1 Samuel 25:16

16 In fact, the whole time we were with them, watching our sheep, they were a protective wall around us both night and day.

1 Samuel 25:16 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 25:16

They were a wall unto us both by night and day
Protecting and defending them against the Philistines, who, as they robbed the threshing floors of Keilah, would have plundered the flocks of Nabal; or it may be rather against the incursions of the Arabs in the wilderness of Paran, the posterity of Ishmael, who lived by plunder, and against the wild beasts of the desert, who otherwise would have carried off many of their sheep and lambs, by night or by day:

all the while we were with them keeping the sheep;
all which showed how reasonable it was that Nabal should have used them well, and given them a portion of his entertainment at his sheep shearing; for had it not been for them, he would not have had so many sheep to shear as he had.

1 Samuel 25:16 In-Context

14 One of Nabal's servants told his wife Abigail, "David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he just yelled at them.

15 But the men were very good to us and didn't mistreat us. Nothing of ours went missing the whole time we were out with them in the fields.

16 In fact, the whole time we were with them, watching our sheep, they were a protective wall around us both night and day.

17 Think about that and see what you can do, because trouble is coming for our master and his whole household. But he's such a despicable person no one can speak to him."

18 Abigail quickly took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep ready for cooking, five seahs of roasted grain, one hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes. She loaded all this on donkeys