Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
Chapter Twenty-five. Synopsis of the Chapter
Samuel dies. David asks provisions of Nabal, who is shearing his sheep; he hurls reproaches and insults at him. Wherefore David, angry, swears that he will kill him with all his. Abigail, Nabal’s wife, hears this, and by her flattering speech and generosity appeases David. After ten days God slays Nabal, verse 38. David gives thanks to God, and takes two wives, Abigail and Achinoam, in place of Michol, whom Saul took from him and gave to
1. And Samuel died, and all Israel was gathered together, and they lamented him, and buried him in his house in Ramatha. And David rose up and went down into the desert of Pharan. 2. And there was a certain man in the wilderness of Maon, and his possession was in Carmel, and the man was exceeding great: and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats; and it happened that he was shearing his flock in Carmel. 3. Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail; and she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful: but her husband was churlish, and very bad and malicious: and he was of the race of Caleb. 4. When David therefore heard in the desert that Nabal was shearing his sheep, 5. he sent ten young men, and said to them: Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and salute him in my name peaceably. 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. 7. I have heard that thy shepherds who were with us in the desert were shearing: we never molested them, neither was there ever any thing missing of their flock, all the time they were with us in Carmel. 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. 9. And when David’s servants were come, they spoke to Nabal all these words in the name of David, and held their peace. 10. But Nabal answering David’s servants, said: Who is David? and who is the son of Isai? servants are multiplied now a days that flee from their masters. 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? 12. So David’s servants went back by the way they came, and returning they came and told him all the words that he had said. 13. Then David said to his 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 stayed by the baggage. 14. But one of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying: Behold, David sent messengers out of the desert to salute our master, and he rejected them. 15. These men were very good to us, and did us no harm; neither did we ever lose any thing all the time that we were conversant with them in the desert. 16. They were a wall to us, both by night and day, all the days that we fed the flocks with them. 17. Wherefore consider, and think what thou shalt do: for evil is determined against thy husband, and against thy house, and he is the son of Belial, so that no man can speak to him. 18. Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two vessels of wine, and five rams ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred bunches of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them upon asses. 19. And she said to her servants: Go before me, behold I will follow you after: but she told not her husband Nabal. 20. And when she was riding on the ass, and coming down to the foot of the mountain, David and his men came down over against her, and she met them. 21. And David said: Indeed in vain have I kept all that this fellow had in the desert, and nothing was lost of all that belonged to him; and he hath returned me evil for good. 22. May God do so and so to the enemies of David, and add more, if I leave of all that belong to him till the morning any that pisseth against the wall. 23. And when Abigail saw David, she made haste, and lighted off the ass; and fell on her face before David, and adored upon the ground, 24. and 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. Let not my lord the king, I pray thee, regard this wicked 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 didst send. 26. Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, who hath withholden thee from coming to blood, and hath saved thy hand to thee, now let thy enemies be as Nabal, and all that seek evil to my lord. 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. 28. Take away the iniquity of thy handmaid: for the Lord will surely make 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. 29. For if a man at any time rise up persecuting thee, and seeking 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. 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 ruler over Israel: 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. 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, 33. and blessed be thou, who hast kept me this day from coming to blood, and avenging me with my own hand. 34. Otherwise, as the Lord the God of Israel liveth, who hath withheld me from hurting thee: if thou hadst not quickly come to meet me, I should not have left to Nabal till the morning light any that pisseth against the wall. 35. So David received of her hand all that she had brought him, and said to her: Go in peace to thy house; behold I have heard thy voice, and have honoured thy face. 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, little or great, till the morning. 37. And 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. 38. And after ten days were passed, the Lord struck Nabal, and he died. 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 own head. David therefore sent, and spoke to Abigail, to take her to him for his wife. 40. And the servants of David came to Abigail in Carmel, and spoke to her, saying: David hath sent us to thee, to take thee to him for his wife. 41. And she arose and bowed down with her face to the earth, and said: Behold, let thy handmaid be a servant, to wash the feet of the servants of my lord. 42. And Abigail rose up in 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. 43. David also took Achinoam of Jezrael, and they were both his wives. 44. But Saul gave Michol his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti the son of Lais, who was of Gallim.