1 Samuel 25: Samuel dies, and Abigail stops David from taking revenge on Nabal

In plain English: Samuel died. All Israel gathered together and mourned for him, and they buried him at his house in Ramah. Then David got up and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

Good to know: Samuel's death is told again in 28:3, before Saul goes to the woman at Endor. The Hebrew has "the wilderness of Paran". The old Greek translation in this collection (Brenton) has "the wilderness of Maon", the place named in verse 2.

In plain English: There was a man in Maon whose business (this Bible: possessions) was in Carmel. The man was very rich (literally: very great). He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

Good to know: Maon and Carmel are named together, with Ziph, among the towns of Judah in Joshua 15:55. This Carmel is a town in Judah, not Mount Carmel.

In plain English: The man's name was Nabal, and his wife's name was Abigail. The woman had good sense (this Bible: was intelligent) and was beautiful, but the man was harsh (this Bible: surly) and evil in what he did. He was a Calebite (or: he was like his heart; this Bible: of the house of Caleb).

Good to know: The Hebrew as it is read aloud says Nabal was a Calebite, which this Bible gives as "of the house of Caleb". The Hebrew as it is written has letters that can also be read "like his heart", that is, he was just as his heart was. The old Greek translation in this collection (Brenton) has "the man was churlish" instead.

In plain English: In the wilderness David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep.

In plain English: So David sent ten young men. David said to the young men, "Go up to Carmel, go to Nabal, and greet him in my name (literally: ask him about his peace in my name).

In plain English: Say to him, 'Long life to you (literally: to life)! Peace to you, peace to your household, and peace to all that you have!

In plain English: Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds have been with us, and we did not harm them (or: insult them). Nothing of theirs went missing the whole time they were in Carmel.

In plain English: Ask your young men, and they will tell you. So let the young men find favor in your eyes, because we have come on a good day. Please give whatever you have at hand (literally: whatever your hand finds) to your servants and to your son David.'"

In plain English: When David's young men came, they said all these words to Nabal in David's name, and they waited.

In plain English: Nabal answered David's servants, "Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who break away from their masters.

In plain English: Should I take my bread, my water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they come from?"

In plain English: So David's young men turned around and went back. They came and told him all these words.

In plain English: David said to his men, "Every man, strap on (this Bible: put on) his sword!" Every man strapped on his sword, and David strapped on his sword too. About four hundred men went up after David, and two hundred stayed with the baggage.

In plain English: But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, "Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet (literally: to bless) our master, and he flew at them (this Bible: insulted them).

In plain English: But the men were very good to us. We were not harmed (or: insulted), and we did not lose anything the whole time we went about with them, when we were in the fields.

In plain English: They were a wall around us night and day, all the time we were with them looking after the sheep.

In plain English: So now, think it over (literally: know and see) and decide what you will do, because harm is planned (this Bible: evil is determined) against our master and against all his household. He is such a worthless man (literally: a son of worthlessness) that no one can speak to him."

The Hebrew word: "Worthless fellow" is literally "a son of beliyya'al". The dictionary gives beliyya'al as "without profit, worthlessness; by extension, destruction, wickedness". In 1 Samuel it is in 6 verses: of Hannah's fear of being taken for "a wicked woman" (1:16), of Eli's sons, "wicked men" (2:12), of the "worthless fellows" who despised Saul (10:27), of Nabal here and in verse 25, and of some of David's men in 30:22.

In plain English: Then Abigail hurried. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins (this Bible: containers) of wine, five sheep made ready, five seahs (measures) of roasted grain, a hundred bunches (this Bible: clusters) of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and she loaded them on donkeys.

In plain English: She said to her young men, "Go on ahead of me. I will come after you." But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

In plain English: As she rode on her donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, there were David and his men coming down toward her, and she met them.

In plain English: Now David had said, "It was all for nothing that I guarded everything this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing of all he had went missing. He has paid me back evil for good.

In plain English: May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if by morning I leave alive of all who belong to him a single one who urinates on a wall."

The Hebrew words: "One who urinates on a wall" is word for word what the Hebrew says. The same words are in verse 34 and in 1 Kings 14:10. The old Greek translation in this collection (Brenton) gives it as "one male".

Good to know: "God do so to the enemies of David" is the wording of the Hebrew. The old Greek translation (Brenton) has "So God do to David", so that David calls the oath down on himself. These are David's own words, an oath, not God's.

In plain English: When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down off her donkey. She fell on her face in front of David and bowed down to the ground.

In plain English: She fell at his feet and said, "On me, my lord, on me be the blame (or: the guilt)! Please let your servant speak to you (literally: in your ears). Hear the words of your servant.

In plain English: Please do not let my lord pay attention to this worthless man, Nabal. He is just what his name says. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I, your servant, did not see the young men my lord sent.

The Hebrew word: Abigail makes a play on her husband's name. "Nabal" sounds like nabal, which the dictionary gives as "stupid; wicked (especially impious)", and "folly" is nebalah, a word built from the same letters, which the dictionary gives as "foolishness, i.e. (morally) wickedness". So "as his name is, so is he" can be read "he is a fool" or "he is a wicked man".

In plain English: So now, my lord, as Yahweh lives and as you live, Yahweh has kept you back from coming into bloodshed (this Bible: blood guiltiness) and from saving yourself (this Bible: avenging yourself) with your own hand. So now let your enemies, and those who seek to do my lord harm, be like Nabal.

In plain English: Now let this gift (literally: blessing) that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord.

In plain English: Please forgive your servant's wrong. Yahweh will surely make my lord a lasting (this Bible: sure) house, because my lord fights Yahweh's battles. No evil will be found in you as long as you live (literally: from your days).

In plain English: If anyone rises up to chase you and to seek your life, the life of my lord will be bound up in the bundle of the living (this Bible: of life) with Yahweh your God. But the lives of your enemies he will sling away, as from the pocket of a sling.

The Hebrew words: "Bundle" is tseror, which the dictionary gives as "a parcel (as packed up)". It is the word for each man's "bundle of money" in Genesis 42:35. Abigail pictures David's life as something tied up and kept safe with Yahweh, and the lives of his enemies as thrown away, as from a sling.

In plain English: When Yahweh has done for my lord all the good he has promised (this Bible: spoken) about you, and has appointed you leader (this Bible: prince) over Israel,

The Hebrew word: "Prince" is nagid, which the dictionary gives as "a commander (as occupying the front)". It is the word Yahweh used for Saul in 9:16, "prince over my people Israel", and Samuel's word to Saul in 13:14 for the man Yahweh had sought "after his own heart": "Yahweh has appointed him to be prince over his people".

In plain English: this will not be a stumbling block to you (this Bible: no grief to you), or a stumbling of heart (this Bible: offense of heart) to my lord, that you shed blood for no reason, or that my lord saved himself (this Bible: avenged himself). And when Yahweh has dealt well with my lord, remember your servant."

In plain English: David said to Abigail, "Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who sent you today to meet me!

In plain English: Blessed be your good sense (this Bible: discretion), and blessed be you, who have kept me today from coming into bloodshed and from saving myself with my own hand.

In plain English: For truly, as Yahweh the God of Israel lives, who has kept me back from harming you, if you had not hurried and come to meet me, then by morning light not one who urinates on a wall would have been left to Nabal."

In plain English: So David took from her hand what she had brought him. He said to her, "Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to you (literally: to your voice) and granted your request (literally: lifted up your face)."

In plain English: Abigail came to Nabal, and there he was, holding a feast in his house like the feast of a king. Nabal's heart was merry, because he was very drunk. So she told him nothing at all (literally: nothing small or great) until morning light.

In plain English: In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things. His heart died within him, and he became like a stone.

In plain English: About ten days later, Yahweh struck Nabal, and he died.

In plain English: When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Blessed be Yahweh, who has taken up my case (this Bible: pleaded the cause) against the insult I received from Nabal, and has kept his servant back from evil. Yahweh has turned Nabal's evil back on his own head." Then David sent word to Abigail, to take her as his wife.

In plain English: David's servants came to Abigail at Carmel and said to her, "David has sent us to you, to take you to be his wife."

In plain English: She got up and bowed with her face to the ground, and said, "Here is your servant, a servant to wash the feet of my lord's servants."

In plain English: Abigail quickly got up and rode on a donkey, with her five young women (this Bible: maids) who went with her. She followed David's messengers and became his wife.

In plain English: David had also taken Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives.

In plain English: Now Saul had given his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

Good to know: Saul gave Michal to David as his wife in 18:27. The text does not say here when Saul gave her to Palti.