Bible Commentaries

1 Samuel 25:1 And Samuel died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

Ver. 1. And Samuel died.] After a long race run without cessation or cespitation: he was one of those few that lived and died with honour. Nabal did not; so: Contraria iuxta se posita, &c. "The memory of the just is blessed; but the name of the wicked doth rot." [Proverbs 10:7]

And lamented him.] As well they might, and their own folly in laying him aside;

“ Virtutem incolumem odimus:

Sublatam ex oculis quaerimus invidi. ” - Horat.

And buried him in his house at Ramah.] Where he had, likely, prepared himself a sepulchre; for so was the custom of that people, and others also. The Thebans had a law, that no man should make a house for himself to dwell in, but he should first make his grave.

And David arose.] He had lost a fast friend in Samuel, - cuius consilio subsidioque fretus commodius in regno versabatur, ^(a) - and therefore speedeth away to the wilderness of Paran, whereof see Numbers 10:12.

1 Samuel 25:2 And [there was] a man in Maon, whose possessions [were] in Carmel; and the man [was] very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

Ver. 2. And there was a man.] Or rather, A golden brute, χρυσουν προβατον, ^(a) - as Caligula called that rich wretch, his father-in-law, Syllanus, - or a great Colosse full of rubbish.

And he had three thousand sheep.] Men’s wealth of old consisted most in their herds of cattle; whence money also in Latin hath its name: Omnis enim pecuniae pecus fuit fundamentum, saith Columella. ^(b)

1 Samuel 25:3 Now the name of the man [was] Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and [she was] a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man [was] churlish and evil in his doings; and he [was] of the house of Caleb.

Ver. 3. Now the name of the man was Nabal.] Nebulo; a man in whom all grace and good nature is faded and dried up; a sapless fellow, not a natural fool, but worse; an Atheist, [Psalms 14:1] a Mammonist. Conveniunt rebus nomina saepe suis, Nabal had not his name for naught.

And the name of his wife Abigail,] i.e., My father’s joy. But what meant her father to match her to such an ill-conditioned churl? It is likely he married her to the wealth, not to the man. Many a child is cast away upon riches.

Of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance.] Not fair and foolish, but καλη και σοφη, as was Aspasia Milesia, ^(a) beautiful and wise; this was a sweet mixture.

But the man was churlish.] Durus, inhumanus, a hardhead, a miser.

And he was of the house of Caleb.] But nothing like him. Virtue is not, as lands, heritable.

1 Samuel 25:4 And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep.

Ver. 4. That Nabal did shear his sheep.] At which time the Jews used to make great feasts, in remembrance of their forefathers that were shepherds, saith Lyra.

1 Samuel 25:5 And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name:

Ver. 5. Go to Nabal, and greet him in my name.] Here a man might have seen - as Ecclesiastes 10:7 - "servants on horses, and princes walking on foot": poor David speaking supplications, and rich Nabal answering him roughly. Ludit in humanis divina potentia rebus.

1 Samuel 25:6 And thus shall ye say to him that liveth [in prosperity], Peace [be] both to thee, and peace [be] to thine house, and peace [be] unto all that thou hast.

Ver. 6. And thus shall ye say to him that liveth.] Rich men only seem to live, - the Irish ask such what they meant to die; - poor people are reckoned among the dead, as it were; there is little account made of them, they stand for ciphers and shadows.

1 Samuel 25:7 And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel.

Ver. 7. And now I have heard that thou hast shearers.] And makest a feast: so that it will be easy for thee to spare us somewhat, who crave not much, and yet have deserved more. Thus David moveth him by many topical places in rhetoric; sed surdo fabulam, but he lost all his sweet words upon him.

1 Samuel 25:8 Ask thy young men, and they will shew thee. Wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David.

Ver. 8. For we come in a good day.] A festival; wherein thou art bound by the law to relieve the necessitous. [Deuteronomy 15:7] Hilaria celebras, illorum ergo particulam in nos deriva, nosque tecum exhilara, let us partake of thine exceedings.

Give, I pray thee.] Annonam et alimoniam; we will not be our own carvers, but take thankfully what thou canst well spare us. Thus he omitteth nothing whereby he might insinuate; but this matter was not malleable.

1 Samuel 25:9 And when David’s young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased.

Ver. 9. And ceased.] Heb., And rested; quiete se continuerunt, ^(a) they patiently heard Nabal inveighing against themselves and David, and replied not; this was excellent.

"Incessunt, taceo: culpant, fero; crimina spargunt,

Dissimulo: mordent, absque dolore meo.

Obtrectant, sileo: ringuntur, rideo: vulgo

Traducunt, patior: dant mihi damna, sino.

Exagitant, non exagitor: vexant, neque vexor:

Laedunt, non laedor: probra refutat honos."

- Buchler., Gnomolog.

1 Samuel 25:10 And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who [is] David? and who [is] the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master.

Ver. 10. Who is David?] q.d., I know him not: and yet all Israel knew and honoured David as their deliverer. But this unworthy Pamphagus, to save his victuals, will either make him a man of no merits, or ill; either an obscure man, or a fugitive: and yet he was of his own tribe: but one had as good deal with a cannibal, as with a truly covetous captive.

That break away every man from his master.] As dammed rivers break the banks; or as refractory cattle break their bands, and run away from their owners. Here he maketh no better of David and his men than rogues and runaways. But David was now poor, and himself rich, therefore he thought he might say or do anything. David asked him bread; he gave him a stone.

“ Stultitiam patiuntur opes. ”

1 Samuel 25:11 Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give [it] unto men, whom I know not whence they [be]?

Ver. 11. Shall I then take my bread.] All Nahal’s logic was little enough to conclude for himself and his sheep shearers: as those envious Athenians would sacrifice for none but themselves and their neighbours of Chios. Selfish people had as gladly part with their blood as with their goods: it is not the lack, but the love of money that maketh men churls.

1 Samuel 25:12 So David’s young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings.

Ver. 12. So David’s young men turned their way.] Being neither importunate nor insolent, as some in their condition would have been; but they liked not to engage in those ignoble quarrels - ubi et vincere inglorium est, et atteri sordidum - to wash off dirt with dirt.

1 Samuel 25:13 And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff.

Ver. 13. Gird ye on every man his sword.] So subject are God’s best saints to weak passions; they are men as others are; and man’s nature is most impatient of contempt and contumely.

1 Samuel 25:14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them.

Ver. 14. And he railed on them.] Heb., He flew upon them; as a ravenous bird doth upon the prey. Or, He drove them away, sc., by his harsh and currish language wherewith he let fly at them.

1 Samuel 25:15 But the men [were] very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields:

Ver. 15. And we were not hurt.] So strict was David’s military discipline; so was afterwards Tamerlane’s; ^(a) who punished with death that soldier of his that but took an apple, or a little milk, &c., from another, without permission.

1 Samuel 25:16 They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.

Ver. 16. They were a wall unto us.] A guard against unreasonable men and wild beasts; and therefore we owe them maintenance.

1 Samuel 25:17 Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household: for he [is such] a son of Belial, that [a man] cannot speak to him.

Ver. 17. For evil is determined.] As may well be gathered from the strength and animosity of David and his men thus incensed.

For he is such a son of Belial.] Cervicosus et indomitus, biliosus et bellicosus, so extremely froward and foul tempered, that there is no talking to him: Proh durum et dirum caput! Caelius, the Roman orator, mortalium ille iracundissimus, was such another fool. ^(a)

1 Samuel 25:18 Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched [corn], and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid [them] on asses.

Ver. 18. Then Abigail made haste.] As if she had had wings, and "wind in her wings," {as Zechariah 5:9} for she well knew the danger of delays in such a case.

And took two hundred loaves.] A very large present, to expiate her husband’s illiberal refusal: whereunto she added great store of good words to make amends for his harsh language. And herein she was more happy than that English lady, De Breuse, who had by her virulent and railing tongue more exasperated the fury of King John, than could be pacified by her strange present of four hundred cattle and one bull - all milk white, except only the ears, which were red - sent unto the queen.

1 Samuel 25:19 And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal.

Ver. 19. Behold, I come after you.] For she knew that none of them all could make her apology so well as herself.

But she told not her husband Nabal.] Lest that humorist should have crossed her enterprise, and marred all.

1 Samuel 25:20 And it was [so, as] she rode on the ass, that she came down by the covert of the hill, and, behold, David and his men came down against her; and she met them.

Ver. 20. That she came down by the covert of the hill.] That is, saith Martyr, by a blind and secret way; not the common road, lest she should meet with any interruption. David also and his men, by a providence, came the same way: and so they met haply, but happily.

1 Samuel 25:21 Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this [fellow] hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that [pertained] unto him: and he hath requited me evil for good.

Ver. 21. Now David had said,] viz., Either before he set forth, or else whilst he was upon the way: and so, haply, Abigail might overhear him, and thereupon fall down at his feet and say, "Upon me, upon me be this iniquity," &c. [1 Samuel 25:24]

And he hath requited me evil for good.] This is gross ingratitude, and doth mainly provoke. Such was that of Michael Balbus to Leo Armenius, the emperor, of Parry to Queen Elizabeth, of Bonner to Bishop Ridley, &c.

1 Samuel 25:22 So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that [pertain] to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.

Ver. 22. So and more also do God unto the enemies of David,] i.e., To David’s self, say some, whom yet he was loath to curse, by an euphemismus: and so the Septuagint rendereth it. This was a rash vow, and not usual with David. We may say as much, and more, in excuse of it, as the historian doth of King Alphonsus, that he never swore any oath but by his father’s bones; Et quidem rarenter et ob causam, and that but now and then, and for some cause.

If I leave of all that pertain to him.] So rough and rash was David in a resolution of revenge:

“ Tantae ne animis coelestibus irae? ”

Men do in anger they know not what; such a smoke it raiseth; like as when fire is put to wet straw and filthy stuff. "Cease therefore from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil." [Psalms 37:8]

Any that pisseth against the wall.] Dog or cat, as we say: Canem in hoc oppido non relinquam, I will not leave a dog alive in this town, said Aurelian, the emperor, concerning Tyane, which had shut her gates upon him. ^(a)

1 Samuel 25:23 And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground,

Ver. 23. And fell before David on her face.] By which most humble posture she disarmed David’s indignation, and redeemed her own sorrows. Caesar said that he did nothing more glady than pardon humble suppliants. ^(a) The very Turks, though remorseless to those that bear up, yet receive they humiliation with much sweetness. ^(b) "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God," &c. [James 4:10]

1 Samuel 25:24 And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, [upon] me [let this] iniquity [be]: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid.

Ver. 24. Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be,] i.e., Wreak thy wrath on me, if thou canst find in thine heart; but first hear my defence, and then do thy pleasure.

1 Samuel 25:25 Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, [even] Nabal: for as his name [is], so [is] he; Nabal [is] his name, and folly [is] with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.

Ver. 25. For as his name is, so is he.] A very sot, and stark naught. Evil is the Hebrew word for a fool; and the word fool seemeth to come of φαυλος, and Nebulo of Nabal. See 1 Samuel 25:3.

Nabal is his name, and folly is with him.] A silly simple he is, a very brute. See Jeremiah 4:22. Abigail could not have been a good wife if she had not honoured her unworthy head: yet to save his life she is bold to acknowledge his folly. It is a good disparagement that preserveth. The surgeon lanceth the body to save it.

But I thine handmaid saw not.] And yet must I die also? So it seemeth it was resolved. [1 Samuel 25:34] Wilt thou slay the innocent with the wicked? Is that God’s way?

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 avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.

Ver. 26. As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth.] This latter part is not an oath, but an asseveration, or obtestation only, conjoined with the oath.

Seeing the Lord hath withholden thee.] David saw not God in this matter of Nabal’s vile dealing with him, as he did afterwards in Shimei’s reviling him, and bore it the more patiently. Abigail therefore immindeth him of God - to whom vengeance belongeth - to very good purpose.

Now let thine enemies … be as Nabal.] As little able to hurt thee, as much also in thy power, and at thy pleasure, as he is at this present, - since thou canst as easily undo him, as bid it be done, and as sure to be punished by God. But why should I and my family, who wish thee well, be the subjects of thy wrath?

1 Samuel 25:27 And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord.

Ver. 27. And now this blessing,] i.e., This present, the fruit of God’s blessing.

Let it even be given unto the young men.] For of thine acceptance or personal use I hold it not worthy.

1 Samuel 25:28 I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the LORD, and evil hath not been found in thee [all] thy days.

Ver. 28. Because my lord fighteth the battles of the Lord.] Non autem privatas ultiones tuas. ^(a) Here she argueth from his office, which was to fight the Lord’s battles, and not to revenge his own quarrel.

And evil hath not been found in thee,] i.e., Self revenge and cruelty; and, what! shall they now? Wilt thou cast such a slur upon all thy former brave parts and practices?

1 Samuel 25:29 Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, [as out] of the middle of a sling.

Ver. 29. Shall be bound in the bundle of life.] Thy person shall be preciously preserved by God’s special care and providence. [Psalms 116:15] A metaphor, say some, from binding up of plants that are to be removed, and laid in water, to preserve them till they shall be set in God’s paradise; or from the binding up of a book; so here. The saints are bound up together in the book of life.

Them shall he sling out.] Here God tosseth wicked men’s souls with cares, fears, and griefs, rendering them restless, and at length hurleth them into hell, as far off him as is possible. Metophora a re praesenti, saith Junius, a metaphor from the slings and other arms of David and his men.

1 Samuel 25:30 And it shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel;

Ver. 30. And it shall come to pass.] She had filled her mouth with arguments all along her discourse; and this, as of greatest concernment, she purposely reserveth to the last.

1 Samuel 25:31 That this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself: but when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid.

Ver. 31. That this shall be no grief unto thee.] No terror or torment to thy conscience, for shedding innocent blood, which is a crying sin, and lieth heavy upon the soul. The Hebrew word rendered grief signifieth staggering or stumbling: such is the guilt of sin. The Latin rendereth it singultum, sighing. One drop of it may trouble a whole sea of outward comforts.

Then remember thine handmaid.] For the good counsel I have now given thee; and befriend me accordingly.

1 Samuel 25:32 And David said to Abigail, Blessed [be] the LORD God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me:

Ver. 32. And David said to Abigail.] The wisdom from above is persuadable. [James 3:17] It maketh a man mancipium rationis, a slave to right reason. David considereth not quis who but quid; what and disdaineth not good counsel, though from a woman.

1 Samuel 25:33 And blessed [be] thy advice, and blessed [be] thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to [shed] blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.

Ver. 33. And blessed be thou.] Whom God hath made instrumental to my great good; and therefore I may not defraud thee of thy due commendation. If Solomon have his thousand, yet the vinedressers, his labourers, may well have two hundred. [Song of Solomon 8:11] We send thanks to the donor: we also thank and pay the messenger that bringeth a present to us.

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, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.

Ver. 34. Which hath kept me back from hurting thee.] The females also therefore had perished, and not the males only, as some have gathered from that proverbial expression, any that pisseth against the wall.

Except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me.] That was a worthy saying of Alphonsus, king of Arragon, a valiant and wise warrior, Decet ducem invictum, habere animum, si res sit iusta; at ubi conatus est iniustus, praestat regredi quam progredi. A general in a good cause should be unalterable, unvanquishable; but if he and it to be otherwise, he had better stop or step backward, than to go on further with it.

1 Samuel 25:35 So David received of her hand [that] which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person.

Ver. 35. See, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person.] The person must be accepted before the suit can be graciously answered, as with man, so with God, who "heareth not sinners"; [John 9:31] "but in every nation, he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him": [Acts 10:35] he will not hear a good motion from an evil mouth.

1 Samuel 25:36 And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart [was] merry within him, for he [was] very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.

Ver. 36. He held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king.] We use to say, it is good going to a niggard’s feast, for such do it but seldom, and then they usually lay on, measuring their cheer not by the necessity of nature, but by that which, greedy appetite appointeth. Oh, the gourmandise and excess of this age! It is hateful that peasants should expend as princes, &c. The Great Turk entertaineth ambassadors with rice and mutton, and fair water out of the river - Adam’s ale. ^(a)

And Nabal’s heart was merry within him.] When yet he was so near to a mischief. Carnal men give themselves over to pleasures, while there are deadly quarrels depending against them in heaven.

For he was very drunken.] And so had no consideration of the present danger; as neither had Belshazzar, Amnon, Elah. Drunkenness had robbed Nabal of himself, and laid a beast in his room. Abigail therefore said nothing to him for present, till he had slept out his drunkenness, which is, saith Augustine, Flagitiorum omnium mater, radix criminum, culparum materia, origo vitiorum, turbatio capitis, subversio sensus, tempestas linguae, procella corporis, naufragium castitatis, {b} &c. That is, the mother of misdemeanour, the matter that ministereth all mischief, the root of wretchedness, the vent of vice, the subverter of the senses, the confounder of the capacity, raising a storm in the tongue, billows in the body, and shipwreck in the soul: the loss of time, the corrupter of conversation, the discredit of carriage, the infamy of honesty, the sink that swalloweth chastity, the infirmity whose physician is ignominy, and the madness whose medicine is misery.

1 Samuel 25:37 But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became [as] a stone.

Ver. 37. When the wine was gone out of Nabal.] That is, The perturbation of his brain, the alienation of his mind, - when sleep had cooled his head, and restored him to himself.

And his wife had told him these things.] In a pathetical manner no doubt, as she could well do it. That tongue of hers had oft advised him well and prevailed not. Now it occasioneth his death, whose reformation it could not effect. She meant nothing but his amendment. God meant to make that loving instrument the means of his revenge. Wonderful, saith one, ^(a) was the force of this woman’s speech, that as it before allayed David’s rage, so now it pierceth Nabal to the heart. This power was not in her human eloquence, but proceeded from the Spirit of God.

That his heart died within him.] Through fear, which hath a deadly force upon feeble spirits; for some have died for fear they should die: as a gentleman at the siege of St Paul, in France, fell down stark dead in the breach, without any stroke or touch, save what his heart gave him by a fearful apprehension of danger near at hand. ^(b) And at the massacre of Paris, where Peter Ramus was slain in his study, Lambinus, a learned man, but a Papist - through fear of his adversary, Carpenter, a Sorbonnist, who had slain Ramus - was so frightened, that he died shortly after. ^(c)

And he became as a stone.] A sot he had been in his life, and as senseless he lay at his death, though he had the benefit of ten days’ sickness. ^(d) Who then would defer to do the great work?

“ Non aliter stupuit quam qui Iovis ignibus ictus

Vivit, at est vitae nescius ipse sum. ”

- Ovid. Trist., lib. i. eleg. iii.

1 Samuel 25:38 And it came to pass about ten days [after], that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died.

Ver. 38. About ten days after.] All which time he lay like a block in his bed, without repentance or confidence in God; but condemned of his own conscience, he went to his place without noise. Let this be a warning to drunkards.

The Lord smote Nabal, that he died.] Deadly diseases are God’s strokes; and especially if they be sudden, and soon make an end of men. Hippocrates calleth the pestilence το θειον, the divine disease; and another is called morbus sacer.

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.

Ver. 39. And hath kept his servant from evil.] It is a very great mercy when God either leadeth us not into temptation, or delivereth us from the evil of it, or, lastly, raiseth us again by repentance; since it is not the falling into the water that drowneth, but the too long lying under it.

For the Lord hath returned the wickedness of Nabal.] So, little is there lost by making God our umpire. He that saith, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay it," repayeth ofttimes when we have forgiven, when we have forgotten; and calleth to reckoning after our discharges.

To take her to him to wife.] Finding her every way so fit for him, and that it would be an honest, pleasant, profitable, and comfortable marriage.

1 Samuel 25:40 And when the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spake unto her, saying, David sent us unto thee, to take thee to him to wife.

Ver. 40. David sent us unto thee.] He sent rather than went, lest her love should seem to be forced; and that if he had a repulse, it might not be so grievous to him. Ministers are Christ’s spokesmen, [2 Corinthians 11:2] pity but he should speed.

1 Samuel 25:41 And she arose, and bowed herself on [her] face to the earth, and said, Behold, [let] thine handmaid [be] a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.

Ver. 41. Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant.] A most lowly and lovely compliment: wherein also she expresseth her faith, in thinking so highly of David, when he was at such an under. He also showed his trust in God, by taking a wife in the midst of so many troubles.

1 Samuel 25:42 And Abigail hasted, and arose, and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of hers that went after her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.

Ver. 42. That went after her.] Heb., At her feet, i.e., pedissequae.

1 Samuel 25:43 David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they were also both of them his wives.

Ver. 43. And they were also both of them his wives.] Polygamy was a sin of ignorance in the ancients, who either knew not, or understood not that prohibition in Leviticus 18:18. {See Trapp on "Leviticus 18:18"} See the like continuance in an error of life unreformed, Nehemiah 9:17.

1 Samuel 25:44 But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti the son of Laish, which [was] of Gallim.

Ver. 44. But Saul had given Michel his daughter.] This he had done as out of pure spite to David, so out of policy, say some, that he might not have by his wife any pretence or title to the crown.

David’s wife.] Whom he had so dearly deserved, and by whom he was now so causelessly deserted; for why should she give consent to be married to another?

To Phalti.] Who is justly faulted for taking another man’s wife.

Which was of Gallim.] A town of Benjamin, near Gibeah. [Isaiah 10:29]