Women with a Story to Tell: The Merry Wives of David: Abigail 2.

 Did I say that Abigail was clever? Actually, Scripture says “The woman was clever and beautiful” (I Samuel 25: 3). David said that she had good sense. At least one person in the marriage had good sense; Nabal did not. 

 Nabal failed in the basic community responsibility of hospitality to strangers and visitors. Nabal failed to discern God’s hand in the struggle of David against Saul. Nabal gave harsh treatment to David’s young men without a thought about the possibility of retaliation. No wonder his name is Nabal. 

 Psalm 14:1 tells us that, “Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God’. They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is no one who does good.” The Hebrew word for ‘fools’ here is ‘nabal’. The same is true in Psalm 53:1, and elsewhere.

 What happens next?

  Abigail returned and found Nabal holding a great feast in his house. The text says that, “Nabal’s heart was merry within him, … for he was very drunk” (I Samuel 25:36). 

Any woman who has been married to a surly and mean man, and then finds him drunk to boot, is wise enough not to upset the apple cart. Abigail said nothing about what she had done. 

 However, the next morning, Nabal got more than a hangover. “In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him; he became like a stone” (I Samuel 25: 37). ‘Too soon old, too late smart’, as the old German saying goes. Nabal finally realizes how reckless his rash behavior and abusive words have been; he was that close to being killed by David.

 “About ten days later the LORD struck Nabal, and he died” (I Samuel 25:38). That’s it; end of story. At least the end of the story for Nabal. There is more for Abigail.

 “David said, ‘Blessed by the LORD who has judged the case of Nabal’s insult to me, and has kept his servant from doing evil; the LORD has returned the evil-doing of Nabal upon his own head’” (I Samuel 25: 39).

 After an appropriate time, David sent his men to invite Abigail to come and be his wife. She had seen the hand of the Lord at work in David, and responded favorably. She saddled her donkey and, along with 5 maids in attendance, went off to become David’s wife. Other texts tell us that Abigail gave David two sons or perhaps one son with two names: Chileab and Daniel. 

 Abigail was a woman dedicated to God in that she was quite aware of what God was doing with the leaders of Israel in her time. She was also a woman of wisdom, enough to navigate the webs of power when it was in the hands of foolish and powerful men. She was able to speak truth to power and to speak peace to violence. For her culture and her time, she did all right.