(1) Samuel died, and all Israel gathered and made lament for him; and they buried him in Ramah, his home.
David went down to the wilderness of Paran. (2) There was a man in Ma'on whose possessions were in Carmel. The man was very wealthy; he owned three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. At the time, he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. (3) The man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. The woman was intelligent and beautiful, but the man, a Calebite, was harsh and an evildoer. (4) David was in the wilderness when he heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep. (5) David dispatched ten young men, and David instructed the young men, “Go up to Carmel. When you come to Nabal, greet him in my name. (6) Say as follows: ‘To life! Greetings to you and to your household and to all that is yours! (7) I hear that you are now doing your shearing. As you know, your shepherds have been with us; we did not harm them, and nothing of theirs was missing all the time they were in Carmel. (8) Ask your young men and they will tell you. So receive these young men graciously, for we have come on a festive occasion. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can.’” (9) David’s young men went and delivered this message to Nabal in the name of David. When they stopped speaking, (10) Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many slaves nowadays who run away from their masters. (11) Should I then take my bread and my water, and the meat that I slaughtered for my own shearers, and give them to men who come from I don’t know where?” (12) Thereupon David’s young men retraced their steps; and when they got back, they told him all this.

(13) And David said to his men, “Gird on your swords.” Each girded on his sword; David too girded on his sword. About four hundred of them went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage. (14) One of [Nabal’s] young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, that David had sent messengers from the wilderness to greet their master, and that he had spurned them. (15) “But those involved had been very friendly to us; we were not harmed, nor did we miss anything all the time that we went about with them while we were in the open. (16) They were a wall about us both by night and by day all the time that we were with them tending the flocks. (17) So consider carefully what you should do, for harm threatens our master and all his household; he is such a nasty fellow that no one can speak to him.” (18) Abigail quickly got together two hundred loaves of bread, two jars of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of parched corn, one hundred cakes of raisin, and two hundred cakes of pressed figs. She loaded them on donkeys, (19) and she told her young men, “Go on ahead of me, and I’ll follow you”; but she did not tell her husband Nabal. (20) She was riding on the donkey and going down a trail on the hill, when David and his men appeared, coming down toward her; and she met them.— (21) Now David had been saying, “It was all for nothing that I protected that fellow’s possessions in the wilderness, and that nothing he owned is missing. He has paid me back evil for good. (22) May God do thus and more to the enemies of David if, by the light of morning, I leave a single male of his.”— (23) When Abigail saw David, she quickly dismounted from the donkey and threw herself face down before David, bowing to the ground. (24) Prostrate at his feet, she pleaded, “Let the blame be mine, my lord, but let your handmaid speak to you; hear your maid’s plea. (25) Please, my lord, pay no attention to that wretched man—to Nabal. For he is just what his name says: His name means ‘boor’ and he is a boor.
“Your handmaid did not see the young men whom my lord sent. (26) I swear, my lord, as GOD lives and as you live—GOD who has kept you from seeking redress by blood with your own hands—let your enemies and all who would harm my lord fare like Nabal! (27) Here is the present that your maidservant has brought to my lord; let it be given to the young men who are the followers of my lord. (28) Please pardon your maid’s boldness. For GOD will grant my lord an enduring house, because my lord is fighting GOD’s battles and no wrong is ever to be found in you. (29) And if anyone sets out to pursue you and seek your life, the life of my lord will be bound up in the bundle of life in the care of GOD—who will fling away the lives of your enemies as from the hollow of a sling. (30) And when GOD has accomplished for my lord all the good promised to you, and has appointed you ruler of Israel, (31) do not let this be a cause of stumbling and of faltering courage to my lord that you have shed blood needlessly and that my lord sought redress with his own hands. And when GOD has made my lord prosper, remember your maid.” (32) David said to Abigail, “Praised be GOD, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! (33) And blessed be your prudence, and blessed be you yourself for restraining me from seeking redress in blood by my own hands. (34) For as sure as GOD, the God of Israel, lives—who has kept me from harming you—had you not come quickly to meet me, not a single male of Nabal’s line would have been left by daybreak.” (35) David then accepted from her what she had brought him, and he said to her, “Go up to your home safely. See, I have heeded your plea and respected your wish.”

(36) When Abigail came home to Nabal, he was having a feast in his house, a feast fit for a king; Nabal was in a merry mood and very drunk, so she did not tell him anything at all until daybreak. (37) The next morning, when Nabal had slept off the wine, his wife told him everything that had happened; and his courage died within him, and he became like a stone. (38) About ten days later GOD struck Nabal and he died. (39) When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Praised be GOD who championed my cause against the insults of Nabal and held me back from wrongdoing; GOD has brought Nabal’s wrongdoing down on his own head.”
David sent messengers to propose marriage to Abigail, to take her as his wife. (40) When David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel and told her that David had sent them to her to make her his wife, (41) she immediately bowed low with her face to the ground and said, “Your handmaid is ready to be your maidservant, to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.” (42) Then Abigail rose quickly and mounted a donkey, and with five of her maids in attendance she followed David’s messengers; and she became his wife.

(2) Sons were born to David in Hebron: His first-born was Amnon, by Ahinoam of Jezreel; (3) his second was Chileab, by Abigail wife of Nabal the Carmelite; the third was Absalom son of Maacah, daughter of King Talmai of Geshur;

(1) These are the sons of David who were born to him in Hebron: the first-born Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelite; the second Daniel, by Abigail the Carmelite;

§ The Gemara asks with regard to the prophetesses recorded in the baraita: Who were the seven prophetesses? The Gemara answers: Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Huldah, and Esther.

Abigail was a prophetess, as it is written: “And it was so, as she rode on the donkey, and came down by the covert of the mountain” (I Samuel 25:20). The Gemara asks: Why does it say: “By the covert [beseter] of the mountain”? It should have said: From the mountain.The Gemara answers that in fact this must be understood as an allusion to something else. Rabba bar Shmuel said: Abigail, in her attempt to prevent David from killing her husband Nabal, came to David and questioned him on account of menstrual blood that comes from the hidden parts [setarim] of a body. How so? She took a blood-stained cloth and showed it to him, asking him to rule on her status, whether or not she was ritually impure as a menstruating woman. He said to her: Is blood shown at night? One does not examine blood-stained cloths at night, as it is difficult to distinguish between the different shades by candlelight. She said to him: If so, you should also remember another halakha: Are cases of capital law tried at night? Since one does not try capital cases at night, you cannot condemn Nabal to death at night. David said to her:Nabal, your husband, is a rebel against the throne, as David had already been anointed as king by the prophet Samuel, and Nabal refused his orders. And therefore there is no need to try him, as a rebel is not accorded the ordinary prescriptions governing judicial proceedings. Abigail said to him: You lack the authority to act in this manner, as Saul is still alive. He is the king in actual practice, and your seal [tivakha] has not yet spread across the world, i.e., your kingship is not yet known to all. Therefore, you are not authorized to try someone for rebelling against the monarchy. David accepted her words and said to her: “And blessed be your discretion and blessed be you who have kept me this day from coming to bloodguiltiness [damim]” (I Samuel 25:33). The Gemara asks: The plural term damim, literally, bloods, indicates two. Why did David not use the singular term dam? Rather, this teaches that Abigail revealed her thigh, and he lusted after her, and he went three parasangs by the fire of his desire for her, and said to her: Listen to me, i.e., listen to me and allow me to be intimate with you. Abigail then said to him: “Let this not be a stumbling block for you” (I Samuel 25:31). By inference, from the word “this,” it can be understood that there is someone else who will in fact be a stumbling block for him, and what is this referring to? The incident involving Bathsheba. And in the end this is what was, as indeed he stumbled with Bathsheba. This demonstrates that Abigail was a prophetess, as she knew that this would occur. This also explains why David blessed Abigail for keeping him from being responsible for two incidents involving blood that day: Abigail’s menstrual blood and the shedding of Nabal’s blood. Apropos Abigail, the Gemara explains additional details in the story. Abigail said to David: “Yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bond of life with the Lord your God” (I Samuel 25:29), and when she parted from him she said to him: “And when the Lord shall have dealt well with my lord, and you shall remember your handmaid” (I Samuel 25:31). Rav Naḥman said that this explains the folk saying that people say: While a woman is engaged in conversation she also holds the spindle, i.e., while a woman is engaged in one activity she is already taking steps with regard to another. Abigail came to David in order to save her husband Nabal, but at the same time she indicates that if her husband dies, David should remember her and marry her. And indeed, after Nabal’s death David took Abigail for his wife. Some say that Rav Naḥman referred to a different saying: The goose stoops its head as it goes along, but its eyes look on from afar to find what it is looking for. So too, Abigail acted in similar fashion.

To complete the discussion about the prophetesses, the Gemara cites a baraita in which the Sages taught: There were four women of extraordinary beauty in the world: Sarah, and Abigail, Rahab, and Esther. And according to the one who said that Esther was greenish in color, lacking natural beauty, only that a cord of divine grace was strung around her, remove Esther from the list and insert Vashti in her place, for she was indeed beautiful. The Sages taught in a baraita: Rahab aroused impure thoughts by her name, i.e., the mere mention of her name would inspire lust for her; Yael, by her voice; Abigail, by remembering her; Michal, the daughter of Saul, by her appearance. Similarly, Rabbi Yitzḥak said: Anyone who says Rahab, Rahab, immediately experiences a seminal emission due to the arousal of desire caused by Rahab’s great beauty. Rav Naḥman said to him: I say: Rahab, Rahab, and it does not affect me. Rabbi Yitzchak said to Rav Naḥman: When I said this, I was specifically referring to one who knows her personally and recognizes her beauty. Only for one who has met Rahab in person is the mere mention of her name capable of arousing lust.

(4)And the king brings out people for conscription in an optional war, i.e., a war that is not mandated by the Torah and is not a war of defense, on the basis of a court of seventy-one, and breaches fences of anyone in his way to create a pathway for himself for his various needs, and no one can protest his power. The pathway of the king has no measure, neither lengthwise nor widthwise, and one cannot protest that this pathway is wider than necessary. And all the people take spoils in war and give them to him, and he takes the first portion of the spoils. mishna The king “shall not add many wives for himself” (Deuteronomy 17:17), but only eighteen. Rabbi Yehuda says: He may add many wives for himself, provided that they are not like those who turn his heart away from reverence for God. Rabbi Shimon says: Even if he wants to marry only one wife, if she turns his heart away, he should not marry her. If so, why is it stated: “He shall not add many wives for himself”? This teaches that even if his wives are like Abigail, who was righteous and prevented David from sin (see I Samuel, chapter 25), it is prohibited for him to have many wives. The king “shall not accumulate many horses for himself” (Deuteronomy 17:16), but only enough for his chariot in war and in peace. “Neither shall he greatly accumulate silver and gold for himself” (Deuteronomy 17:17), but only enough to provide his soldiers’ sustenance [aspanya]. And the king writes himself a Torah scroll for his sake, as stipulated in Deuteronomy 17:18. When he goes out to war, he brings it out with him. When he comes in from war, he brings it in with him. When he sits in judgment, it is with him. When he reclines to eat, it is opposite him, as it is stated: “And it shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life” (Deuteronomy 17:19).

(1)Abraham begot Isaac (Gen. 25:19). R. Isaac stated; No generation lacks scoffers. While Nabal was shearing his flock, David sent some of his young men to him with the request: Give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thy hand, unto thy servants, and to thy son David (I Sam. 25:8). But Nabal retorted: Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master; shall I then take my bread and my water and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers and give it unto men of whom I know not whence they are? (ibid., vv. 10–11). When David’s men returned and repeated Nabal’s words, he armed himself and his soldiers, and with their weapons started out to destroy Nabal. But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying: “Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; but he hath spoken rudely to them” (ibid., v. 14). As soon as she heard what had transpired, she prepared a gift which she took to David, as it is said: Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of corn … and she said unto her men: “Go on before me; I come after you.” But she told not her husband Nabal (ibid., vv. 18–19). Later on Scripture states: And it came to pass about ten days later, that the Lord smote Nabal so that he died…. and David sent and spoke unto Abigail to take her to him to wife (ibid. 38:39). After he had her brought to him, David stayed apart from her for three months to determine whether or not she had conceived with Nabal. After the third month, David had intercourse with her and she became pregnant. The scoffers in that generation asserted that she had actually conceived from Nabal. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He ordered the angel in charge of the formation of embryos to fashion that embryo in the likeness of its father so that everyone would be forced to acknowledge that David was the father. We know that this is so from the verse And his firstborn was Amnon, of Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and his second, Chileab, of Abigail, the wife of Nabal the Carmelite (II Sam. 3:2). Why does Scripture call him Chileab (khilav)? Because he was completely like his father (kulo av), and everyone who saw him said: “David is this child’s father.”

Ḥeṣron had three sons, as it is written: The sons of Ḥeṣron Yeraḥmeël, and Ram, and Kelubai. Yerahmeël should have been first, but he married a Gentile woman to crown himself with her, as it is written: Yerahmeël had anotherwife; her name was Crown, she is the mother of Onam, for she brought deep sorrow to his house. And Ram fathered Amminadav, Amminadav fathered Naḥshon, Naḥshon fathered Salma, Salmon fathered Boaz, and Boaz married Ruth. This Nabal was a descendant of Kelubai. Nabal said, nobody in Israel comes from a better family than I. That is what is written: A man from Maˋon had his business in Karmel; the man was exceedingly rich, a Kalebite, a descendant of Kelubai. David heard in the prairie that Nabal was shearing. Tell him, to life! For long life. Peace be with you, etc. Rebbi Justus from Sunem said, they formed a camp. Nabal answered David’s servants, etc. From where that in criminal trials the voting starts from the side? Samuel the Elder stated before Rebbi Aḥa: David told his men, etc. He flew at them. What means he flew at them? He made them fly with words. Now know this and consider what to do. She fell in with them, she bared her thigh and they walked by its light. She fell in with them, they all were recognizable. [David] said, was it in vain that I watched, etc.? Pissing on a wall; why does he refer to the dog pissing on a wall? Even with the dog I shall not have mercy. Abigail saw David, etc. She told him, my lord David, what did I do, what did my children do, what did my animals do? He answered her, because he insulted the kingdom of David. She asked him, are you a king? He told her, did not Samuel anoint me as king? She answered him, our Lord’s Saul‘s coin is still circulating. And I am your servant; this proves that he asked her for sex. Immediately, she brought out her stains and showed him. He said, does one investigate stains in the night? She retorted, may your ears hear what your lips say! Stains one does not investigate in the night, does one judge capital cases in the night? He answered, his sentence was already passed in daytime. She retorted, may this not beפוּקָהfor you.

The Gemara raises another difficulty. But isn’t it written with regard to Abigail: “And it was so, as she rode on her donkey and came down by the covert of the mountain” (I Samuel 25:20). This verse employs the language of riding in reference to a woman on a donkey. The Gemara answers: There, due to the fear of the night, it is standard practice for a woman to ride and not merely sit on the donkey. And if you wish, say instead: There is no consideration due to the fear of the night that would explain why she was permitted to ride in the regular manner; rather, there is a consideration due to fear of David. And if you wish, say instead: There is no consideration due to fear of David either; however, there is a consideration due to the fear of the incline when riding down the mountain.

(1) To conquer illness. It is said (Proverbs 18:22) "He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord." There is no end to a good woman, just as there is no end to a bad woman, as it is written (Ecclesiastes 7:26) "And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her." Abigail was better than all the sacrifices in the world, as if David had done the deed he planned to do, he would not have received atonement, but she came to him and saved him. Thus, she was better than all the sacrifices. Conquer illness, for just as sacrifices bring atonement, illness does too. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: "Good shall come and be good for him, and evil shall go in its evil." (1 Samuel 25:38) What caused him to die? It was because his hand was short in observing the commandments, as it says (1 Samuel 25:25) "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." "Nabal" refers to his evil inclination. Similarly, it says (Deuteronomy 15:9) "Beware that there be not a base thought in your heart." My lord David said to him (1 Samuel 25:25) "Nabal is his name, and folly is with him." Rabbi Simon said: "He is called 'Nabal' because he was foolish; the two words have the same numerical value. Just as Laban was deceitful, so was Nabal. Since both were deceitful, Solomon spoke of both when he said (Proverbs 12:20) "Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil: but to the counsellors of peace is joy." Who are those who make peace between Israel and their Father in Heaven? They are the people of Israel to whom peace was given, as it is said (Psalms 29:11) "May the Lord give strength to His people; May the Lord bless His people with peace." Abigail said to David, "My lord, when this judgment comes before you, what will you do?" The poor man went and said to the master of the house, "Do me justice and give me one piece of bread, and I will not be in need of you." The poor man fell upon him and killed him. If they come to you for judgment, what will you say to them? You are uncertain about the matter and you cannot make a decision. And they say, "He did not act thus with the wicked who did not give to him, and you are doubtful." As it is said (1 Samuel 25:17), "Let not this thing be a stumbling block to you." Do not be doubtful and do not say that because I am king, no one can rebuke me. Rebuke yourself. And so it is said (Zephaniah 2:1), "Search yourselves and seek righteousness." If you want to adorn others, adorn yourself first and then adorn others. Let not this thing be a stumbling block to you. You already have one beam in your own eye. What is (1 Samuel 25:31), "and you will remember your truth"? She said to him, "Do not forget me. I will be before you when this judgment comes before you and when you judge it." "Be mindful of the good that she did for me when I was in distress, so that I did not shed blood. If I had committed that act, I would not be able to atone for it. She said to him, "This is not from you, do not exalt yourself. The Lord sent you to me, as it is said (1 Samuel 25:32-33), 'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me. And blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you.' And you too should be blessed, as it is said (1 Samuel 25:33), 'Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you.' David left sin behind and Nabal entered it, therefore Nabal said in his heart (1 Samuel 25:25), 'There is no God.' When David confronted him, both were corrupt, as it is said (Genesis 6:12), 'All flesh had corrupted their way.' They were both abominations before the Lord, as it is said (Deuteronomy 23:19), 'An abomination of the Lord your God are both of them.' Everything is revealed before you, for I am wise and seek the Lord. As it says (1 Samuel 18:14), 'And David acted wisely in all his ways.' Therefore, Nabal said in his heart, etc. What is the corruption in corruption? Similarly, it says in the generation of the flood (Genesis 6:12), 'All flesh had corrupted their way.' And so Abigail says to David (1 Samuel 25:25), 'Do not pay attention to this worthless man, Nabal.' What is the worthlessness? It refers to revealing secrets. And so it says (1 Samuel 2:12-22), 'The sons of Eli were worthless men; they did not know the Lord. They lay with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.' Another explanation of 'deceit in the heart of those who plan evil' (Proverbs 12:20) is that it refers to Doeg, who falsely accused David, as it says (1 Samuel 22:9), 'Doeg the Edomite, who was stationed over the servants of Saul.' Similarly, he said (1 Samuel 25:10), 'Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse?' And he denied God, as it says (Psalms 14:1), 'The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."' Everything has gone astray, but anything that has gone astray from the right path can still return through repentance. But here, it does not say that everything has gone astray, but rather everything has denied. They were all denied, both externally and internally."