The Story of Nabal: Summary

While David and his men hid from Saul in a certain valley, they took it upon themselves to protect some flocks of a very wealthy man named Nabal. They were like a wall to these flocks. They protected the shepherds from harm and never harmed the shepherds themselves. They never stole sheep out of the flocks for themselves, and they kept anyone else from stealing sheep from those flocks.

When sheepshearing time came, David sent ten young men to Nabal to ask politely if they might receive some of the feast. When Nabal heard the request of these young men, he treated them and David disrespectfully. He refused to give them any of the feast.

David's servants went back to David, and they told David what Nabal had said. David became very angry with Nabal, and he told his men to gird their swords. David felt that he and his men had labored so hard to protect Nabal's flocks in vain. They had received no payment for their services, not even gratitude. They were going to go to war against Nabal.

Nabal's wife, Abigail, was a very wise woman. She had not been around when Nabal received David's servants, so she did not know that Nabal had treated them rudely. A servant went and told Abigail about Nabal's rudeness to David's servants. The servant then told Abigail how David's men had protected them the whole time they were in that valley. Nabal had turned away some very good protectors without payment.

Abigail understood how awful Nabal had been to David and his men. And she knew that David was on his way to kill Nabal and all his maleservants. So, Abigail quickly grabbed bread, wine, corn, raisins, figs, and sheep, and she put them in baskets on donkeys to take to David.

As David and his men were on their way to Nabal, David was remembering how he and his men had labored so hard in vain for Nabal. Right then, Abigail met them in the road. She immediately got down on her hands and knees and begged David to accept the food that she was bringing as payment and to spare Nabal and his men.

David agreed to spare Nabal and his men. David took the gift from Abigail, and he complimented her on her wisdom. She had solved two wrongs: Nabal's folly and David's folly.

Abigail went back home and the next morning told Nabal what a great danger he had been in. God punished Nabal ten days later by killing him. When David heard that Abigail was a widow, he asked her to marry him, and a little while later they were married.