1 Samuel 25:23

ABIGAIL'S MAGNIFICENT APPEAL TO DAVID

"When Abigail saw David, she made haste, and alighted from the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed to the ground. She fell at his feet and said, "Upon me alone, my lord, be the guilt; pray let your handmaid speak in your ears, and hear the words of your handmaid. Let not my lord regard this fellow Nabal; for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him; but I your handmaid did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent. Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, seeing the Lord has restrained you from bloodguilt, and from taking vengeance with your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal. And now let this present which your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord. Pray forgive the trespass of your handmaid; for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the Lord; and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live. If men rise up to pursue and to seek your life, the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the Lord your God; and the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling. And when the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you prince over Israel, my lord shall have no cause of grief, or pangs of conscience, for having shed blood without cause or for my lord taking vengeance himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your handmaid."

"Upon me alone, my lord, be the guilt" (1 Samuel 25:24). Abigail's action in these words took upon herself the guilt of her husband, hoping in this to save his life, and this in spite of Nabal's unworthiness. A more noble act of self-sacrificing love would be hard indeed to find.

"Let not my lord regard this fellow Nabal" (1 Samuel 25:25). This was exactly the same argument that David himself had used in his efforts to dissuade Saul from trying to kill David (1 Samuel 24:14). The argument was that Nabal was not important enough to warrant David's taking vengeance upon him; and besides, as Abigail pointed out, it was contrary to God's law for David so to do. Here again is evidence that the Pentateuch, from cover to cover (or throughout the whole roll), was known to well-informed Israelites centuries prior to the time which some critics erroneously claim as the time when it was written!

"Seeing the Lord has restrained you from bloodguilt" (1 Samuel 25:26). These words were an assertion by Abigail that David's projected murder of Nabal and his household was a violation of God's law; and, in context, they were a reproof of David's intentions. Concerning those intentions, our abbreviated account does not tell us how Nabal's young men knew that evil was determined against Nabal and his house (1 Samuel 25:17), nor how Abigail was certainly aware of it here. Abigail's skillful warning here had the desired effect.

"Never was such an admonition better given or better received. Abigail was a wise reprover of David's passion, and he gave an obedient ear to the reproof, according to his own principles, as he wrote, `Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness' (Psalms 141:5, KJV)."[13]

"My lord is fighting the battles of the Lord" (1 Samuel 25:28). There was a recognition here by Abigail that Saul, who should have been fighting the battles of the Lord was not doing so.

"You enemies shall he (God) sling out as from the hollow of a sling" (1 Samuel 25:29). What a diplomatic reference this was! It was a sling, of course, that brought David to the attention of all Israel in his triumph over Goliath.

"When the Lord has appointed you prince over Israel" (1 Samuel 25:30). Abigail, in this, recognized that God was Israel's true king, but that David would indeed rise to the throne of Israel as prince over God's people. The knowledge of God's intentions concerning David were, at this time, apparently known throughout Israel, or at least in Judah where Abigail resided.

"No pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause" (1 Samuel 25:31). Abigail's wisdom here was surely inspired of God, because, David's shedding the blood of this well known Judahite (Nabal), "Would have started a blood feud among the clans of Judah that would involve men that David would need on his way to the kingship. David had only Judah to back him in his claim upon the throne."[14]