seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
1 Samuel 25:1 Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David moved down into the Desert of Paran.
2 A certain man in Maon, who had property there at Carmel, was very wealthy. He had 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 was surly and mean in his dealings—he was a Calebite.
4 While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep. 5 So he sent ten young men and said to them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name. 6 Say to him: ‘Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!
7 “‘Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing. 8 Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.’”
9 When David’s men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David’s name. Then they waited.
10 Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days. 11 Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?”
12 David’s men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word. 13 David said to his men, “Each of you strap on your sword!” So they did, and David strapped his on as well. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.
14 One of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them. 15 Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing. 16 Night and day they were a wall around us the whole time we were herding our sheep near them. 17 Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him.”
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 the Lord your God lives and as you live, since the Lord 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. The Lord 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 the Lord your God, but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling. 30 When the Lord 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 the Lord your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant.”
32 David said to Abigail, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. 33 May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. 34 Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak.”
35 Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said, “Go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request.”
36 When Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until daybreak. 37 Then in the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone. 38 About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.
39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Praise be to the Lord, who has upheld my cause against Nabal for treating me with contempt. He has kept his servant from doing wrong and has brought Nabal’s wrongdoing down on his own head.”
Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife. 40 His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail, “David has sent us to you to take you to become his wife.”
41 She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, “I am your servant and am ready to serve you and wash the feet of my lord’s servants.” 42 Abigail quickly got on a donkey and, attended by her five female servants, went with David’s messengers and became his wife. 43 David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both were his wives. 44 But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Paltiel son of Laish, who was from Gallim.
This is the link to the commentary I had to use this morning.First of all, check out Verse 1. Samuel died. There are still six more chapters in 1 Samuel, and the whole book of 2 Samuel... but the guy the books are named for has died!!!! Wow!
OK then, on to another terrific story offered by the Bible! It's a really "good book"!
Now David and his 600 men were camped out near Carmel. They were watching over the shepherds and the sheep around them. Not one sheep or goat or dog was lost during that time. I'm pretty sure the men were hunting whatever was hunting the sheep. I bet they were cooking up all kinds of predators.
No doubt though, 600 men were getting hungry for bread and raison cakes.
So David sent a couple of messengers to get some "food assistance".
I saw this very plot on a Western not too long ago.
Nabal was a drunk. I bet he beat his wife when he got drunk. He had a nasty attitude, apparently. He told those messengers to "take a hike". He was not giving those men anything.
After all, Nabal didn't agree to anything when David's men just started hanging out. As a matter of fact, I bet his men were a little apprehensive when the "extra guard" arrived. He was under no oath to cooperate. He was not going to just give the messengers anything he didn't contract for.
Abigail was married to Nabal. In those days, once you were married, you had to stay. No one else would take in someone else's wife unless the guy was dead. If she left him, she would have had to beg on the street.
Nabel's shepherds, however, knew David could take them out easily. David had 600 men in his little army by the time this happened. David's men just hung there on the perimeter. They didn't steal a single ewe. They just hung out, using the sheep to trap whatever might come sniffing.
In the Western version of this plot, the men watching the sheep were watching David's men as closely as they were watching the sheep ["food on the hoof"].
Abigail saw the peril. Abigail went to work!
Where in the world did Abigail come up with all that food?????
200 loaves of bread would have done me in!!!!
Abigail had to use more than one donkey to take the food out to David's men.
When she got home, Nabal was drunk. She didn't tell him until the morning.
When she did tell him, he had a stroke and ten days later he died. Boy he must have blown a gasket! His blood pressure must have gone through the roof. A hang over is bad enough, but he stroked out!
Then David went back for her. Why not? She was beautiful and smart.
David had earned the hand of Saul's daughter. Saul took back his daughter and gave her to another man.
Then David married Ahinoam from Jezreel.
Now he's married Abigail from Carmel.
David has two wives.
I know it was a long chapter, but it was quite action packed!!! Enough to change the plot to a Western show!
This is about....
Abigail, her belligerent drunk, and David!
