1 Samuel 25:11

11 Do you think I'm going to take good bread and wine and meat freshly butchered for my sheepshearers and give it to men I've never laid eyes on? Who knows where they've come from?"

1 Samuel 25:11 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 25:11

Shall I then take my bread, and my water
Which include all food and liquors, everything eatable and drinkable; and "water" may be particularly mentioned, because very scarce in the wilderness, and so precious; though the Septuagint version has "wine" instead of "water":

and my flesh which I have killed for my shearers;
whether oxen, or sheep, or lambs, as there might be of each sort, for an entertainment made on such an occasion:

and give [it] unto men whom I know not whence they [be]?
which is another argument Abarbinel makes use of that he meant not David, but his men only, because he did not know who and from whence they were.

1 Samuel 25:11 In-Context

9 David's young men went and delivered his message word for word to Nabal. Nabal tore into them,

10 "Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? The country is full of runaway servants these days.

11 Do you think I'm going to take good bread and wine and meat freshly butchered for my sheepshearers and give it to men I've never laid eyes on? Who knows where they've come from?"

12 David's men got out of there and went back and told David what he had said.

13 David said, "Strap on your swords!" They all strapped on their swords, David and his men, and set out, four hundred of them. Two hundred stayed behind to guard the camp.