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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - 1 Samuel 25:14 - 25:35
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Abigail's Tact and Prudence
v. 14. But one of the young men, of the servants of Nabal, told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them, drove over them, flew on them in a rage.
v. 15. But the men, namely, those of David, were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, injured, made subjects of shame and contempt, neither missed we anything as long as we were conversant with them, during all the time of their fellowship with them, when we were in the fields;
v. 16. they were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep, their presence had proved a powerful protection against the wild beasts as well as against the robbers of the desert.
v. 17. 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; for he, Nabal, is such a son of Belial, bad, foolish, and profitless, that a man cannot speak to him. That was the estimate in which Nabal was held by his household and by his servants.
v. 18. Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, the skins used for this purpose in the Orient, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, more than forty quarts of roasted gram, and an hundred clusters of raisins, in the form of cakes made of pressed raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, also in the pressed form, and laid them on asses.
v. 19. And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. Like Jacob, Gen_32:13-20, she sent the presents of reconciliation ahead of her. But she told not her husband Nabal, who would probably have interfered very decidedly.
v. 20. And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the covert of the hill, probably a depression or pass between two peaks, hidden from sight at any distance, and, behold, David and his men came down against her; and she met them.
v. 21. Now, David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, in protecting his wealth in flocks, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him; and he hath requited me evil for good. David had been bitterly disappointed in his expectation of receiving any recognition whatever on the part of Nabal and had now flared up in passionate anger, which was not right.
v. 22. So and more also do God unto the enemies of David if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall, so much as a single person. David wrongly considered the act of Nabal a manifestation of enmity against the cause of Jehovah.
v. 23. And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, in an attitude of supplication and subjection, and bowed herself to the ground,
v. 24. and fell at his feet, humbling herself more and more before him, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me, let this iniquity be, the blame or guilt for this unfortunate affair; and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid. He was to consider her alone as the foolish and guilty person with whom he was to deal.
v. 25. Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal, he should not take his behavior to heart; for as his name is, so is he; Nabal (fool) is his name, and folly is with him; but I, thine handmaid, saw not the young men of my lord whom thou didst send. Having drawn attention to her own person, she proceeds with her arguments.
v. 26. Now, therefore, my lord, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the Lord hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, literally, "into blood-guiltiness," and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, by saving or procuring help for himself, thus making himself guilty of a serious crime, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal, sons of folly, the correlate of godlessness, which invariably brings the punishment of God upon the sinner. To these two points Abigail now adds the third argument, in offering her gift.
v. 27. And now this blessing, the present which she had sent before her, which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord, these words showing that she was a skilful diplomat. It is only now that she asks for pardon and forbearance.
v. 28. I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid, the guilt which she had taken upon herself by her own confession; for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, as a reward of his magnanimity in this case, because my lord fighteth the battles of the Lord, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days, that is, bad luck, misfortune.
v. 29. Yet a man is risen to pursue thee and to seek thy soul, or, "Should a man arise and pursue," for she delicately omits a direct reference to Saul; but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord, thy God, said of the sure protection which the children of God enjoy in the merciful fellowship of the Lord here on earth; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall He sling out, as out of the middle of a sling, the pan of the sling where the missile is placed before it is shot. It is a strong expression for the total rejection which should strike the enemies of David by the divine punishment.
v. 30. And it shall come to pass, when the Lord shall have done to my lord according to all the good that He hath spoken concerning thee, for she knew that God had chosen and called David to be king of Israel, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel,
v. 31. that this shall be no grief unto thee nor offense of heart unto my lord, a stumbling-block or vexation, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself, bloodshed and self-help being the double sin that he would have been guilty of; but when the Lord shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid, not to forget her entirely in his own prosperity.
v. 32. And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me, for David ever acknowledged himself to be under divine guidance;
v. 33. and blessed be thy advice, her tactful wisdom, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand, thus accepting the correction in the two points which she made.
v. 34. For in very deed, as the Lord God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light, by tomorrow morning, any that pisseth against the wall.
v. 35. So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, the presents in food, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house, without anxiety; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person, her petition had been favorably regarded by him. Like David, all believers will find many an occasion for thanking the Lord for mercifully keeping them from some severe transgression, often in the very nick of time.