NOTES for Sa1 25:1-44

Samuel dies, and one of Israel’s great lights goes out. David must continue his difficult path without the prophet through whom the Lord called him.

This chapter tells what seems to be an ordinary story from life during a military campaign. It recounts how an army forced to obtain provisions encountered the greed of a landowner and the resourcefulness of his wife.

One could say that David’s army leads a very dangerous life, and not only because of the constant armed clashes. There is another danger: forgetting the sacred purpose of the struggle and becoming ordinary armed extortionists.

Yet this does not happen; David does not forget the higher purpose. Abigail gives food to David’s warriors not only out of fear of their armed power, but also because she understands that David is fighting the Lord’s battles.

The account of Nabal’s death is also revealing. The narrator notes that the Lord did not punish Nabal, but turned Nabal’s own malice back upon him. Abigail was able to save her husband from the warriors’ wrath, but she could not save him from his own sinfulness. What happened to Nabal is one of many examples of a person being poisoned by his own filth because he refuses to free himself from it through repentance.