1 Samuel 25:31-41

31 that this shall be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself. When the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember your handmaid.

32 David said to Avigayil, Blessed be the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, who sent you this day to meet me:

33 and blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, that have kept me this day from blood guiltiness, and from avenging myself with my own hand.

34 For in very deed, as the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, lives, who has withheld me from hurting you, except you had hurried and come to meet me, surely there wouldn't have been left to Naval by the morning light so much as one man-child.

35 So David received of her hand that which she had brought him: and he said to her, Go up in shalom to your house; behold, I have listened to your voice, and have accepted your person.

36 Avigayil came to Naval; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Naval's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: therefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.

37 It happened in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Naval, that his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.

38 It happened about ten days after, that the LORD struck Naval, so that he died.

39 When David heard that Naval was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Naval, and has kept back his servant from evil: and the evil-doing of Naval has the LORD returned on his own head. David sent and spoke concerning Avigayil, to take her to him as wife.

40 When the servants of David were come to Avigayil to Karmel, they spoke to her, saying, David has sent us to you, to take you to him as wife.

41 She arose, and bowed herself with her face to the eretz, and said, Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.

1 Samuel 25:31-41 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.