1 Samuel 25:26

_NOW THEREFORE, MY LORD, AS THE LORD LIVETH, AND AS THY SOUL LIVETH, SEEING THE LORD HATH WITHHOLDEN THEE FROM COMING TO SHED BLOOD, AND FROM AVENGING THYSELF WITH THINE OWN HAND, NOW LET THINE ENEMIES, AND THEY THAT SEEK EVIL TO MY LORD, BE AS NABAL._ Let thine enemies ... be as Nabal - be as foolish and contemptible as he....

18-31 By a present Abigail atoned for Nabal's denial of David's request. Her behaviour was very submissive. Yielding pacifies great offences. She puts herself in the place of a penitent, and of a petitioner. She could not excuse her husband's conduct. She depends not upon her own reasonings, but on God's grace, to soften David, and expects that grace would work powerfully. She says that it was below him to take vengeance on so weak and despicable an enemy as Nabal, who, as he would do him no kindness, so he could do him no hurt. She foretells the glorious end of David's present troubles. God will preserve thy life; therefore it becomes not thee unjustly and unnecessarily to take away the lives of any, especially of the people of thy God and Saviour. Abigail keeps this argument for the last, as very powerful with so good a man; that the less he indulged his passion, the more he consulted...

The passage should be rendered as follows: “And now my lord, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth,” it is “the Lord” that “hath withholden thee from coming” into blood-guiltiness (as in 1 Samuel 25:33), “and from saving thyself with thine own hand;” and “now” all “thine enemies” shall be as Nabal (whom she considers as utterly impotent to hurt David, and as already thoroughly humbled before him), and (so shall be) all “that seek evil to my Lord.”...

EXPOSITION DEATH OF SAMUEL (1 Samuel 25:1). 1 SAMUEL 25:1 AND SAMUEL DIED. According to Josephus, Samuel had for eighteen years been contemporaneous with Saul's kingdom. If this calculation, which probably rests upon some Jewish tradition, be at all correct, we must include the years of Samuel's judgeship in the sum total of Saul's reign (see on 1 Samuel 13:1), as evidently his fall was now fast approaching. Samuel's life marked the beginning of the second age of Israelite history (Acts 3:24). Moses had given the people their law, but

NOW THEREFORE, MY LORD, [AS] THE LORD LIVETH, AND [AS] THY SOUL LIVETH,.... Which is an oath, and respects either what goes before, that she never saw the young men that were sent to Nabal, or to what follows, the providence of God in preventing David from shedding blood, which she was sure of by an impulse on her own mind, and by observing a change in David's countenance: SEEING THE LORD HATH WITHHOLDEN THEE FROM COMING TO [SHED] BLOOD, AND FROM AVENGING THYSELF WITH THINE OWN HAND; she does not impute this to her prudence, and the provision she made to appease David, and prevent him from shedding the blood he intended, and taking the vengeance he had resolved on; but to the Lord, and the interposition of his providence, which she knew would have its weight on the mind of so good a man as David was; who upon reflection would be thankful that he had been prevented from shedding innocent...

CHAPTER 25 _ 1. The death of Samuel (1 Samuel 25:1)_ 2. Nabal and his refusal (1 Samuel 25:2) 3. Abigail's deed and her prayer (1 Samuel 25:14) 4. David's answer to Abigail (1 Samuel 25:32) 5. Nabal's death (1 Samuel 25:36) 6. Abigail becomes David's wife (1 Samuel 25:39) After the death of Samuel, briefly mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, David went still further south into the wil

1 SAMUEL 25:1 A. (TO RAMAH). DEATH AND BURIAL OF SAMUEL. (An editorial addition.) 1 SAMUEL 25:1. IN HIS HOUSE: in the grounds belonging to it. 1 SAMUEL 25:1 B - 1 SAMUEL 25:44. DAVID, NABAL AND ABIGAIL (J). From one of the oldest sources. The story is complete in itself, and has no obvious connexion with any of the other sections. 1 SAMUEL 25:1 B - 1 SAMUEL 25:13. David goes to the wilderness of Paran at the S. of the Araba

THE LORD. Hebrew. _Jehovah._ App-4. SOUL. Hebrew. _nephesh._ App-13. COMING TO SHED BLOOD. wading in blood (as we say). Compare 1 Samuel 25:26. AVENGING. saving....

Abigail's meeting with David 23. _lighted off the ass_ i.e. got down from, an old form of _alighted_. The Heb. word is different from that similarly translated in Joshua 15:18, and simply means "to descend....

WHEN ABIGAIL SAW DAVID, &C.— Abigail was a woman of distinguished merit. She had the advantage of a beautiful person, set off by an excellent understanding, a graceful address, and uncommon prudence; these are finely discovered in her speech to David, which is full of such humble, pathetic, natural, and for that reason powerful eloquence, as is not, I verily think, to be paralleled in antiquity. She begins by begging that the blame of this misconduct might rather light on her than on her husband; see 2 Samuel 14:9 but begs at the same time, that David would please to hear what she has to say in her own excuse. As for Nabal, he was below David's notice; a man, as his name implied, נבל _nabal,_ (which signifies _folly_ in the Hebrew,) of very mean understanding; and she excuses herself by assuring him, that she heard not a word of his message till his servants were sent away. Sh