1 Samuel 25:38-44

38 About 10 days later, the Lord struck Nabal dead.
39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Praise the Lord who championed my cause against Nabal's insults and restrained His servant from doing evil. The Lord brought Nabal's evil deeds back on his own head." Then David sent messengers to speak to Abigail about marrying him.
40 When David's servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, "David sent us to bring you to him as a wife."
41 She bowed her face to the ground and said, "Here I am, your servant, to wash the feet of my lord's servants."
42 Then Abigail got up quickly, and with her five female servants accompanying her, rode on the donkey following David's messengers. And so she became his wife.
43 David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and the two of them became his wives.
44 But Saul gave his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Palti[a] son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

1 Samuel 25:38-44 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 25

This chapter gives an account of the death of Samuel, and of the ill treatment David met with from Nabal; it begins with the death of Samuel, which was greatly lamented in Israel, 1Sa 25:1; it draws the character of Nabal, and his wife, 1Sa 25:2,3; records a message of David to him, by his young men, desiring he would send him some of his provisions made for his sheep shearers, 1Sa 25:4-9; and Nabal's ill-natured answer to him reported by the young men, which provoked David to arm against him, 1Sa 25:10-13,21,22; and this being told Abigail, the wife of Nabal, and a good character given of David and his men, and of the advantage Nabal's shepherds had received from them, and the danger his family was in through his ingratitude, 1Sa 25:14-17; she prepared a present to pacify David, went with it herself, and addressed him in a very handsome, affectionate, and prudent manner, 1Sa 25:18-31; and met with a kind reception, 1Sa 25:32-35; and the chapter is closed with an account of the death of Nabal, and of the marriage of Abigail to David, 1Sa 25:32-44.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. 1 Sm 18:27; 2 Sm 3:14-15
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