Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 25:36–end
We are now to attend Nabal's funeral and Abigail's wedding.
I. Nabal's funeral. The apostle speaks of some that were twice dead, Jde 1:12. We have hare Nabal thrice dead, though but just now wonderfully rescued from the sword of David and delivered from so great a death; for the preservations of wicked men are but reservations for some further sorer strokes of divine wrath. Here is,
1. Nabal dead drunk, Sa1 25:36. Abigail came home, and, it should seem, he had so many people and so much plenty about him that he neither missed her nor the provisions she took to David; but she found him in the midst of his jollity, little thinking how near he was to ruin by one whom he had foolishly made his e…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Samuel 25:37
in the morning . . . his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him--He probably fainted from horror at the perilous situation in which he had unconsciously placed himself; and such a shock had been given him by the fright to his whole system, that he rapidly pined and died.
Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 25:37
His heart died within him, and he became as a stone - He was thunderstruck, and was so terrified at the apprehension of what he had escaped, that the fear overcame his mind, he became insensible to all things around him, probably refused all kinds of nourishment, and died in ten days.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 25:37
But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal,.... When he had slept, and was become sober, and so capable of attending to and understanding what might be related to him:
and his wife had told him these things; recorded in this chapter, before observed:
that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone; he swooned away, became as cold as a stone, and remained as senseless, spoke not a word, but lay in a stupor; the Jewish writers generally say this was occasioned by the distress and uneasiness the present his wife carried to David gave him; but it is more likely the sense of the danger that was impressed upon his mind, which he had been exposed to through h…
