1 Samuel 25:8

8 Ask your young men, and they will tell you. So let [my] young men find favor with you, for we have come on a feast^[a] day. Please give whatever you can afford to your servants and to your son David.' "

1 Samuel 25:8 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 25:8

Ask thy young men, and they will show thee
The shepherds before mentioned, who kept their flocks hard by them:

wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes;
the ten young men David sent to Nabal:

for we are come in a good day;
a day in which Nabal made a feast for his shearers, as was usual then, and still is, see ( 2 Samuel 13:23-28 ) ; and at such times as persons are generally cheerful and merry, so free and liberal, and as there were plenty of provisions, not only enough for the guests and shearers, but to spare, and there was no need for an increase of expense, it might upon the whole be concluded it was a proper time for David to apply for accommodations for himself and his men:

give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants,
and to thy son David;
he did not request anything extraordinary of him, or to put him to any expense, but what was at hand, and he could spare, he prayed him to deliver to the young men he sent, for their use, and the use of other his servants, and particularly David, who styled himself his son, being of the same tribe with Nabal, and Nabal his senior.

1 Samuel 25:8 In-Context

6 Then say this: 'Long life to you, and peace to you, to your family, and to all that is yours.

7 I hear that you are shearing. When your shepherds were with us, we did not harass them, and nothing of theirs was missing the whole time they were in Carmel.

8 Ask your young men, and they will tell you. So let [my] young men find favor with you, for we have come on a feast day. Please give whatever you can afford to your servants and to your son David.' "

9 David's young men went and said all these things to Nabal on David's behalf, and they waited.

10 Nabal asked them, "Who is David? Who is Jesse's son? Many slaves these days are running away from their masters.

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit good