1 Samuelchapter 25

A.Nabal answers churlishly at sheepshearingvv. 1-13

1 When Samuel died, all Israel gathered to mourn for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David set out and went down to the Wilderness of Paran. 2 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. 3 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. 4 While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep. 5 So David sent ten young men and instructed them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel. Greet him in my name 6 and say to him, ‘Long life to you, and peace to you and your house and to all that belongs to you. 7 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. 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.’” 9 When David’s young men arrived, they relayed all these words to Nabal on behalf of David. Then they waited. 10 But Nabal asked them, “Who is David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants these days are breaking away from their masters. 11 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?” 12 So David’s men turned around and went back, and they relayed to him all these words. 13 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.

B.Abigail rides down with loaves and better counselvv. 14-31

14 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. 15 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. 16 They were a wall around us, both day and night, the whole time we were herding our sheep near them. 17 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!” 18 Then 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 19 and said to her young men, “Go ahead of me. I will be right behind you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. 20 As Abigail came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, she saw David and his men coming down toward her, and she met them. 21 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. 22 May God punish David, and ever so severely, if I let one of Nabal’s men survive until morning.” 23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off the donkey, fell facedown, and bowed before him. 24 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. 25 My 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. 26 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. 27 Now let this gift your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow you. 28 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. 29 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. 30 When the LORD has done for my lord all the good He promised, and when He has appointed you ruler over Israel, 31 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.”

C.His heart died within him; Abigail becomes David's wifevv. 32-44

32 Then David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me this day! 33 Blessed is your discernment, and blessed are you, because today you kept me from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand. 34 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.” 35 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.” 36 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. 37 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. 38 About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal dead. 39 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.” Then David sent word to Abigail, asking for her in marriage. 40 When his servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they said, “David has sent us to take you as his wife.” 41 She arose, then bowed facedown and said, “Here is your maidservant, ready to serve and to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.” 42 So Abigail hurried and got on a donkey, and attended by five of her maidens, she followed David’s messengers and became his wife. 43 David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel. So she and Abigail were both his wives. 44 But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

Commentary on this chapter: read the Exposition

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Chapter summary

Samuel dies and all Israel mourns, and the story turns at once to a crisis that nearly ruins David.

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Samuel dies and all Israel mourns, and the story turns at once to a crisis that nearly ruins David. Nabal (churlish and evil in his doings, whose name means folly), refuses provisions to the men who were a wall to his shepherds night and day, and David straps on his sword to kill every male in the house. Abigail, a woman of good understanding, rides out with loaves, wine, sheep, raisins, and figs, and talks him down: the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with Jehovah thy God. David blesses her advice as the mercy that kept his hand clean. Nabal's heart dies within him, and ten days later Jehovah smites him.

Drawn from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary and John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament.

Context

History · Samuel, Nathan, Gad — 1 Samuel overview

A. 1–13 Nabal answers churlishly at sheepshearing
B. 14–31 Abigail rides down with loaves and better counsel
C. 32–44 His heart died within him; Abigail becomes David's wife

Top cross-references8 chapters ▾

1 Samuel 259 verses
- 1 Samuel 25:7Now 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.
- 1 Samuel 25:15Yet 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.
- 1 Samuel 25:17Now 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!”
- 1 Samuel 25:19and said to her young men, “Go ahead of me. I will be right behind you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
- 1 Samuel 25:21Now 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.
- 1 Samuel 25:26Now, 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.
- Read 1 Samuel 25: 3 more there →
1 Samuel 204 verses
- 1 Samuel 20:7If he says, ‘Good,’ then your servant is safe, but if he is enraged, you will know he has evil intentions.
- 1 Samuel 20:13But if my father intends to bring evil on you, then may the LORD punish me, and ever so severely, if I do not tell you and send you on your way in safety. May the LORD be with you, just as He has been with my father.
- 1 Samuel 20:41When the young man had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone, fell facedown, and bowed three times. Then he and Jonathan kissed each other and wept together—though David wept more.
- 1 Samuel 20:42And Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for the two of us have sworn in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘May the LORD be a witness between you and me, and between your descendants and mine forever.’” Then David got up and departed, and Jonathan went back into the city.
- Read 1 Samuel 20 →
Genesis 244 verses
- Genesis 24:27saying, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not withheld His kindness and faithfulness from my master. As for me, the LORD has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.”
- Genesis 24:37My master made me swear an oath and said, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I dwell,
- Genesis 24:51Rebekah is here before you. Take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master’s son, just as the LORD has decreed.”
- Genesis 24:61Then Rebekah and her servant girls got ready, mounted the camels, and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left.
- Read Genesis 24 →
Joshua 153 verses
- Joshua 15:18One day Acsah came to Othniel and urged him to ask her father for a field. When she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her, “What do you desire?”
- Joshua 15:55Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Juttah,
- Joshua 15:56Jezreel, Jokdeam, Zanoah,
- Read Joshua 15 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

2 Samuel 133 verses
- 2 Samuel 13:23Two years later, when Absalom’s sheepshearers were at Baal-hazor near Ephraim, he invited all the sons of the king.
- 2 Samuel 13:28Now Absalom had ordered his young men, “Watch Amnon until his heart is merry with wine, and when I order you to strike Amnon down, you are to kill him. Do not be afraid. Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and valiant!”
- 2 Samuel 13:33So now, my lord the king, do not take to heart the report that all the sons of the king are dead. Only Amnon is dead.”
- Read 2 Samuel 13 →
Romans 122 verses
- Romans 12:19Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.”
- Romans 12:21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
- Read Romans 12 →
1 Samuel 222 verses
- 1 Samuel 22:2And all who were distressed or indebted or discontented rallied around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.
- 1 Samuel 22:7Then Saul said to his servants, “Listen, men of Benjamin! Is the son of Jesse giving all of you fields and vineyards and making you commanders of thousands or hundreds?
- Read 1 Samuel 22 →
1 Samuel 242 verses
- 1 Samuel 24:5Afterward, David’s conscience was stricken because he had cut off the corner of Saul’s robe.
- 1 Samuel 24:11See, my father, look at the corner of your robe in my hand. For I cut it off, but I did not kill you. See and know that there is no evil or rebellion in my hands. I have not sinned against you, even though you are hunting me down to take my life.
- Read 1 Samuel 24 →

Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.