The Death of Samuel
When Samuel died, all Israel gathered to mourn for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. 1Sa 28:3Deu 34:8Num 20:292Ch 33:20Act 8:2Gen 21:21Num 10:121Ki 2:34
Then David set out and went down to the Wilderness of Paran. 1
David, Nabal, and Abigail
Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. He was a very wealthy man with a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel. 1Sa 23:24Gen 38:13Jos 15:55Luk 16:19-251Sa 30:52Sa 13:23-242Sa 19:32Gen 13:2 His name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband, a Calebite, was harsh and evil in his dealings. Pro 14:1Isa 32:5-7Pro 31:10Pro 31:30-31Psa 10:31Sa 25:17Pro 31:261Sa 25:10-11
While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep. 2Sa 13:23Gen 38:13 So David sent ten young men and instructed them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel. Greet him in my name 1Sa 17:22Gen 43:23 and say to him, ‘Long life to you, and peace to you and your house and to all that belongs to you. 1Ch 12:18Psa 122:71Ti 5:6Luk 10:52Th 3:16Jhn 14:27Mat 10:12-131Th 3:8 Now I hear that it is time for shearing. When your shepherds were with us, we did not harass them, and nothing of theirs was missing the whole time they were in Carmel. 1Sa 25:211Sa 25:15-161Sa 22:2Isa 11:6-9Luk 3:14Php 2:15Php 4:8 Ask your young men, and they will tell you. So let my young men find favor with you, for we have come on the day of a feast. Please give whatever you can afford to your servants and to your son David.’” Est 9:19Neh 8:10-121Sa 24:111Sa 3:6Ecc 11:2Est 9:22Luk 11:41Luk 14:12-14
When David’s young men arrived, they relayed all these words to Nabal on behalf of David. Then they waited. 2Ch 14:72Ki 2:15Gen 8:4
But Nabal asked them, “Who is David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants these days are breaking away from their masters. Jdg 9:281Ki 12:161Sa 20:301Sa 22:21Sa 22:7-82Sa 20:1Ecc 7:10Exo 5:2 Why should I take my bread and water and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give them to these men whose origin I do not know?” Jdg 8:6Gal 6:101Pe 4:91Sa 24:131Sa 25:14-151Sa 25:32Co 6:9Deu 8:17
So David’s men turned around and went back, and they relayed to him all these words. 2Sa 24:13Heb 13:17Isa 36:21-22
And David said to his men, “Strap on your swords!” So David and all his men put on their swords, and about four hundred men followed David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies. 1Sa 23:131Sa 24:5-61Sa 30:21-241Sa 30:9-10Jas 1:19-20Jos 9:14Pro 14:29Pro 19:11
Meanwhile, one of Nabal’s young men informed Nabal’s wife Abigail, “Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he scolded them. 1Sa 13:10Mrk 15:29 Yet these men were very good to us. When we were in the field, we were not harassed, and nothing of ours went missing the whole time we lived among them. 1Sa 25:211Sa 25:7Php 2:15 They were a wall around us, both day and night, the whole time we were herding our sheep near them. Job 1:10Exo 14:22Zec 2:5Jer 15:20 Now consider carefully what you must do, because disaster looms over our master and all his household. For he is such a scoundrel that nobody can speak to him!” 1Sa 20:7Deu 13:131Ki 21:101Ki 21:131Sa 2:121Sa 20:32-331Sa 20:91Sa 25:25
Abigail Intercedes for Nabal
Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five butchered sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, 2 a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs. She loaded them on donkeys 2Sa 16:1Mat 5:25Pro 18:16Pro 6:4-51Ch 12:401Sa 25:342Sa 17:28-29Gen 32:13-20 and said to her young men, “Go ahead of me. I will be right behind you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. Gen 32:20Gen 32:16Pro 31:11-12Pro 31:27
As Abigail came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, she saw David and his men coming down toward her, and she met them. 2Ki 4:24
Now David had just finished saying, “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. Pro 17:13Eph 4:26Eph 4:31Rom 12:211Pe 2:20-231Pe 3:171Th 5:151Pe 3:9 May God punish David, 3 and ever so severely, if I let one of Nabal’s men survive until morning.” 1Ki 14:101Sa 20:131Sa 3:171Ki 21:211Ki 16:111Sa 14:441Sa 20:162Ki 9:8
When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off the donkey, fell facedown, and bowed before him. 1Sa 20:41Jdg 1:14Jos 15:181Sa 24:8 She 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. 1Sa 25:282Sa 14:9Est 8:32Ki 4:37Phm 1:18-192Sa 14:12Gen 44:18Gen 44:33-34 My lord should pay no attention to this scoundrel Nabal, 4 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. 1Sa 25:17Mal 2:22Sa 13:331Sa 25:26Isa 42:25
Now, my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, the LORD has held you back from coming to bloodshed and avenging yourself with your own hand. May your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be like Nabal. 2Sa 18:32Rom 12:19-20Gen 20:61Sa 25:33-34Dan 4:19Heb 10:30Psa 18:47-48Psa 44:3
Now let this gift your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow you. 1Sa 30:26Gen 33:112Ki 5:151Sa 25:422Co 9:52Sa 16:2Jdg 4:10 Please 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. 1Sa 18:172Sa 7:111Ch 17:251Sa 24:111Ch 17:101Ki 9:52Sa 7:161Ki 15:5
And 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. 5 Jhn 17:21Mal 3:17Mat 10:29-30Psa 116:151Pe 1:51Sa 2:9Jer 10:18Jhn 17:23
When the LORD has done for my lord all the good He promised, and when He has appointed you ruler over Israel, 1Sa 13:141Sa 15:281Sa 23:17Psa 89:20 then 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 maidservant.” Gen 40:141Sa 25:33Rom 12:191Sa 24:151Sa 25:401Sa 26:232Sa 22:48Luk 23:42
Then David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me this day! Luk 1:68Exo 18:10Gen 24:27Psa 72:182Co 8:16Ezr 7:27Psa 41:12-13 Blessed is your discernment, and blessed are you, because today you kept me from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand. 1Sa 25:26Pro 17:10Pro 25:12Pro 27:21Pro 28:23Pro 9:9Psa 141:51Sa 24:19 Otherwise, 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.” 1Sa 11:111Sa 25:181Sa 25:26Jos 10:6Jos 10:9
Then 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.” 1Sa 20:422Ki 5:19Gen 19:212Sa 15:9Job 34:19Luk 7:50Luk 8:48
When 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. 1Sa 25:191Th 5:7-82Sa 13:232Sa 13:28Pro 20:1Mat 10:16Rom 13:131Ki 20:16
In 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. 1Sa 25:221Sa 25:34Deu 28:28Job 15:21-22Pro 23:29-35 About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal dead. 1Sa 25:331Sa 26:101Sa 6:92Ch 10:152Ki 15:52Ki 19:352Sa 6:7Act 12:23
David Marries Abigail
On hearing that Nabal was dead, David said, “Blessed be the LORD, who has upheld my cause against the reproach of Nabal and has restrained His servant from evil. For the LORD has brought the wickedness of Nabal down upon his own head.” 1Sa 25:261Sa 25:34Pro 22:231Ki 2:441Sa 24:151Sa 25:32Psa 7:161Th 5:23
Then David sent word to Abigail, asking for her in marriage. When his servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they said, “David has sent us to take you as his wife.” Gen 24:51Gen 24:37-38
She arose, then bowed facedown and said, “Here is your maidservant, ready to serve and to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.” 1Ti 5:10Jhn 13:3-5Rut 2:10Gen 18:4Pro 15:33Pro 18:12Rut 2:13
So Abigail hurried and got on a donkey, and attended by five of her maidens, she followed David’s messengers and became his wife. Gen 24:61-67Psa 45:10-11
David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel. So she and Abigail were both his wives. 1Sa 27:31Sa 30:5Jos 15:562Sa 3:22Sa 5:13-16Gen 2:24Mat 19:5Mat 19:8 But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti 6son of Laish, who was from Gallim. 1Sa 18:272Sa 3:141Sa 18:20Isa 10:30