When Abigail saw David, &c.— Abigail was a woman of distinguished merit. She had the advantage of a beautiful person, set off by an excellent understanding, a graceful address, and uncommon prudence; these are finely discovered in her speech to David, which is full of such humble, pathetic, natural, and for that reason powerful eloquence, as is not, I verily think, to be paralleled in antiquity. She begins by begging that the blame of this misconduct might rather light on her than on her husband; see 2 Samuel 14:9 but begs at the same time, that David would please to hear what she has to say in her own excuse. As for Nabal, he was below David's notice; a man, as his name implied, נבל nabal, (which signifies folly in the Hebrew,) of very mean understanding; and she excuses herself by assuring him, that she heard not a word of his message till his servants were sent away. She then insinuates the goodness of God to him, in withholding him from revenge and from blood; and in the very same sentence interweaves a most solemn adjuration to abstain from both, 1 Samuel 25:26. Abigail, after this, beseeches David that he would suffer his servants to accept her presents (they were too mean for his acceptance): repeating her petition for forgiveness, and adding, that God would certainly preserve him from his enemies, whom she wishes to be all as Nabal, as truly despicable, as incapable to harm him, and as much humbled before him; that God, whose battles he had fought (finely insinuating that such only were worthy his prowess), and whose laws he had hitherto kept inviolable, would certainly preserve, and in the end establish him in the throne: and that then it would be matter of no remorse or disquiet to him, that he had abstained from self-vengeance, and the shedding of blood; concluding with an earnest request, that, when God had established him, he would remember her. The words in the 29th verse, But the soul of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of LIFE, &c. Calmet would render, But the soul of my Lord shall be like a living stone with the Lord. It is certain, that by this translation the opposition is finely marked between the two clauses of the verse: but we do not know of either versions or manuscripts which favour this translation of our learned Benedictine. Houbigant translates as we do, and observes, that the similitude is drawn from little bundles in which things of value are collected, that they may not be scattered about and thrown away; and at the same time a comparison is made between these bundles, and a sling in which a stone is put, not to be preserved, but to be thrown away. See Schmidt's Dissertations.
1 Samuel 25:23-31
23 And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground,
24 And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience,h and hear the words of thine handmaid.
25 Let not my lord, I pray thee, regardi this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.
26 Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avengingj thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.
27 And now this blessingk which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord.
28 I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the LORD, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days.
29 Yet 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, as out of the middle of a sling.
30 And it shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel;
31 That this shall be no griefl unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself: but when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid.