1 Samuel 25:34

25:32-39 David gives God thanks for sending him this happy check in a sinful way. Whoever meet us with counsel, direction, comfort, caution, or seasonable reproof, we must see God sending them. We ought to be very thankful for those happy providences which are the means of keeping us from sinning. Most people think it enough, if they take reproof patiently; but few will take it thankfully, and commend those who give it, and accept it as a favour. The nearer we are to committing sin, the greater is the mercy of a seasonable restraint. Sinners are often most secure when most in danger. He was very drunk. A sign he was Nabal, a fool, that could not use plenty without abusing it; who could not be pleasant with his friends without making a beast of himself. There is not a surer sign that a man has but little wisdom, nor a surer way to destroy the little he has, than drinking to excess. Next morning, how he is changed! His heart overnight merry with wine, next morning heavy as a stone; so deceitful are carnal pleasures, so soon passes the laughter of the fool; the end of that mirth is heaviness. Drunkards are sad, when they reflect upon their own folly. About ten days after, the Lord smote Nabal, that he died. David blessed God that he had been kept from killing Nabal.

For in very deed, as the Lord God of Israel liveth,.... An oath for the confirmation of what he was about to say: which hath kept me back from hurting thee: from doing any ill to her family, as he intended, though not to her person, his resolution being only to slay the males; but that would have been an hurt, an evil, an affliction to Abigail, from which the Lord in his providence restrained him, and that through her good advice: except thou hadst hasted, and come to meet me: if she had not made quick dispatch in preparing her present, or had stayed to persuade her husband into her measures; if she had delayed a little longer, David would have been at Nabal's house, executing his vengeance on him and his: surely there had not been left unto Nabal, by the morning light, any that pisseth against the wall: See Gill on 1 Samuel 25:22.

The sons of Kohath, Amminadab,.... The same with Izhar, 1 Chronicles 6:2 the posterity of his brethren, Amram, Hebron, and Uzziel, are omitted; and his genealogy is carried to a considerable length, for the sake of Samuel the prophet, who sprang from him: it stands thus, Korah, Assir, Elkanah, Ebiasaph, Assir, Tahath, Uriel, called Zephaniah, 1 Chronicles 6:36 Uzziah, the same with Azariah, 1 Chronicles 6:36 . Shaul, whose name is Joel, 1 Chronicles 6:36 then through the sons of Elkanah, before mentioned, Amasai, Ahimoth, called Mahath, 1 Chronicles 6:35 another Elkanah, Zophai, or Zuph, 1 Chronicles 6:35 . Nahath, the same with Toah, 1 Chronicles 6:34 and Tohu, 1 Samuel 1:1 , Eliab, called Eliel, 1 Chronicles 6:34 , and Elihu, 1 Samuel 1:1 , Jeroham, another Elkanah, the father of Samuel the prophet, whose firstborn was Vashni, and whose name also was Joel, 1 Chronicles 6:33 and so here it is read in the Syriac and Arabic versions: and his second son Abiah.

For in very deed, as the LORD God of Israel liveth, {p} which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall. (p) He attributes it to the Lord's mercy, and not to himself that he was stayed.

In the bundle - Rather, "the bag," in which anything precious, or important to be preserved, was put, and the bag was then tied up (compare Genesis 42:35 ). The souls ... shall he sling out - The comparison is especially appropriate as addressed to David, whose feat with his sling was so celebrated 1 Samuel 17:49.

32-35. David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord—Transported by passion and blinded by revenge, he was on the eve of perpetrating a great injury. Doubtless, the timely appearance and prudent address of Abigail were greatly instrumental in changing his purpose. At all events, it was the means of opening his eyes to the moral character of the course on which he had been impetuously rushing; and in accepting her present, he speaks with lively satisfaction as well as gratitude to Abigail, for having relieved him from bloodshed.

These words could not fail to appease David's wrath. In his reply he praised the Lord for having sent Abigail to meet him ( 1 Samuel 25:32 ), and then congratulated Abigail upon her understanding and her actions, that she had kept him from bloodshed ( 1 Samuel 25:33 ); otherwise he would certainly have carried out the revenge which he had resolved to take upon Nabal ( 1 Samuel 25:34 ). ואוּלם is strongly adversative: nevertheless. מהרע, inf. constr. Hiph. of רעע. כּי, ὅτι, introduces the substance of the affirmation, and is repeated before the oath: אם כּי ... לוּלי כּי, (that) if thou hadst not, etc., (that) truly there would not have been left (cf. 2 Samuel 2:27 ). The very unusual form תּבאתי, an imperfect with the termination of the perfect, might indeed possibly be a copyist's error for תּבאי (Olsh. Gr. pp. 452, 525), but in all probability it is only an intensified form of the second pers. fem. imperf., like תּבואתה ( Deuteronomy 33:16 ; cf. Ewald, 191, c.).

In the case before us, on the contrary Ramathaim-Zophim is designated, by the use of the expression "from his city," in 1 Samuel 1:3, as the place where Elkanah lived, and where "his house" (1 Samuel 1:19) was still standing.) This Ramah (which is invariably written with the article, ha-Ramah), where Samuel was not only born (1 Samuel 1:19.), but lived, laboured, died (1 Samuel 7:17; 1 Samuel 15:34; 1 Samuel 16:13; 1 Samuel 19:18-19, 1 Samuel 19:22-23), and was buried (1 Samuel 25:1; 1 Samuel 28:3), is not a different place, as has been frequently assumed, (Note: For the different views which have been held upon this point, see the article "Ramah," by Pressel, in Herzog's Cyclopaedia.) from the Ramah in Benjamin (Joshua 18:25), and is not to be sought for in Ramleh near Joppa (v. Schubert, etc.), nor in Soba on the north-west of Jerusalem (Robinson, Pal. ii. p. 329), nor three-quarters of an hour to the north of Hebron (Wolcott, v. de Velde), nor anywhere else in the tribe of Ephraim, but is identical with Ramah of Benjamin, and was situated upon the site of the present village of er-Rm, two hours to the north-west of Jerusalem, upon a conical mountain to the east of the Nablus road (see at Joshua 18:25).

1 Samuel 10:25 . Samuel said, See ye him whom the Lord hath chosen? — Though the people were resolutely bent on having a king, yet they were sensible only God could make one. And therefore they came in the beginning of this business, to ask one of his prophet. But Samuel could not constitute one without divine direction and appointment, as appears by the first verse of this chapter, where he says to Saul, The Lord hath anointed thee; and the lot whereby he was publicly chosen was cast before the Lord, 1 Samuel 10:19 ; 1 Samuel 10:23 . Accordingly he here tells them, The Lord hath chosen him. Thus afterward the Lord commanded David to be anointed, 1 Samuel 19:1 ; 1 Samuel 19:3 ; and of all his sons, Solomon was particularly appointed by God to succeed him, 1 Chronicles 29:5 . There is none like him among all the people — As to his aspect and the height of his bodily stature, which was in itself desirable in a king, and some kind of indication of great endowments of mind. God save the king — Hebrew, Let the king live; that is, long and prosperously. The same form was used in after ages when they made kings, 1 Kings 1:34 ; 1 Kings 1:39 ; 2 Kings 11:12 ; 2 Chronicles 23:11 . Hereby they accepted him for their king, and, in effect, promised subjection to him. None will be losers in the end by their humility and modesty. Honour, like the shadows, follows them that flee from it, but flees from them that pursue it. ÷1Sa 10:25 1 Samuel 10:25 .

Ch. 1 Samuel 25:1 . Samuel’s death and burial 1 . all the Israelites , &c.] A public mourning was held as after the death of Moses ( Deuteronomy 34:8 ), and the whole nation met to do honour to him, who for well nigh eighty years had gone in and out amongst them as Prophet, Judge, and Counsellor of the King. in his house ] Not actually in the house, which would have been inconsistent with the laws of ceremonial purity ( Numbers 19:16 ), but in some court or garden attached to the house. Compare 2 Chronicles 33:20 with 2 Kings 21:18 . The Mussulman tradition places the prophet’s tomb on the hill known as Neby Samwil , five miles N.W. of Jerusalem, but see note on 1 Samuel 1:1 . the wilderness of Paran ] A general name for the great tract of desert south of Palestine, between the wilderness of Shur on the west, Edom on the east, and the wilderness of Sinai on the south. It was the abode of Ishmael ( Genesis 21:21 ); the scene of the wanderings of the Israelites; and the place from which the spies were sent ( Numbers 10:12 ; Numbers 13:3 ). The Sept. reads Maon , but the change is unnecessary, if we suppose the term Paran to be used with some latitude.