matthew Poole)
Or "all" was really intended— not males but literally “any that pisseth against the wall.” “Dog or cat, as we say: Canem in hoc oppido non relinquam, I will not leave a dog alive in this town, said Aurelian, the emperor, concerning Tyane, which had shut her gates upon him.” (Trapp)
“’So David received from her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have heeded your voice and respected your person. ”’To accept the person’ (נָשָׂא פָנִים) = ‘to have regard to,’ Genesis 19:21.” (Lange's Commentary) “’her person’— thus acknowledging her place as spiritual head of Nabal’s house.
David sees in Abigail's mission "the hand of ‘Jehovah the God of Israel,’ who had ‘sent’ her, i.e. stirred her up to come. He commends also her ‘advice,’ literally, her ‘taste,’ i.e. wisdom, discretion. It is the word rendered ‘behaviour’ in 1 Samuel 21:13. But for this prudent conduct on her part in thus coming to meet him on the way, he solemnly assures her on oath that nothing could have saved Nabal and every male in his household from death. Finally, he accepts her present and dismisses her with the assurance that all was forgiven.” (The Pulpit Commentary)
1 Samuel 25:36 Now Abigail went to Nabal, and there he was, holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk; therefore she told him nothing, little or much, until morning light.
When she returned home, Abigail finds Nabal very drunk— in the revel of the feast “‘like a king’s feast,’ as rich and luxurious. Compare the description of the rich man, Luke 19. ‘Merry on account of it,’ that is the feast.“ (J. P. Lange) He failed to share with the party that has kept guard of his flock, even David and his men, “but very probably there were others that were invited to this entertainment besides the shearers; covetous men are generally very profuse when they make feasts.” (Gill)
At the end of time, there will be a similar group who “say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” (Revelation 3:17)
Nabal “was totally oblivious to his mortal danger. He was feasting rather than fasting. He was behaving like a king, the ultimate authority, rather than as a servant of the next king (cf. 1 Samuel 25:24).” (Dr. Thomas B Constable)— whom he had recently rejected as a run away slave.
“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. So with no conscience about the past and no fear of the future, men immerse themselves in the self-indulgence while on the very verge of the devastating judgment of God!” (L. M. Grantt) “Therefore she told him nothing’; he being then incapable of admonition, his reason and conscience being both asleep.” (Matthew Poole) Similarly, the Spirit awaits the moment to plead but for some it will not be “until morning light”— resurrection morning at the last day.. when it will be too late to repent of evil.
1 Samuel 25: The Dead Heart
37 So it was, in the morning, when the wine had gone from Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became like a stone. 38 Then it happened, after about ten days, that the Lord struck Nabal, and he died. 39a So when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be Yahweh, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept His servant from evil! For Yahweh has returned the wickedness of Nabal on his own head.”
“Next morning, how he [Nabal] is changed! 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.” (Matthew Henry) Abigail told Nabal. “That tongue of hers had oft advised him well and prevailed not. Now it occasioneth his death, whose reformation it could not effect. She meant nothing but his amendment. God meant to make that loving instrument the means of his revenge. Wonderful, saith one, was the force of this woman’s speech, that as it before allayed David’s rage, so now it pierceth Nabal to the heart. This power was not in her human eloquence, but proceeded from the Spirit of God.” (John Trapp)
“‘And his wife had told him these things’... what had taken place, her having taken large provisions to go to meet David, finding him on his way to Nabal's home with the full intention of killing all the males of his household. The foolish man had no anticipation of this, and when he heard it his heart died with him and he became as a stone. Evidently he was so terrified that he became as one paralyzed. But fear of judgment does not save a man's soul, nor does it soften his heart to respond to God: 'his heart became as hard as a stone.' We are told concerning God in Romans 9:18 : ‘whom He will be hardeneth.’ This is the result of one hardening his own heart.
Whom does God will harden? Those who will not repent.” (L. M. Grantt)
“‘And it came to pass about ten days after that Yahweh smote Nabal that he died,’ his death being a punishment for his ungodliness.” (Paul E. Kretzmann) So will it be on Judgment Day, when the graves are opened. There will be anguish and gnashing of teeth but no conversions before the second death for all fools. “The fool hath said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” (Psalm 14:1)
"How could David rejoice at the death of his enemy? Answer- Although it may be said that he rejoiced not in Nabal’s death as such, but only in the declaration of God’s justice in punishing so great a wickedness; which was an honour to God, and a document, and therefore a benefit to mankind, and so a public good, and cause of joy... It may be further said, that this was not purely an act of private revenge, because David was a public person, and anointed king; and therefore Nabal’s reproach cast upon David above, 1 Samuel 25:10,11, was a contempt of God, and of his ordinance and appointment; which was vindicated by this remarkable judgment. Moreover, Yahweh ‘hath kept his servant from evil, i.e.’ from the sin of bloodshed and self-revenge." (Matthew Poole) “For Yahweh has returned the wickedness of Nabal on his own head.”
1 Samuel 25: David's Lawful Marriage to Abigail
39b And David sent and proposed to Abigail, to take her as his wife. 40 When the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her saying, “David sent us to you, to ask you to become his wife.” 41 Then she arose, bowed her face to the earth, and said, “Here is your maidservant, a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” 42 So Abigail rose in haste and rode on a donkey, attended by five of her maidens; and she followed the messengers of David, and became his wife. 43 David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and so both of them were his wives. 44 But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was from Gallim.
People are quick to accuse but David was a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13;22). He "had done what was right in the eyes of Yahweh and had not failed to keep any of Yahweh's commands all the days of his life- except in the case of Uriah the Hittite." (1 Kings 15:5) He murder him and stole his wife, but truly repented of his evil deeds. So it seems that he is innocent in polygamy, according to law of God.
David proposed to Abigail, "'to take her as his wife;’ which she might lawfully become, Nabal being dead, and Michal, David's wife, being taken from him, and given to another man, with whom she lived in adultery; or as divorced by David, as the Jews say, David by the law of God was free from her.“ (John Gill) “No sooner did David hear of Nabal’s death, than he sent to secure this faithful guardian, this wise companion and virtuous friend, for the partner of all his toil. So Abigail rose to the throne by her virtues, while vice hurled Nabal into the shades of oblivion.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) Here is the picture of faith’s reward seen on this side of eternity.
Micah went after the messengers; likely after the usual seven days of Hebrew grieving. “She considered not David’s present straits and penury, which site thought her plentiful estate might supply; nor his danger from Saul; but by a true and strong faith rested upon God’s promise made to David, not doubting but God would perform it.” (Matthew Poole) “Bringing with her five maidens who attended her, she rides on a donkey to go to David, and became his wife. We are not told what became of the property and possessions that had been her husband's [and thus gained by greed]. To her these were of no importance compared to her union with David, and David was not covetous of this great wealth.” (L.M Grantt)
David took another wife also, Ahinoam of Jezreel. “This was not forbidden in the Old Testament, though it was never God's intention.” (L. M. Grantt) It was done to care for the widow. And her motives were equally pure— to do the most medial tasks for his servants —> “Here is your maidservant, a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.”
“While it is perfectly true that we have no right to measure David by the standards of our own time, it is equally clear that at this point we have evidence of a weakness which presently was to lead him into the most terrible sin of his life and cause him the greatest difficulty and the acutest suffering.” (Morgan’s Expositions) “The fable represented that the heel of Achilles, the only vulnerable part of his body, because his mother held him by it when she dipped him in the Styx, was the spot on which he received his fatal wound. It was through an unmortified lust of the flesh that nearly all David's sorrows came. How emphatic in this view the prayer of the Apostle - ‘I pray God that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord.’
And how necessary and appropriate the exhortation, ‘Put on the whole armour of God’ - girdle, breast-plate, sandals, helmet, sword - all; leave no part un- protected, ‘that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.’” (Expositor's Bible)
“‘But Saul had given Michal his daughter’— The marriage of the Princess Michal to Phalti (Michal, we read, ‘loved David,’1 Samuel 18:20) had taken place probably some time before. This high-handed act showed on the part of Saul a fixed determination to break utterly and for ever with David.” (C. J. Ellicott)- It was likely done “that he might not have by his wife any pretence or title to the crown.” (John Trapp)