Deeper Commentary
1Sa 25:1 Samuel died, and all Israel gathered together and mourned
for him, and they buried him at his home in Ramah. David went down to the
wilderness of Paran-
In the type, we see a foretaste of the death of John the Baptist, the
Lord's first teacher, and how He goes out afterwards into a deserted place.
We note too how Israel loved Samuel and respected him, although they did the
very opposite of what he had taught them. We can have an emotional,
sentimental attachment to the things of our religion, whilst having hearts
far from God's word in practice.
Paran is LXX Maon, as in :2.
1Sa 25:2 There was a man in Maon who had property in Carmel, and the man was
very wealthy. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was
shearing his sheep in Carmel-
Nabal meaning "fool" is one of the sources for the Lord's parable of
the rich / wealthy fool. Maon was a mile north of Carmel, and they are
mentioned together in Josh. 15:55.
Saul describes himself as a "fool" (1 Sam. 26:21) and Samuel
likewise calls Saul a fool (1 Sam.
1Sa 25:3 His name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She
was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but the man was harsh and mean; he
belonged to the family of Caleb-
Continually in Biblical history we encounter good men with bad
descendants, and the opposite. This is to be expected, because true
spirituality is not genetic; each must forge their own relationship with
God, and Godly parenting is but setting a person on the right path, for
them to later exercise their own freewill. "Harsh" is LXX "hard", and is
the basis for the "hard man" of Mt. 25:24. Continually we discern the
Lord's mind saturated in Old Testament history, and consciously or
unconsciously forming the characters of His stories from those He had
encountered in the scriptures. Caleb's family had settled in Hebron in the
south (Josh. 15:13; 1 Sam. 30:14), but it seems Nabal had separated from
them and gone to live alone in the north near mount Carmel. Nabal the fool
is alluded to in Ps. 14:1; Prov. 30:22. Solomon writes the truth in
Proverbs, but he likes to allude to the enemies of his father, ever
seeking to use God's truth to justify himself and his family.
1Sa 25:4 David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep-
David had been glad for just five loaves of bread from Abiathar. And
now he was desperate for food again. Survival was based on a hand to mouth
existence amongst the peasant class, and for those on the move without
land to farm, just getting enough food would have been a major issue.
1Sa 25:5 David sent ten young men and said to them, Go up to Carmel and go
to Nabal and greet him in my name-
David obviously knew Nabal, and had effectively worked for him as a
kind of security service for his flocks and shepherds. He apparently
hadn't been paid for this, and yet had not taken the liberty of helping
himself to Nabal's flocks. Nabal's claim he didn't know David's name (:10)
was in response to these greetings in David's name.
1Sa 25:6 Say to him, ‘Long life to you! Peace to you and to your house and
to all that you have-
These were standard terms of greeting, perhaps consciously omitting
the name Yahweh because David considered that Nabal was effectively an
atheist, the fool who said in his heart that there was no God (Ps. 14:1).
1Sa 25:7 I have heard that you are shearing your sheep. Your shepherds
have been with us, and we didn’t hurt them, nothing of theirs was missing
all the while they were in Carmel-
This may be a way of saying that David and his men had not been paid
for their protection services, and yet had not helped themselves to
anything from Nabal's flock.
1Sa 25:8 Ask your young men and they will tell you. Therefore let my young
men find grace in your eyes, for we come at a good time. Please give
whatever you can to your servants and to your son David’-
"Good time" is a phrase used about a feast day, and it is thus
rendered in GNB. The Mosaic feasts were to celebrate God's saving grace,
and implied that the memory of that was to be reflected in our giving /
grace to others. And yet instead of demanding wages, David asks for
"grace".
1Sa 25:9 When David’s young men came they said this to Nabal in the name
of David, and waited-
It is emphasized that they spoke in David's name (:5), and this was
to elicit Nabal's denial of that name; see on :10.
1Sa 25:10 Nabal answered David’s servants, Who is David? Who is the son of
Jesse? There are many servants who break away from their masters these
days-
As noted on :5, David and Nabal knew each other. To claim not to know
a man's name was a great insult, for all that a man was and stood for was
bound up in his "name". This is the significance of the Yahweh Name. Nabal
clearly knew that David had been a servant of Saul, and he likes to
believe the narrative that David was a runaway slave. He uses the same
phrase as Saul contemptuously used of David, "the son of Jesse".
1Sa 25:11 Shall I then take my bread, my water and my meat that I have
killed for my shearers, and give it to men who come from I don’t know
where?-
Nabal did know from whence they were, and he knew the name of David.
This idea of 'I don't know your name, nor where you are from' is common in
Semitic languages, and may explain why the Jews in Rome claimed not to
know Paul. It is the language of absolute rejection, and was used about
the Lord Jesus. We note all the personal pronouns in this sentence, just
as in the parable of the rich fool, which is based upon Nabal. David later
reflected that bread, water and meat was provided for Israel in the
wilderness (Ps. 78:20); he saw his wilderness experiences as similar to
theirs, being led towards the same kingdom of God.
1Sa 25:12 So David’s young men turned and went back and told him all this-
David sent messengers to Nabal meaning well to him, and they were
rudely rebuffed, resulting in his anger which only Abigail’s grace and
wisdom saved him from (1 Sam. 25). And yet the same situation repeated in
its essence when he sent messengers to Hanun who were likewise
misinterpreted and rebuffed (2 Sam. 10:3). Again, David got angry- but
there was no Abigail to restrain him, and he did get into an impossible
fight… from which by grace God delivered him. Could it not be that David
failed to learn from his previous experience…? Circumstances repeat within
our lives and between our lives and those of others in Biblical history;
that we might learn the lessons and take comfort from the scriptures, that
man is not alone.
1Sa 25:13 David said to his men, Every man put on his sword! Every man put
on his sword and David also put on his. About four hundred men followed
David and two hundred stayed by the baggage-
David has slipped from the day when he had fought Goliath without a
sword, insisting that Yahweh saves without swords. And it was not so long
ago that there was no sword amongst the Israelites apart from with Saul
and Jonathan. This is clearly a low point of faith for David. "Hundred"
may mean a family or military division. To have had 600 males with him
would have meant that along with accompanying family, David's group would
have been several thousand strong. They would have been very vulnerable if
they were this many. David's anger and intention was wrong, but it can be
understood very easily in terms of psychological transference. His
repressed anger with Saul was transferred onto the family of Nabal. Again,
the record is absolutely psychologically credible.
1Sa 25:14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, Look, David
sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed
at them-
There is quite a theme of servants bringing blessings or good news (1 Sam.
9:6; 16:16; 25:14 cp. Gen. 41:10; 2 Kings 5:3). This may be to reflect
God's interest in the significance of the lowly.
1Sa 25:15 But the men were very good to us and we were not hurt, nothing
was missing as long as we were with them in the fields-
The reason they praise David's men for not taking anything
is because they realized Nabal hadn't paid for their services. They
could legitimately have helped themselves to some animals for food. And
yet the men of David hadn't taken this out upon them, because they
recognized that they were not Nabal.
1Sa 25:16 They were a wall to us night and day all the while we were with
them keeping the sheep-
We think of Jacob keeping the sheep day and night (Gen. 31:40),
sustained by God's protection. The gift sent to pacify David in :18 is
also an allusion to Jacob doing the same to Esau.
1Sa 25:17 Now therefore consider what you should do, for evil is
determined against our master and against all his household; he is such a
worthless fellow that one can’t even speak to him-
As on :25, we note that this is an unusual way for servants to speak
about their master. It seems Abigail was effectively running the household
and the servants were in tune with her attitude to Nabal. She may even be
one of the base images for the depiction of the wise woman of Prov. 31.
David had himself spoken evil ["determined evil"] against innocent people. But David was so sensitive to words spoken against him that he breathes out the deepest condemnation upon those who had spoken evil against him (s.w. Ps. 109:20). We get the impression that David is not adequately aware of the huge grace he himself had received. Otherwise there would have been at least some desire for the repentance and salvation of his enemies. This is so markedly lacking in the Psalms of David.
1Sa 25:18 Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread, two
bottles of wine, five sheep ready dressed, five measures of parched grain,
one hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded
them on donkeys-
This recalls Jacob's pacification of Esau by sending huge presents
ahead of him. Abigail takes the blame. The "bottles" of wine would have
been adult goat skins filled with wine; the whole animal had its insides
removed through the head and the skin was then left intact. This was a
fair amount of food, but it had to feed 600 males and likely many women
and children.
1Sa 25:19 She said to her young men, Go on before me; I am following you.
But she didn’t tell her husband, Nabal-
As noted on :18, she seems to be seeking to follow Biblical
precedent, copying the example of Jacob seeking to appease Esau.
1Sa 25:20 As she rode on her donkey and came down in a valley, and there
were David and his men coming down towards her, and she met them-
The impression is that they both descended, she from mount Carmel and
David from mount Paran, and they met in a valley. They would have observed
each other from a distance coming down the valley side .
But "valley", AV "covert of the hill", is the same word for "hiding place" in Ps. 119:114: "You are my hiding place and my shield. I hope in Your word". When hiding from Saul in the wilderness [s.w. of David's "hiding places" at this time in 1 Sam. 19:2; 25:20], David hoped in the prophetic word that one day Saul would be no more and David would be king.
1Sa 25:21 Now David had said, Surely for nothing I have kept all this
fellow’s possessions in the wilderness, so that nothing was missing. He
has returned me evil for good-
"For nothing" suggests that Nabal had not paid wages for the work of
David's men, and now in their time of need he would not even share basic
food with them. Solomon alludes here in Prov. 3:30 "Don’t strive with a man without
cause if he has done you no harm".
To strive or plead a cause is the very phrase used of the opposition
of Saul (1 Sam. 24:15) and Nabal to David (1 Sam. 25:39); and in both
cases, David had done them "no harm", the phrase used of David's innocence
before Nabal (1 Sam. 25:21,28) and Saul (1 Sam. 24:11). Clearly Solomon
has these incidents in view, and again his statements of truth have a
subtext of justifying his father David, with whom he was psychologically
obsessed.
1Sa 25:22 God deal with David severely, if I leave alive one man of his by
the morning-
His anger with Nabal and desire to slay all “that piss against the
wall” who lived with “this fellow” (1 Sam. 25:21,22 AV) is expressed in
crude terms; and he later thanks Abigail for persuading him not to “shed
blood” and “avenging myself with mine own hand” (1 Sam. 25:33)- the very
things he elsewhere condemns in his Psalms (e.g. Ps. 44:3). Time and again
in the Psalms, David uses that Hebrew word translated “avenging myself”
about how God and not man will revenge / save him against his enemies, for
God saves / avenges the humble in spirit not by their strength and troops
but by His. But in the anger of hot blood, David let go of all those fine
ideas. He had some sort of an anger problem. And he surely swears by God's
Name far too loosely here.
1Sa 25:23 When Abigail saw David she hurried and alighted from her donkey;
she bowed down before David with her face to the ground-
Perhaps imitating the Godly Rebekah, of whom the same phrase is used
(Gen. 24:18,46). She then copied Rebekah in immediately dropping all and
accepting the invitation of marriage (:41).
1Sa 25:24 She fell at his feet and said, On me, my lord, on me be the
blame, and please let your handmaid speak in your ears. Hear the words of
your handmaid-
Abigail's plea "Hear the words of your handmaid" (1 Sam. 15:24) was
repeated by the woman of 2 Sam. 20:17. But Abigail herself had modelled
her behaviour on women like Rebekah (1 Sam. 25:23 = Gen. 24:18,46). This
is how functional fellowship occurs between God's people, both over time
and in contemporary relationships. We copy that which is Godly and good
which we observe in other believers, both those we know and those we meet
in the Bible.
1Sa 25:25 Please pay no attention, my lord, to this worthless fellow
Nabal. As his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name and folly is his
nature; but I, your handmaid, didn’t see your young men whom you sent-
It was unusual for a woman to speak like this about her husband, even
if she thought this in her heart. For a woman was defined by the men in
her life, particularly her husband. Abigail is truly unusual in her
attitude here. But she was no mere liberated woman; she believed in David
and wanted to serve him and take his side against Nabal her husband. Like
Jonathan, her loyalties were conflicted, but she came down on the right
side. See on :17.
1Sa 25:26 Now therefore my lord, as Yahweh lives and as your soul lives,
since Yahweh has withheld you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself
with your own hand, now therefore let your enemies and those who seek evil
to my lord be like Nabal-
Saul "sought" David, implying a great level of mental effort (1 Sam.
19:10; 23:14,15,25; 24:2; 25:26,29; 26:2,20; 27:1,4; 2 Sam. 4:8). In the
type of Christ, the Jews sought to kill the Lord (Mt. 21:46; Mk. 11:18;
12:12; 14:1,11,55; Lk. 19:47; 20:19; 22:2,6; Jn.5:16,18; 7:1,11,25,30;
8:37,40; 10:39; 11:8,56; 18:4,7,8). Abigail was clearly very aware of
David's sparing of Saul; indeed seeing that David and Nabal knew each
other, she may have spoken with David before. David had restrained or
withheld his own men from murdering Saul (1 Sam. 24:7), but Abigail
perceives that over and above his own mental effort to do this, Yahweh had
confirmed David in it. And she sees her appeasement of David as likewise
controlled by Yahweh to preserve David as innocent from avenging himself,
so that he could indeed become king.
1Sa 25:27 Let this gift which your servant has brought to my lord be given
to the young men who follow my lord-
Abigail perceives David's men as not simply his servants, but
following him as their lord. This again invites us to see David and his
men as types of the Lord Jesus and His followers / disciples.
1Sa 25:28 Please forgive the sin of your handmaid, for Yahweh will
certainly make for my lord a sure house, because my lord fights the
battles of Yahweh-
She alludes to David's description of the conflict with Goliath as
being Yahweh's battle. But she feels Yahweh will only give David a "sure
house" if he doesn't take vengeance; the promise of his future kingship
over Israel was conditional. And surely she had within her some desperate
hope that she somehow might become his wife and help build that sure
house. And that well motivated desire was allowed to come true by
providence. Abigail quotes the promise of a priest being raised up with a
"sure house" (1 Sam. 2:35), imagining that David was to become a Messianic
king-priest; and to have blood on his hands would preclude that. Abigail's
phrase "a sure / established house" (1 Sam. 25:28) is used in the promises
to David (2 Sam. 7:16; 1 Kings 11:38). It's as if she was so in tune with
God's ways that she had some premonition of His
intentions with David, although she saw these as conditional upon David
not shedding the innocent blood of her family. Or perhaps the promise of 1
Sam. 2:35 about a priest with a "sure house" had already been developed by
Samuel in relation with David, and Abigail was aware of that. The promises
to David which mention a sure house for him would therefore only be
confirming what had already been promised. She implies in :30 that David
had been promised quite a few "good things" beyond simply being king.
Let evil not be found in you all your days-
This could be translated "evil has not been found in you / touched
you all your days", the idea being that David had been miraculously
preserved from Saul's "evil", and Abigail feared this would end if he now
murdered the whole family of Nabal. Or she could simply be wishing that
David continue to be innocent before God; a fine desire for any of us to
have for another, especially for our future partner.
1Sa 25:29 Though men may rise up to pursue you-
And to seek your life-
Saul sought the life of David (s.w. 1 Sam. 20:1; 22:23; 23:15; 25:29;
2 Sam. 4:8). In the Psalms, David frequently imprecates judgment upon
those who sought his life (s.w. Ps. 35:4; 38:12; 40:14; 54:3; 63:9; 70:2;
71:13; 86:14). He loved Saul, the life of Saul was precious in David's
sight, indeed the historical records seem to emphasize David's patient
love of Saul; and yet in the Psalms he gives vent before God to his anger
with Saul and desire to see Saul punished and judged by God. This is
absolutely true to human experience; we may act with great patience and
apparent love toward those who abuse us, and yet within we fume about it.
The lesson of David is that we are to pour out those feelings to God in
prayer, leaving Him to judge.
Yet the life of my lord will be bound in the bundle of life with
Yahweh your God-
Abigail is convinced that Yahweh will preserve David from Saul's
persecution, and she implies that she sees her husband as part of that
persecution. She uses the figure of a valuable life carried in a bundle,
alluding to a woman carrying her precious newborn baby swaddled and close
to her body. But she implies that the woman represents none other than
Yahweh Himself; an unusually intimate allusion. And she sees David, the
angry man with his sword coming to slay her, as the newborn baby, about to
become the new king, a life “bound in the bundle of living in the care of
the Lord”. Abigail was of very fine spiritual perception.
She continues her allusion to his victory over Goliath in :28. Surely
she had been amongst those women who praised David for slaying his ten
thousands.
1Sa 25:30 When Yahweh has done to my lord according to all the good that
He has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you prince over Israel-
I suggested on :28 that Abigail was aware of a body of material
promised to David, far beyond simply the promise of kingship. She
therefore mentions a promise that he would have a "sure house". This was
one of "all the good" things promised to him.
When David writes in Ps. 110 of how "Yahweh said unto my Lord", he is
quoting the very phrase used by Abigail years before, when they weren’t
even married. He was unconsciously alluding to the words of
his wife before they were married, even years later. It is of course true
that context plays a vital part in Biblical interpretation. But this can
lead us to overlook the fact that many New Testament quotations of the Old
Testament- many of those in the early chapters of Matthew, for example-
are picking up words and phrases from one context and applying them to
another. Paul himself did this when he quoted the words of the poet Aratus
“We are all the offspring of Zeus” about our all being the offspring of
the one true God.
1Sa 25:31 then this will not be on your conscience, either that you have
shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself-
She seems to perceive that the promises to David (see on :30) were
conditional upon him not avenging himself.
When Yahweh has dealt well with my lord, then remember your
handmaid-
This could be taken as asking David to consider marrying her at some
point if Nabal died. It could be that when the thief
on the cross asked to be remembered for good, he had in mind Abigail's
words: that when David returned in glory in his Kingdom, "my Lord, then
remember thine handmaid". This was prefaced by her asking: "Forgive the
trespass of thine handmaid... a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek
thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life
with the Lord thy God: and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling
out" (1 Sam. 25:29-31 AV). And David's response was marvellously similar to
that of the Lord to the thief: "Go up in peace to thine house; see, I have
hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person" (1 Sam. 25:35). It
would seem that the thief saw in David a type of the Lord, and saw in
Abigail's words exactly the attitude he fain would have. And the Lord
accepted this.
1Sa 25:32 David said to Abigail, Blessed is Yahweh, the God of Israel, who
sent you this day to meet me!-
We see here the interplay of Divine sovereignty and human volition.
She purposed of herself to meet David, but David perceives that she had
been sent to him by God. David perceives that God can withhold a person
from sinning, just as He did to Abimelech with Sarah, and as His Spirit
today can "keep us from falling" (Jude 24). There is an element in all
this of God acting over and above our own strength against temptation. It
is all the gift / grace of the work of His Spirit.
1Sa 25:33 Blessed is your discretion, and blessed are you for keeping me
this day from the guilt of bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own
hand-
See on :22.
David was tested by God in the matter of sparing the life of his enemy
Saul- and he came through the test with flying colours (1 Sam. 26). But
just before that, he had been tested again in the same area in the matter
of Nabal- and he initially failed, intent as he was to take the life of
his enemy Nabal (1 Sam. 25). But before the Nabal incident, he had again
resisted the temptation to take vengeance. Thus a circumstance can repeat over a matter
in which we were previously both successful and unsuccessful.
Many have struggled to reconcile the statement that David was a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14) with the fact that his life contains many examples not only of failure, but of anger and a devaluing of human life. He was barred from building the temple because of the amount of blood he had shed (1 Chron. 22:8). The figure of ‘shedding blood’ takes us back to the incident with Nabal, where David three times is mentioned as intending to “shed blood” (1 Sam. 25:26-33), only to be turned away from his sinful course by the wisdom, spirituality and charm of Abigail. David started out as the spiritually minded, humble shepherd, full of faith and zeal for his God. Hence Jehoshaphat is commended for walking “in the first ways of his father David” (2 Chron. 17:3). It seems to me that the comment that David was “a man after God’s own heart” refers to how he initially was, at the time God chose him and rejected Saul. But the trauma of his life, the betrayals, jealousies and hatred of others, led him to the kind of bitterness which so often surfaces in the Psalms and is reflected in several historical incidents where he lacks the value of others’ lives which we would otherwise expect from a man who walked so close with his God.
1Sa 25:34 For indeed, as Yahweh the God of Israel lives who has withheld
me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely
there wouldn’t have been left to Nabal by the morning light so much as a
single male-
David recognizes that he has been kept back from sinning by a Divine
force far greater than himself. And that kind of strengthening, the
strength we so desperately need in our spiritual struggles, is no less
available today through the work of the Spirit given to us (Jude 24).
1Sa 25:35 So David accepted from her what she had brought him and he said
to her, Go up in peace to your house. I have listened to your words and
have granted your request-
Note the similarities between the David / Nabal / Abigail experience
and those of Jacob, whilst he too kept flocks (1 Sam. 25:35 = Gen. 32:20;
25:18 = Gen. 32:13; 25:27 = Gen. 33:11). Abigail had consciously sought to
emulate Jacob in appeasing David with presents sent before her, and God's
wider providence played along with this.
1Sa 25:36 Abigail came to Nabal while he was holding a feast in his house,
like the feast of a king. Nabal’s heart was merry, for he was very drunk.
Therefore she told him nothing until the morning-
If the "feast" of :8 was a religious feast, then we have Nabal doing
something similar to what happened at the church in Corinth; the Lord's
feast was turned into an excuse for drunken revelry. Nabal clearly
pretended to kingship himself, and Abigail must have seen the stark
contrast between him and David.
1Sa 25:37 In the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him what had
happened; and his heart failed and he became like a stone-
To have been saved by a woman from death due to his own
foolishness... was too much for him. If he had humbled himself in
repentance and acceptance of grace, he perhaps wouldn't have had a strike.
The ten day period before his death was maybe a time of testing (Dan.
1:14,15), to see if he would repent deep within him. But he didn't, and so
he was slain by Yahweh (:37). We marvel at God's desire to save even the
likes of Nabal and Saul, and our outreach should be mightily inspired
thereby.
1Sa 25:38 About ten days after that, Yahweh struck Nabal so that he died-
This was encouragement to David to realize that if he didn't take
vengeance upon Saul, then likewise his time would come to die from
Yahweh's hand rather than David's. This is how God works with us too; we
are provided a smaller scale worked example of how things can be over a
larger issue, if we continue faithful. We note that "ten days" is
a period of testing in Dan. 1:14,15.
1Sa 25:39 When David heard that Nabal was dead he said, Blessed is Yahweh,
who has upheld my cause against Nabal, and has kept back His servant from
doing wrong. Yahweh has returned the wrongdoing of Nabal on his own head-
God's judgment is ongoing. He considered David's case against Nabal
in the court of heaven, and judgment was given and carried out. "We make
the answer now". Judgment day will not be a time when God considers
evidence for the first time, weighs it up and delivers a verdict. That
considering of evidence is ongoing right now, and the last day of judgment
is for our benefit and not His.
David sent and asked Abigail to become his wife-
This may have meant that he inherited Nabal's wealth. But it is more
likely that Abigail resigned all that for the outlaw life. Thus Abigail's
secret wish came wonderfully true because it was rightly motivated.
1Sa 25:40 When his servants had come to Abigail to Carmel they said, David
has sent us to you to take you to become his wife-
It's not clear whether this was a second visit after she had agreed,
or whether he sent and took her as his wife anyway. The next verse would
imply the latter, although she was ready and willing.
1Sa 25:41 She arose, bowed herself with her face to the earth and said,
Your handmaid is ready to be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of
my lord-
She had earlier copied the example of Rebekah (1 Sam. 25:23 = Gen.
24:18,46). And God played along with this, by giving her an opportunity to
further copy Rebekah's example by leaving all immediately.
1Sa 25:42 Abigail hurried and got onto a donkey, with five of her maids
who followed her, and she went with the messengers of David and became his
wife-
We get the impression of haste, of walking away from a prosperous
life to become second wife to a man who was an outlaw. She was inspired by
Rebekah's example (see on :41), who also took her maids and left
immediately with Isaac's messengers.
1Sa 25:43 David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they both became his
wives-
Heb. 'had taken'. Ahinoam comes first in his list of wives in 2 Sam.
3:2.
1Sa 25:44 Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti
the son of Laish, who was of Gallim-
Gallim was in Benjamin, near Saul's home town of Gibeah (Is. 10:30), so we
can read this as meaning that Saul was trying to cement his own leadership
of his tribe, thinking that he might at least remain leader of Benjamin
even if he lost the kingship over all Israel. He repeatedly tried to
vainly get around God's clear words to him, as many do today.
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