1 Samuel 25:34

_AND BLESSED BE THY ADVICE, AND BLESSED BE THOU, WHICH HAST KEPT ME THIS DAY FROM COMING TO SHED BLOOD, AND FROM AVENGING MYSELF WITH MINE OWN HAND._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

32-39 David gives God thanks for sending him this happy check in a sinful way. Whoever meet us with counsel, direction, comfort, caution, or seasonable reproof, we must see God sending them. We ought to be very thankful for those happy providences which are the means of keeping us from sinning. Most people think it enough, if they take reproof patiently; but few will take it thankfully, and commend those who give it, and accept it as a favour. The nearer we are to committing sin, the greater is the mercy of a seasonable restraint. Sinners are often most secure when most in danger. He was very drunk. A sign he was Nabal, a fool, that could not use plenty without abusing it; who could not be pleasant with his friends without making a beast of himself. There is not a surer sign that a man has but little wisdom, nor a surer way to destroy the little he has, than drinking to excess. Next mor...

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

FOR IN VERY DEED, [AS] THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL LIVETH,.... An oath for the confirmation of what he was about to say: WHICH HATH KEPT ME BACK FROM HURTING THEE: from doing any ill to her family, as he intended, though not to her person, his resolution being only to slay the males; but that would have been an hurt, an evil, an affliction to Abigail, from which the Lord in his providence restrained him, and that through her good advice: EXCEPT THOU HADST HASTED, AND COME TO MEET ME: if she had not made quick dispatch in preparing her present, or had stayed to persuade her husband into her measures; if she had delayed a little longer, David would have been at Nabal's house, executing his vengeance on him and his: SURELY THERE HAD NOT BEEN LEFT UNTO NABAL, BY THE MORNING LIGHT, ANY THAT PISSETH AGAINST THE WALL: 1 Samuel 25:22....

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

David's favourable answer 32. _Blessed be the Lord_ David rightly recognises that the intervention of Providence has saved him from a foolish and wicked revenge. Compare his prayer in Psalms 19:13. There is no lack of faults in David's life, and this outburst of passion was one of them; but with all his faults he had that spirit of genuine repentance which makes it possible for men "To rise on stepping-stones Of their dead selves to higher things....

DAVID SAID TO ABIGAIL, BLESSED BE THE LORD GOD— The finest spirits are soonest kindled into a flame; and to see them quickly cooled and calmed again upon the first shew of submission, by the first gleam of conviction, and raging wrath changed in one instant into flowing humanity and benignity, is the surest test of generosity and true magnanimity. David, convinced by Abigail's prudence of the rashness of his resolution, _blesses the Lord God of Israel for sending her,_ blesses _her advice,_ and blesses _her, who kept him from shedding blood, and avenging himself._ Can there be a finer picture of a generous mind? See Waterland's Script. Vindicated, p. 100....

_Abigail Appeals to David._ 1 Samuel 25:14-38 14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them. 15 But the men _were_ very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields: 16 They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. 17 Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household: for he _is such_ a son of Belial, that _a man_ cannot speak to him. 18 Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched _corn,_ and an hundred clusters of raisins,

DEATH OF SAMUEL. THE INCIDENT OF NABAL. DAVID AND ABIGAIL 1. Paran] That part of the desert between Sinai and Palestine which bordered on Judah....