What does Abigail do to stop David’s planned revenge against Nabal’s household?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

She brings a precisely listed gift, takes blame on herself and asks David to avoid innocent blood and personal revenge before his future rule. David blesses the Lord, her words and her for holding him back, receives the gift and sends her home in peace. Nabal later dies after the Lord strikes him, and Abigail becomes David’s wife.

Chapter breakdown

Samuel dies. All Israel gathers, mourns him and buries him in his house at Ramatha; David rises and goes down to Pharan’s wilderness. A very great man in Maon’s wilderness has possessions in Carmel, three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and is shearing sheep in Carmel. His name is Nabal, of Caleb’s house. His wife Abigail is prudent and very beautiful, while he is churlish, very bad and ill natured. Hearing about the shearing, David sends ten young men to Carmel to greet Nabal in his name with peace. They are to wish peace to his brethren, to Nabal, his house and all he has. David’s message says he never troubled the shepherds with them in the desert and nothing of their flock was missing at any time while together in Carmel. Nabal should ask his servants to confirm it. Having come on a good day, David asks favour and whatever Nabal’s hand can find for the servants and his son David. The messengers say all this in David’s name and then keep silent.

Nabal asks who David and Isai’s son are, saying servants who flee their masters are numerous nowadays. He asks whether he should give his bread, water and the flesh of cattle killed for his shearers to men whose origin he does not know. David’s servants return and report all his words. David orders each young man to put on his sword; they and David do so. About four hundred follow him and two hundred remain with the baggage. One servant tells Abigail that David’s wilderness messengers greeted their master and were rejected. He says David’s men were very good, caused no trouble and nothing was lost while they were together in the desert. They were a wall to them night and day while they kept sheep together. He tells her to consider what to do because evil is determined against her husband and house, calling Nabal a son of Belial whom nobody can speak to.

Abigail hurries and loads asses with two hundred loaves, two vessels of wine, five ready-dressed sheep, five measures of parched corn, a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of dry figs. She sends her servants ahead and says she will follow, without telling Nabal. Riding an ass down to the mountain’s foot, she meets David and his men coming down opposite her. David says he kept Nabal’s wilderness property in vain: nothing was lost, yet evil was returned for good. He invokes God to do so and so and add more to David’s foes if he leaves any male belonging to Nabal alive until morning; the verse uses the phrase about pissing against the wall. Challoner separately says David certainly sinned in his designs against Nabal and his family, which David afterward recognized when he blessed God for hindering his proposed revenge.

Seeing David, Abigail quickly gets off the ass, falls before him on her face and bows to the ground. At his feet she asks that the iniquity be upon her and that her lord hear his handmaid’s words. She asks my lord the king not to regard the naughty Nabal: his name fits his folly, and she did not see David’s servants. Challoner separately says Nabal in Hebrew means a fool. Invoking the living Lord and David’s living soul, she says the Lord has kept him from coming to blood and saved his hand to him, and asks that his enemies and those seeking his harm be as Nabal. She asks him to receive her blessing and give it to the young men following him. Asking forgiveness of her iniquity, she says the Lord will surely make him a faithful house because he fights the Lord’s battles, and asks that evil not be found in him all his life. If anyone persecutes him and seeks his life, she says his soul will be kept in the bundle of the living with the Lord his God, while his enemies’ souls will be whirled like a sling. When the Lord has done all the promised good and made him prince over Israel, he should have no grief or scruple of heart from shedding innocent blood or avenging himself. She asks him to remember his handmaid when the Lord does him good.

David blesses the Lord God of Israel for sending Abigail to meet him that day, blesses her speech and blesses her for keeping him that day from bloodshed and revenge with his own hand. He swears by the living Lord God of Israel, who withheld him from doing her evil, that if she had not come quickly, no male would have been left to Nabal by morning light. This remains David’s stated conditional claim. He receives all she brought and tells her to go to her house in peace: he has heard her voice and honoured her face.

Abigail finds Nabal holding a feast in his house like a king’s. His heart is merry and he is very drunk, so she tells him nothing, less or more, until morning. Early then, after he digests his wine, she tells him the words. His heart dies within him and he becomes like a stone. After ten days the Lord strikes Nabal and he dies. Hearing this, David blesses the Lord for judging his reproach at Nabal’s hand, keeping his servant from evil and returning Nabal’s wickedness on his head. Challoner separately explains that David praises God for visibly taking his cause in hand and punishing the injury while mercifully keeping him from personal revenge, rather than from joy at Nabal’s death, which would show bitterness of heart. David sends to arrange taking Abigail as his wife. His servants come to Carmel with the proposal. She rises, bows with her face to the earth and offers to be a handmaid washing the feet of her lord’s servants. She hurries onto an ass with five waiting maids, follows David’s messengers and becomes his wife. David also takes Achinoam of Jezrahel; both are his wives. Saul gives Michol, his daughter and David’s wife, to Phalti, son of Lais, of Gallim.

The story inside

Samuel’s death and David’s move introduce the setting of Nabal’s shearing. David’s peaceful request and Nabal’s refusal lead to swords being put on and a household servant warning Abigail. Her gift and meeting answer that danger. Her appeal joins an explanation of Nabal and her own absence from the first message with a request to avoid blood and revenge before future rule. David acknowledges that she has held him back and receives the gift. She waits through Nabal’s drunken feast before telling him. His heart becomes like stone, then the Lord strikes him after ten days. David praises the Lord and sends a marriage proposal, which Abigail follows. The closing lines name Achinoam and the transfer of Michol with all their relationships. The three Challoner notes separately explain David’s sinful design, Nabal’s name and David’s praise.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The household servant supplies the reason for urgency. He recalls good treatment and protection night and day, then reports danger to husband and house and Nabal’s inability to be addressed. Abigail responds with all six kinds of food and drink and their stated amounts.
2
Abigail’s appeal and David’s answer identify what changed. She warns of future grief over innocent blood and revenge; David blesses her for preventing both bloodshed and revenge with his own hand. His conditional threat is quoted as his words, not treated as a completed massacre.
3
Nabal’s condition is described without a medical diagnosis. The source says his heart died within him, he became like stone and the Lord struck him after ten days. Challoner distinguishes David’s praise from pleasure at the death; the marriage record adds no legal custom or motive for Saul.

Test your recall

How do Nabal’s answer and the servant’s warning lead to Abigail’s gift and appeal, which reason does David give for blessing her, and what sequence follows her return home?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 30968–31007
1 Kings Chapter 25 The death of Samuel. David, provoked by Nabal, threateneth to destroy him: but is appeased by Abigail. 25:1. And Samuel died, and all Israel was gathered together, and they mourned for him, and buried him in his house in Ramatha. And David rose, and went down into the wilderness of Pharan. 25:2. Now there was a certain man in the wilderness of Maon, and his possessions were in Carmel, and the man was very great: and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and it happened that he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 25:3. Now the name of the man was Nabal: and the name of his wife was Abigail. And she was a prudent and very comely woman: but her husband was churlish, and very bad and ill natured: and he was of the house of Caleb. 25:4. And when David heard in the wilderness, that Nabal was shearing his sheep, 25:5. He sent ten young men, and said to them: Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and salute him in my name with peace. 25:6. And you shall say: Peace be to my brethren, and to thee, and peace to thy house, and peace to all that thou hast. 25:7. I have heard that thy shepherds that were with us in the desert were shearing: we never molested them, neither was there ought missing to them of the flock at any time, all the while they were with us in Carmel. 25:8. Ask thy servants, and they will tell thee. Now therefore let thy servants find favour in thy eyes: for we are come in a good day, whatsoever thy hand shall find give to thy servants, and to thy son David. 25:9. And when David’s servants came, they spoke to Nabal all these words in David’s name, and then held their peace.
Lines 31009–31038
25:10. But Nabal answering the servants of David, said: Who is David? and what is the son of Isai? servants are multiplied now days who flee from their masters. 25:11. Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and the flesh of my cattle, which I have killed for my shearers, and give to men whom I know not whence they are? 25:12. So the servants of David went back their way, and returning came and told him all the words that he said. 25:13. Then David said to his young men: Let every man gird on his sword. And they girded on every man his sword. And David also girded on his sword: and there followed David about four hundred men, and two hundred remained with the baggage. 25:14. But one of the servants told, Abigail, the wife of Nabal, saying: Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness, to salute our master: and he rejected them. 25:15. These men were very good to us, and gave us no trouble: Neither did we ever lose any thing all the time that we conversed with them in the desert. 25:16. They were a wall unto us, both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. 25:17. Wherefore consider, and think what thou hast to do: for evil is determined against thy husband, and against thy house, and he is a son of Belial, so that no man can speak to him.
Lines 31040–31062
25:18. Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves, and two vessels of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of dry figs, and laid them upon asses: 25:19. And she said to her servants: Go before me: behold, I will follow after you: but she told not her husband, Nabal. 25:20. And when she had gotten upon an ass, and was coming down to the foot of the mountain, David and his men came down over against her, and she met them. 25:21. And David said: Truly in vain have I kept all that belonged to this fellow in the wilderness, and nothing was lost of all that pertained unto him: and he hath returned me evil for good. 25:22. May God do so and so, and add more to the foes of David, if I leave of all that belong to him till the morning, any that pisseth against the wall. If I leave, etc.... David certainly sinned in his designs against Nabal and his family, as he himself was afterwards sensible, when he blessed God for hindering him from executing the revenge he had proposed.
Lines 31064–31104
25:23. And when Abigail saw David, she made haste and lighted off the ass, and fell before David, on her face, and adored upon the ground. 25:24. And she fell at his feet, and said: Upon me let this iniquity be, my lord: let thy handmaid speak, I beseech thee, in thy ears, and hear the words of thy servant. 25:25. Let not my lord the king, I pray thee, regard this naughty man, Nabal: for according to his name, he is a fool, and folly is with him: but I, thy handmaid, did not see thy servants, my lord, whom thou sentest. His name.... Nabal, in Hebrew, signifies a fool. 25:26. Now therefore, my lord, the Lord liveth, and thy soul liveth, who hath withholden thee from coming to blood, and hath saved thy hand to thee: and now let thy enemies be as Nabal, and all they that seek evil to my lord. 25:27. Wherefore receive this blessing, which thy handmaid hath brought to thee, my lord: and give it to the young men that follow thee, my lord. 25:28. Forgive the iniquity of thy handmaid: for the Lord will surely make for my lord a faithful house, because thou, my lord, fightest the battles of the Lord: let not evil therefore be found in thee all the days of thy life. 25:29. For if a man at any time shall rise, and persecute thee, and seek thy life, the soul of my lord shall be kept, as in the bundle of the living, with the Lord thy God: but the souls of thy enemies shall be whirled, as with the violence and whirling of a sling. 25:30. And when the Lord shall have done to thee, my lord, all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have made thee prince over Israel, 25:31. This shall not be an occasion of grief to thee, and a scruple of heart to my lord, that thou hast shed innocent blood, or hast revenged thyself: and when the Lord shall have done well by my lord, thou shalt remember thy handmaid.
Lines 31106–31119
25:32. And David said to Abigail: Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, who sent thee this day to meet me, and blessed be thy speech: 25:33. And blessed be thou, who hast kept me to day from coming to blood, and revenging me with my own hand. 25:34. Otherwise, as the Lord liveth, the God of Israel, who hath withholden me from doing thee any evil, if thou hadst not quickly come to meet me, there had not been left to Nabal by the morning light, any that pisseth against the wall. 25:35. And David received at her hand all that she had brought him, and said to her: Go in peace into thy house, behold I have heard thy voice, and honoured thy face.
Lines 31121–31162
25:36. And Abigail came to Nabal: and behold he had a feast in his house, like the feast of a king: and Nabal’s heart was merry, for he was very drunk: and she told him nothing less or more until morning. 25:37. But early in the morning, when Nabal had digested his wine, his wife told him these words, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. 25:38. And after ten days had passed, the Lord struck Nabal, and he died. 25:39. And when David had heard that Nabal was dead, he said: Blessed be the Lord, who hath judged the cause of my reproach, at the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil, and the Lord hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his head. Then David sent and treated with Abigail, that he might take her to himself for a wife. Blessed be, etc.... David praiseth God, on this occasion, not out of joy for the death of Nabal (which would have argued a rancour of heart), but because he saw that God had so visibly taken his cause in hand, in punishing the injury done to him; whilst, by a merciful providence he kept him from revenging himself. 25:40. And David’s servants came to Abigail, to Carmel, and spoke to her, saying: David hath sent us to thee, to take thee to himself for a wife. 25:41. And she arose, and bowed herself down with her face to the earth, and said: Behold, let thy servant be a handmaid, to wash the feet of the servants of my lord. 25:42. And Abigail arose, and made haste, and got upon an ass, and five damsels went with her, her waiting maids, and she followed the messengers of David, and became his wife. 25:43. Moreover David took also Achinoam of Jezrahel: and they were both of them his wives. 25:44. But Saul gave Michol, his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti, the son of Lais, who was of Gallim.