Now the name of the man [was] Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and [she was] a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man [was] churlish and evil in his doings; and he [was] of the house of Caleb.
Ver. 3. Now the name of the man was Nabal.] Nebulo; a man in whom all grace and good nature is faded and dried up; a sapless fellow, not a natural fool, but worse; an Atheist, Psa 14:1 a Mammonist. Conveniunt rebus nomina saepe suis, Nabal had not his name for naught.
And the name of his wife Abigail,] i.e., My father's joy. But what meant her father to match her to such an ill-conditioned churl? It is likely he married her to the wealth, not to the man. Many a child is cast away upon riches.
Of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance.] Not fair and foolish, but καλη και σοφη, as was Aspasia Milesia, a beautiful and wise; this was a sweet mixture.
But the man was churlish.] Durus, inhumanus, a hardhead, a miser.
And he was of the house of Caleb.] But nothing like him. Virtue is not, as lands, heritable.
a Aelian,