nabal Summary and Overview

foolish, a descendant of Caleb who dwelt at Maon (1 Sam. 25), the modern Main, 7 miles south-east of Hebron. He was "very great, and he had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats...but the man was churlish and evil in his doings." During his wanderings David came into that district, and hearing that Nabal was about to shear his sheep, he sent ten of his young men to ask "whatsoever cometh unto thy hand for thy servants." Nabal insultingly resented the demand, saying, "Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse?" (1 Sam. 25:10, 11). One of the shepherds that stood by and saw the reception David's messengers had met with, informed Abigail, Nabal's wife, who at once realized the danger that threatened her household. She forthwith proceeded to the camp of David, bringing with her ample stores of provisions (25:18). She so courteously and persuasively pled her cause that David's anger was appeased, and he said to her, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee this day to meet me." On her return she found her husband incapable from drunkenness of understanding the state of matters, and not till the following day did she explain to him what had happened. He was stunned by a sense of the danger to which his conduct had exposed him. "His heart died within him, and he became as a stone." and about ten days after "the Lord smote Nabal that he died" (1 Sam. 25:37, 38). Not long after David married Abigail (q.v.).

(fool) was a sheepmaster on the confines of Judea and the desert, in that part of the country which bore from its great conqueror the name of Caleb. #1Sa 25:3; 30:14| (B.C. about 1055.) His residence was on the southern Carmel, in the pasture lands of Maon. His wealth, as might be expected from his abode, consisted chiefly of sheep and goats. It was the custom of the shepherds to drive them into the wild downs on the slopes of Carmel; and it was whilst they were on one of these pastoral excursions that they met a band of outlaws, who showed them unexpected kindness, protecting them by day and night, and never themselves committing any depredations. #1Sa 25:7,15,18| Once a year there was a grand banquet on Carmel, "like the feast of a king." ch. #1Sa 25:2,4, 36| It was on one of these occasions that ten youths from the chief of the freebooters approached Nabal, enumerated the services of their master, and ended by claiming, with a mixture of courtesy and defiance characteristic of the East, "whatsoever cometh into thy hand for thy servants and for thy son David." The great sheepmaster peremptorily refused. The moment that the messengers were gone, the shepherds that stood by perceived the danger that their master and themselves would incur. To Nabal himself they durst not speak. ch. #1Sa 25:17| To his wife, as to the good angel of the household, one of the shepherds told the state of affairs. She, with the offerings usual on such occasions, with her attendants running before her, rode down the hill toward David's encampment. David had already made the fatal vow of extermination. ch. #1Sa 26:22| At this moment, as it would seem, Abigail appeared, threw herself on her face before him, and poured forth her petition in language which in both form and expression almost assumes the tone of poetry. She returned with the news of David's recantation of his vow. Nabal was then at the height of his orgies and his wife dared not communicate to him either his danger or his escape. ch. #1Sa 28:36| At break of day she told him both. The stupid reveller was suddenly roused to a sense of that which impended over him. "His heart died within him, and he be came as a stone." It was as if a stroke of apoplexy or paralysis had fallen upon him. Ten days he lingered "and the Lord smote Nabal, and he died." ch. #1Sa 25:37,38|

NA'BAL (fool), a very wealthy citizen of Maon, whose property, consisting of 3000 sheep and l000 goats, was in Carmel. 1 Sam 25:2-3. When he was shearing his sheep, David sent ten of his young men to ask him in the most courteous manner for supplies; but Nabal, who was proverbially churlish, refused, in the most offensive terms, to grant his request. David immediately ordered 400 of his men to arm themselves, and set out with the resolution to destroy Nabal and his property. Abigail, the discreet and beautiful wife of this son of Belial, admonished of their purpose, promptly made up a sumptuous present, and set forth to meet David and to appease him with the gifts. Her mission was entirely successful. On returning to her home she found her husband at a feast and drunk, and waited till the following morning to apprise him of what had occurred. Nabal had no sooner received her statement than he was seized with a severe illness, which proved fatal at the end of ten days, and was regarded by David as the immediate judgment of God upon his sins. 1 Sam 25:39. Nabal is the type of a selfish, cruel, and churlish property-holder.

Of Maon. (See MAON.); 1 Samuel 25, compare 1 Samuel 23:25. (See DAVID.) A sheepmaster on the border of Judah which took its name from the great "Caleb" (3) (1 Samuel 30:14), next the wilderness. His history, as also that of Boaz, Barzillai, Naboth, is a sample of a Jew's private life (1 Samuel 25:2; 1 Samuel 25:4; 1 Samuel 25:36).