1 Samuel 25:1-22
Death of Samuel
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.
David and the Wife of Nabal
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?”
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.
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.”
18 Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already dressed, five seahs of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19 And she said to her servants, “Go on before me; see, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20 So it was, as she rode on the donkey, that she went down under cover of the hill; and there were David and his men, coming down toward her, and she met them. 21 Now David had said, “Surely in vain I have protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belongs to him. And he has repaid me evil for good. 22 May God do so, and more also, to the enemies of David, if I leave one male of all who belong to him by morning light.”
After the prophet Samuel who anointed David as the true king died, David and his band of loyal brothers came near Carmel by the house of a rich descendant of loyal Caleb. This wealthy man Nabal had a wife called Abigail who had good understanding and a beautiful appearance. Her husband, unfortunately, was the opposite; he was both harsh and evil, a true scoundrel as foolish his name (1 Samuel 25:25) depicted him. David visited him to inform Nabal that they had been protecting his flock and shepherds all the while they were there, and therefore asked if he could return the blessing by providing some sustenance for him and his men. The foolish and evil response to civility and good will was to disregard David as a breakaway servant of Saul who was unworthy of giving any of his hard-earned living to feed. David was rightly furious and armed himself and four hundred of his men for battle against him. Abigail was warned and the servant pleaded with her to intervene for this gross misconduct of Nabal as she knew the good David had done for them. They knew Nabal was such a scoundrel (son of Belial) that he would continue on this path to destruction unless she mediated for him to save them all from destruction. Such is the parallel of God’s Son mediating for us to deliver from the certain destruction of God’s wrath on all who follow and support the evil one who denies and defies the living God of all creation. She stood in the gap by sending supplies to meet David and his approaching army after they arrived to him. As she met them, Abigail heard David’s oath to answer the repayment of his good protection against unthankful and disrespectful evil with certain destruction. He vowed to wipe out the evil man and all his male heirs to put an end to such worthless folly. But for Abigail the wise and understanding beauty, that would have been the outcome of the evil and unthankful beast denying the Lord’s Anointed. A mediator was needed then and is even more critical now in light of eternal judgment.
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