Did Abigail sin in any way when she assisted David?

[Semper Fidelis]

1 Sam 25:2-43
2 David and the Wife of Nabal

Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel, and the man was very rich. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3 The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance; but the man was harsh and evil in his doings. He was of the house of Caleb.
4 When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep, 5 David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, "Go up to Carmel, go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. 6 And thus you shall say to him who lives in prosperity: 'Peace be to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that you have! 7 Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds were with us, and we did not hurt them, nor was there anything missing from them all the while they were in Carmel. 8 Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David.'"
9 So when David's young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David, and waited.
10 Then Nabal answered David's servants, and said,"Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master. 11 Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they are from?"
12 So David's young men turned on their heels and went back; and they came and told him all these words. 13 Then David said to his men, "Every man gird on his sword." So every man girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword. And about four hundred men went with David, and two hundred stayed with the supplies.
14 Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, "Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master; and he reviled them. 15 But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, nor did we miss anything as long as we accompanied them, when we were in the fields. 16 They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the time we were with them keeping the sheep. 17 Now therefore, know and consider what you will do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his household. For he is such a scoundrel that one cannot speak to him."
18 Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already dressed, five seahs of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19 And she said to her servants,"Go on before me; see, I am coming after you." But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20 So it was, as she rode on the donkey, that she went down under cover of the hill; and there were David and his men, coming down toward her, and she met them. 21 Now David had said, "Surely in vain I have protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belongs to him. And he has repaid me evil for good. 22 May God do so, and more also, to the enemies of David, if I leave one male of all who belong to him by morning light."
23 Now when Abigail saw David, she dismounted quickly from the donkey, fell on her face before David, and bowed down to the ground. 24 So she fell at his feet and said: "On me, my lord, on me let this iniquity be! And please let your maidservant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your maidservant. 25 Please, let not my lord regard this scoundrel Nabal. For as his name is, so is he: Nabal is his name, and folly is with him! But I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent. 26 Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, since the LORD has held you back from coming to bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now then, let your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be as Nabal. 27 And now this present which your maidservant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord. 28 Please forgive the trespass of your maidservant. For the LORD will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord fights the battles of the LORD, and evil is not found in you throughout your days. 29 Yet a man has risen to pursue you and seek your life, but the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the LORD your God; and the lives of your enemies He shall sling out, as from the pocket of a sling. 30 And it shall come to pass, when the LORD has done for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you ruler over Israel, 31 that this will be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself. But when the LORD has dealt well with my lord, then remember your maidservant."
32 Then David said to Abigail:"Blessed is the LORD God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! 33 And blessed is your advice and blessed are you, because you have kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand. 34 For indeed, as the LORD God of Israel lives, who has kept me back from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely by morning light no males would have been left to Nabal!" 35 So David received from her hand what she had brought him, and said to her,"Go up in peace to your house. See, I have heeded your voice and respected your person."
36 Now Abigail went to Nabal, and there he was, holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk; therefore she told him nothing, little or much, until morning light. 37 So it was, in the morning, when the wine had gone from Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became like a stone. 38 Then it happened, after about ten days, that the LORD struck Nabal, and he died.
39 So when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said,"Blessed be the LORD, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept His servant from evil! For the LORD has returned the wickedness of Nabal on his own head."
And David sent and proposed to Abigail, to take her as his wife. 40 When the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her saying, "David sent us to you, to ask you to become his wife."
41 Then she arose, bowed her face to the earth, and said, "Here is your maidservant, a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord." 42 So Abigail rose in haste and rode on a donkey, attended by five of her maidens; and she followed the messengers of David, and became his wife. 43 David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and so both of them were his wives.

I understand the motivation to save her household from certain death. Not only has Nabal violated every custom of hospitality and given great offense to David but he essentially shows himself to be an unbeliever by his disregard of God's annointing of David. One might say Nabal rejects the Messiah as he rejects the king from which Christ will come.

That said, however, Paul elsewhere in Scripture calls wives to submit to their husbands. Not only does she go behind Nabal's back but she openly calls him a complete idiot. It seems she might have accomplished the same end without saying that Nabal is, like his name, a fool.

Also, the ESV says she and her servant call Nabal a "worthless fellow" (scoundrel here). Is that not the same as committing murder in her heart against Nabal?

She is to be commended from saving David from taking Nabal's judgment into his own hands. David must not have thought having a woman that bad-mouthes her husband was a liability because he ended up taking her as a wife.

Could she have accomplished the same ends without saying such dreadful things about the character of her husband? Do you think she went too far even if the ends were good? If everything she said about Nabal was somehow commendatory then how do we harmonize with God's Word elsewhere about wives submitting in Godliness and quiet reverance?

I'm a bit undecided here and I'm really curious about your thoughts...

 

[satz]

Quite a difficult question. I have not heard any pastor that i know claim that Abigail was sinning. I think this demonstrates the difficulty we have sometimes in deciding what we should take away from the narrative passages in the bible. Or, i suppose, the question could be, should this passage be read in light of Eph 5 and other places so that we know Abigail's behavior was wrong, or should this passage be seen as placing a limitation on the wife's submission so that we know she is not to follow her husband into sin or gross stupidity.

I am inclined to go with the latter because 1) at the start of the passage she is described as a woman of 'good understanding' by the commentary of the holy spirit, hence there is an assumption for us readers that we are about to see her act with 'good understanding'. 2) God seems to side with her by killing her husband allowing her to marry David.

 

[VictorBravo]

I'm inclined to go with the latter too. As an hypothetical, would a wife be sinning if she refuesed to get into a car that her drunken husband wanted to drive? I think not.

I don't think she sinned by insulting her husband either. She merely pointed out the obvious in a manner that defused the situation.

Vic

 

[Semper Fidelis]

I'm still not sure. There is really no greater insult that calling someone a "worthless fellow" (scoundrel). It seems she might have apologized profusely to David without adding those details.

I'm not arguing that a wife ought to follow her husband into destruction but I am concerned that we do, in fact, harmonize this with other teaching in Scripture. It is one thing to follow your husband into every sin and quite another to tell everybody what a jerk he is.

You can imagine the license that would be available to all of us if this passage gave us license to "point out the obvious" about everybody we were commanded to submit to. What man does not do the occassional foolish thing that could offend another brother? Assume that man still has much left to sanctify but is, in fact, working on his faults. Is his wife permitted to say "I'm sorry for the way my husband is acting but he is quite stupid and idiotic. God is working on that."

I can harmonize the idea that she is saving her household from destruction and apologizing for an obvious offense. What I still can't harmonize is how she points out the obvious and even adds to the obvious. Certainly David and his men knew Nabal was foolish and at least worthless enough to them that they intended to kill him. It almost seems that she could have left out the added words and gotten the point across that "We're very sorry and please don't kill me on account of his sin...."

 

[VictorBravo]

Your points are well taken, Rich. I have to confess that my view is colored by my experience with rural middle-eastern farm families.

Abigail's actions just seemed so typical of that culture that I did not take them to be overt rebellion.

I remember observing otherwise very submissive farm women call their husbands the equivalent of "worthless" or "idiot" in situations in which they thought the household was in danger. (Like when a bull got loose in the family courtyard). The macho husband would not strike back, but take the chasening with a shrug and deal with the issue.

So I was imagining such a dynamic with strong ranch-wife Abigail. I realize that my imagination should not make her conduct normative.

Vic

 

[Semper Fidelis]

R.V.,

I appreciate the interaction and wish more would weigh in on this. I didn't mean to imply that I disagreed completely with yours or Mark's points. Abigail, after all, is only commended and not criticized.

Of course, it is a historical narrative and God does not always come out and say "...so and so sinned greatly...." Jephtah is a good example, where he sacrifices his daughter on the basis of a rash vow without much commentary. He's later commended in Hebrews as a man of great faith.

Perhaps Abigail did sin against Nabal in her speech and in her heart but, like all saints, her sin was covered. She does, after all, express faith in David's reign and, by extension, faith in the coming Messiah. Perhaps, like many of the OT saints, we can note imperfections even in the way they express their faith.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

I'l just add

I think her phraseology must be taken in accord with cultural considerations, just as V-B pointed out. It may sound harsh to our sensitive ears, but it could simply have been regarded then an artless statment of fact. As well, the more like a fool or bufoon she made her husband out to be, the more he was to be pitied, not hated, and thus spared. If he had come out to David himself, berating himself as a fool, we would admire his humilty (or his cunning).

I think, too, that it is correct that we don't just take a single narrative from Scripture, and base our own behavior on it (carbon-copy) as though our context has no bearing on the situation. Principles are embedded in the history, but extracting them takes work. In the end, it is the "complex" of the event that demonstrates Abigail's nobility and virtue, and not one line of dialog.


other points:
That David took her to wife is paralleled with the statement that having a new wife (Michal had been given to another man on Saul's order) he took yet another. Which was "first"? We aren't told. Ahinoam bore David his firstborn son, Amnon. Again, note how we are informed of a particular act, without always getting commentary on its intrinsic praiseworthiness. Should David have taken Abigail? Or Ahinoam? Those questions really don't get answered. But we know he disregarded the Law at this point (Deut. 17:17). And yet, the Lord's blessing is also evident, even amidst imperfection and sin. How comforting to know.

And (side note on a side note) I do not believe Jephtha made a blood sacrifice/burnt offering of his daughter. Commentators even among ancient Judaism have in the main concluded that she was dedicated to the Tabernacle service, and never married ("let me go and bewail my virginity... and she knew no man" Jd. 11:37 & 39).

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Originally posted by Contra_Mundum
I'l just add

I think her phraseology must be taken in accord with cultural considerations, just as V-B pointed out. It may sound harsh to our sensitive ears, but it could simply have been regarded then an artless statment of fact. As well, the more like a fool or bufoon she made her husband out to be, the more he was to be pitied, not hated, and thus spared. If he had come out to David himself, berating himself as a fool, we would admire his humilty (or his cunning).

I think, too, that it is correct that we don't just take a single narrative from Scripture, and base our own behavior on it (carbon-copy) as though our context has no bearing on the situation. Principles are embedded in the history, but extracting them takes work. In the end, it is the "complex" of the event that demonstrates Abigail's nobility and virtue, and not one line of dialog.


other points:
That David took her to wife is paralleled with the statement that having a new wife (Michal had been given to another man on Saul's order) he took yet another. Which was "first"? We aren't told. Ahinoam bore David his firstborn son, Amnon. Again, note how we are informed of a particular act, without always getting commentary on its intrinsic praiseworthiness. Should David have taken Abigail? Or Ahinoam? Those questions really don't get answered. But we know he disregarded the Law at this point (Deut. 17:17). And yet, the Lord's blessing is also evident, even amidst imperfection and sin. How comforting to know.

And (side note on a side note) I do not believe Jephtha made a blood sacrifice/burnt offering of his daughter. Commentators even among ancient Judaism have in the main concluded that she was dedicated to the Tabernacle service, and never married ("let me go and bewail my virginity... and she knew no man" Jd. 11:37 & 39).

Doh! Bruce,

I knew you were going to ruin my analogy of Jephthah by bringing up that view. I was a bit loathe to use it. I think my larger point, which you seem to agree with, is that some things are done without divine commentary as to their propriety.

My main issue with Abigail was not to figure out how I could pick on Abigail and her behavior but because, on the face of it, there is some tension in the way she talks about her husband calling him foolish and worthless and wicked (literally beliya' al).

I would agree that it may well be a way to call David off but it does seem that the idea that Nabal is worthless is pretty well developed (See verse 17 where the servant says the same thing).

The only reason I would be averse to working too hard at excusing her attitude is that she might otherwise become a model. I've read this passage at least 5 other times and I don't know why I noticed her words this time. Perhaps some study might consider Abigail as an example of piety. When considering her behavior here might we not want to caution about her attitude toward her husband. If she is justified then we ought to be really careful not to draw too many conclusions about how women are to act in submission to their husbands (or even men submitting to elders).

The practical outworkings of submission are often difficult. How easy might it be for some wives to think of their own husbands as little "Nabals" and speak about their husbands as worthless to their children and others given what they consider to be the appropriate situation.

I'm not looking for a specific rule of thumb here but I think we should either clearly define how Abigail was completely blameless in how she spoke of Nabal with her servants and with David or we should admit that we think she probably sinned in some way. Saying it was good for Abigail but unable to define how it might be good for us seems to be problematic.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

Rich,
I basically agree with you. Since it IS problematic, it's probably a poor place to go to find the "portrait" of a virtuous woman. Other than this vignette, we know little about Abigail. She certainly has a certain nobility and practical virtue, but like most biblical characters, she has flaws also. But what she does is vastly more important than what she says (which is nevertheless--don't forget--the unvarnished, ugly truth). A pastor who preaches this passage primarily to laud Abigail as a paragon of Christian womanhood is not being a faithful expositor. That is not the purpose for which the passage is present in our Bibles. But still, she teaches women something positive by her example.

We do much better to remember as husbands that we are to be ashamed beyond description to have the description of "Nabal" hung around our necks, or that our wives should be put to such an extremity as Nabal put Abigail in defense of his life. Moreover, I should praise God that he often sends his emmisaries to halt me in my tracks, and keep me "from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand."

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Matthew Henry's comments on v. 19 and 25 may be helpful in showing why Abigail behaved virtuously in this matter.

Abigail not only lawfully, but laudably, disposed of all these goods of her husband's without his knowledge (even when she had reason to think that if he had known what she did he would not have consented to it), because it was not to gratify her own pride or vanity, but for the necessary defence of him and his family. which otherwise would have been inevitably ruined. Husbands and wives, for their common good and benefit, have a joint-interest in their worldly possessions; but if either waste, or unduly spend in any way, it is a robbing of the other.

and

She excuses her husband's fault by imputing it to his natural weakness and want of understanding (v. 25): "Let not my lord take notice of his rudeness and ill manners, for it is like him; it is not the first time that he has behaved so churlishly; he must be borne with, for it is for want of wit: Nabal is his name" (which signifies a fool), "and folly is with him. It was owing to his folly, not his malice. He is simple, but not spiteful. Forgive him, for he knows not what he does." What she said was too true, and she said it to excuse his fault and prevent his ruin, else she would not have done well to give such a bad character as this of her own husband, whom she ought to make the best of, and not to speak ill of.

And Matthew Poole has this to say on v. 25:

It may be thought a great crime, that she traduceth her husband in this manner; but this may be said for her, that she told them nothing but what they all knew concerning him, and that she only seemed to take away that which he never had indeed, to wit, his good name, that she might preserve that which he had, and which was more dear and important to him, even his life and soul.

And the view of William Gouge on Abigail's conduct is noteworthy:

If she have occasion to tell him of a fault, therein she ought to manifest humility and reverence, by observing a fit season, and doing it after a gentle manner as Abigail: [1 Sam 25:31-37] who as she wisely behaved herself in this respect with her husband in observing a fit season, so also with David by intimating his fault unto him, rather than plainly reproving him, when she said, It shall be no grief nor offence unto my Lord, that he hath not shed blood causeless.
...
If there fall out an extraordinary occasion whereby the wife by disposing the goods without or against the consent of her husband may bring a great good to the family, or prevent and keep a great mischief from it, she is not to stay for his consent; instance the example of Abigail. [1 Sam 25:18] Thus a faithful provident wife observing her husband to riot, and to spend all he can get in carding, dicing, and drinking, may without his consent lay up what goods she can for her husband's, her own, her children's, and whole household's good. This is no part of disobedience, but a point wherein she may show herself a great good help unto her husband; [Gen 2:18] for which end a wife was first made.
...
Abigail's example was extraordinary, [1 Sam 25:18] and therefore not imitable but in such like extraordinary cases.
...
Among wives Abigail deserves great praise, that forgot not her duty, though she were married to a churlish, covetous, drunken sot, a very Nabal in name and deed.

-- Of Domestical Duties, The Third Treatise, Of Wives Particular Duties

[Edited on 4-2-2006 by VirginiaHuguenot]

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Originally posted by Contra_Mundum
Rich,
I basically agree with you. Since it IS problematic, it's probably a poor place to go to find the "portrait" of a virtuous woman. Other than this vignette, we know little about Abigail. She certainly has a certain nobility and practical virtue, but like most biblical characters, she has flaws also. But what she does is vastly more important than what she says (which is nevertheless--don't forget--the unvarnished, ugly truth). A pastor who preaches this passage primarily to laud Abigail as a paragon of Christian womanhood is not being a faithful expositor. That is not the purpose for which the passage is present in our Bibles. But still, she teaches women something positive by her example.

We do much better to remember as husbands that we are to be ashamed beyond description to have the description of "Nabal" hung around our necks, or that our wives should be put to such an extremity as Nabal put Abigail in defense of his life. Moreover, I should praise God that he often sends his emmisaries to halt me in my tracks, and keep me "from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand."

All very insightful points Bruce. Thanks.

Adam,

Thanks for the commentaries. I should have looked there too. I still think it begs the question as to the conversation with the servant to the effect of "...there goes that worthless Nabal again...."