David and Nabal at Maon

During David's years on the run from Saul, his band of six hundred outlaws was effectively serving as a protection force for the shepherds of the Judean Wilderness. When the wealthy sheep-master Nabal — whose home was at Maon but whose flocks were in nearby Carmel — held his annual shearing feast, David sent ten messengers asking for whatever food Nabal could spare in return for the protection his men had given. Nabal mocked the messengers: "Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who break away from their masters" (1 Samuel 25:10). David strapped on his sword and led four hundred men toward Maon to wipe out every male in Nabal's household. Nabal's wife Abigail — "discerning and beautiful" — heard from a servant, immediately loaded two hundred loaves of bread, wineskins, dressed sheep, parched grain, raisins, and figs onto donkeys, and intercepted David in a ravine. Her speech is one of the most masterful in Scripture — she takes the blame, prevents David from "bringing bloodguilt on himself," reminds him that the Lord has "made a sure house" for him, and asks him to remember her. Ten days after Abigail tells Nabal what nearly happened, "the Lord struck Nabal and he died." David then sent for Abigail, and she became his wife.

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