But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became [as] a stone.
Ver. 37. When the wine was gone out of Nabal.] That is, The perturbation of his brain, the alienation of his mind, - when sleep had cooled his head, and restored him to himself.
And his wife had told him these things.] In a pathetical manner no doubt, as she could well do it. That tongue of hers had oft advised him well and prevailed not. Now it occasioneth his death, whose reformation it could not effect. She meant nothing but his amendment. God meant to make that loving instrument the means of his revenge. Wonderful, saith one, a was the force of this woman's speech, that as it before allayed David's rage, so now it pierceth Nabal to the heart. This power was not in her human eloquence, but proceeded from the Spirit of God.
That his heart died within him.] Through fear, which hath a deadly force upon feeble spirits; for some have died for fear they should die: as a gentleman at the siege of St Paul, in France, fell down stark dead in the breach, without any stroke or touch, save what his heart gave him by a fearful apprehension of danger near at hand. b And at the massacre of Paris, where Peter Ramus was slain in his study, Lambinus, a learned man, but a Papist - through fear of his adversary, Carpenter, a Sorbonnist, who had slain Ramus - was so frightened, that he died shortly after. c
And he became as a stone.] A sot he had been in his life, and as senseless he lay at his death, though he had the benefit of ten days' sickness. d Who then would defer to do the great work?
“ Non aliter stupuit quam qui Iovis ignibus ictus
Vivit, at est vitae nescius ipse sum. ”
- Ovid. Trist., lib. i. eleg. iii.
a Dr Willet.
b Dr Hall, of Christ. Moder., lib. i. sect. 14.
c Epit. Hist. Gallic., p. 148.
d Praeclusis sensibus rigebat. - Jun.