Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

These words were spoken by Abigail, the wife of Nabal, a descendant of Caleb (Numbers 13:6) of the tribe of Judah, who kept a large number of sheep and goats in Carmel. Nabal, although wealthy, was described by 1 Samuel 25:3 as being "churlish and ill-behaved".

As described in 1 Samuel 25, when David (who was also of the tribe of Judah) was fighting against Saul, David sent emissaries to Nabal, asking for provisions. However, Nabal refused to help David, despite the fact that David had permitted the grazing of Nabal's sheep and goats among his forces, without taking any of them for himself or his men, and had also dealt well with the shepherds and shearers who attended to them. 

When David heard of Nabal's discourteous response, David prepared to go to battle against him. However, Nabal's wife Abigail hurried to David and pleaded with him not to do so. In her pleading, Abigail acknowledged that the Lord was with David, and that God would protect him, so that if men tried to take David's life, God would preserve David by placing him "in the bundle of the living" (that is, grouping him with those whom God would not allow to be killed), as opposed to those who sought to harm David, whom God would, by contrast, cause to die by treating their lives as something that He would fling out from a sling, as indicated by the verse cited in the question. 

Because of Abigail's pleading, David did not take Nabal's life. A short time later, Abigail told Nabal about her conversation with David, and Nabal "became as a stone" and died ten days later. David then took Abigail to be his own wife.

August 15 2018 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report