1 Samuel 25:39

And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil: for the LORD hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him to wife.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
David	דָּוִד֮ da.Vid	H1732	David · proper noun, a man's name
heard	וַיִּשְׁמַ֣ע vai.yish.Ma'	H8085	to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Nabal	נָבָל֒ na.Val	H5037	Nabal · proper noun, a man's name
dead	מֵ֣ת met	H4191	to die (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
said	וַיֹּ֡אמֶר vai.Yo.mer	H559	to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Blessed	בָּר֣וּךְ ba.Rukh	H1288	to kneel · verb, qal passive participle, masculine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

1 Samuel 25:26 Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from…
1 Samuel 25:34 For in very deed, as the LORD God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me,…
Proverbs 22:23 For the LORD will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them.
1 Samuel 24:15 The LORD therefore be judge, and judge between me and thee, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of thine hand.
1 Samuel 25:32 And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me:
1 Kings 2:44 The king said moreover to Shimei, Thou knowest all the wickedness which thine heart is privy to, that thou didst to David my father: therefo…
Psalms 7:16 His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.
Judges 5:2 Praise ye the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

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…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Samuel 25:39

the Lord hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head--If this was an expression of pleasure, and David's vindictive feelings were gratified by the intelligence of Nabal's death, it was an instance of human infirmity which we may lament; but perhaps he referred to the unmerited reproach (Sa1 25:10-11), and the contempt of God implied in it. David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to wife--This unceremonious proceeding was quite in the style of Eastern monarchs, who no sooner take a fancy for a lady than they despatch a messenger to intimate their royal wishes that she should henceforth reside in the palace; and her duty is implicitly to obey. David's conduct shows that…

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Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 25:39

To take her to him to wife - It is likely that he had heard before this that Saul, to cut off all his pretensions to the throne, had married Michal to Phalti; and this justified David in taking Abigail or any other woman; and, according to the then custom, it was not unlawful for David to take several wives. By his marriage with Abigail, it is probable he became possessed of all Nabal's property in Carmel and Maon.

John Gill on 1 Samuel 25:39

The Church Fathers

David therefore sent and spoke to Abigail. The Lord sent preachers, so that, with the Synagogue's perfidious leaders destroyed by the sword of the Romans with their followers, they might invite her, in the remnants that remained, to His spiritual marriage.
— Bede, Commentary on Samuel

Having proved by Holy Scripture that all things are both watched and ruled by God, it remains now for me to show that most things in this world are judged by his divine power. When the holy David had borne the affronts and insults of Nabal from Carmel, because David delayed vengeance, he was avenged at once by the very hand of God. Shortly thereafter, when his enemy had been defeated and killed by the hand of God, David said, "Blessed be the Lord who has judged the cause of my reproach at the hand of Nabal."
— Salvian the Presbyter, THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 2.3

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Abigail — Father (i.e., “leader”) of the dance, or “of joy.” (1.) The sister of David, and wife of Jether an Ishmaelite (1 Chr. 2:16, 17). She was the mother of Amasa (2 Sam. 17:25). (2.) The wife of the…
Booty — Captives or cattle or objects of value taken in war. In Canaan all that breathed were to be destroyed (Deut. 20: 16). The “pictures and images” of the Canaanites were to be destroyed also (Num.…
David — Beloved, the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, a citizen of Bethlehem. His father seems to have been a man in humble life. His mother’s name is not recorded. Some think she was the Nahash of 2 Sam.…
Nabal — Foolish, a descendant of Caleb who dwelt at Maon (1 Sam. 25), the modern Main, 7 miles south-east of Hebron. He was “very great, and he had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats...but the man was churlish and…
Marriage · Modes of demanding women in — Modes of demanding women in
Polygamy · David — David
Wife · Tactful Abigail — Tactful Abigail

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

1 Samuel 25:39

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 25:36–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Samuel 25:39

Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 25:39

John Gill on 1 Samuel 25:39

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

1 Samuel 25:39

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 25:36–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Samuel 25:39

Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 25:39

John Gill on 1 Samuel 25:39

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Samuel 25:2–end

Tyndale Open Study Notes on 1 Samuel 25:39

Rashi on 1 Samuel 25:39