Abigail - UPDV Updated Bible Version

Two women named Abigail appear in the books of Samuel and Chronicles. The first is the wife of Nabal the Carmelite who, after her husband's death, becomes a wife of David and bears him a son. The second is a sister (or half-sister) of David and the mother of Amasa, who later commands the rebel army of Absalom. The narrative weight falls almost entirely on the first Abigail, whose intervention between David and Nabal in 1 Samuel 25 is one of the longer set-piece episodes of David's wilderness years.

Nabal's Wife at Carmel

Abigail enters the story as the counterweight to her husband. Of Nabal and Abigail the narrator says, "Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail; and the woman was of good understanding and beautiful: but the man was harsh and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb" (1Sa 25:3). The pairing is deliberate: her wisdom and beauty are set against his harshness from the moment they are introduced.

When Nabal insults David's messengers and refuses provisions for David's company, one of the household servants comes to Abigail rather than to Nabal: "Look, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master; and he railed at them. But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, neither did we miss anything, as long as we went with them, when we were in the fields" (1Sa 25:14-15). The servant tells her plainly that "evil is determined against our master, and against all his house: for he is such a worthless fellow, that one can't speak to him" (1Sa 25:17).

Her Intervention

Abigail acts without consulting Nabal. She loads donkeys with two hundred loaves, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, parched grain, raisins, and fig-cakes, sends her young men ahead, and follows after them (1Sa 25:18-19). The narrator notes that "she didn't tell her husband Nabal" (1Sa 25:19).

Meeting David on the road, she dismounts, falls on her face, and takes the guilt onto herself: "On me, my lord, on me be the iniquity; and let your slave, I pray you, speak in your ears" (1Sa 25:24). Her speech reframes the moment in oath form, invoking Yahweh as the one already restraining David: "as Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, seeing Yahweh has withheld you from bloodguiltiness, and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now therefore let your enemies, and those who seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal" (1Sa 25:26). She presses the same theological claim further: "for Yahweh will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights the battles of Yahweh; and evil will not be found in you all your days" (1Sa 25:28). The image she uses for David's preservation is striking: "the soul of my lord will be bound in the bundle of life with Yahweh your God; and the souls of your enemies, he will sling them out, as from the hollow of a sling" (1Sa 25:29).

David receives her gift and credits her directly with stopping him: "Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me: and blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguiltiness, and from avenging myself with my own hand" (1Sa 25:32-33). He then sends her home in peace (1Sa 25:35).

Marriage to David

Abigail returns to find Nabal feasting "like the feast of a king" and very drunk, and so she says nothing until morning (1Sa 25:36). When she does tell him in the morning, "his heart died inside him, and he became as a stone" (1Sa 25:37); ten days later Yahweh strikes him and he dies (1Sa 25:38). David interprets the death as vindication and sends for Abigail: "Blessed be Yahweh, that has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his slave from evil" (1Sa 25:39). Abigail's response is one of self-effacement: "Look, your slave is a slave to wash the feet of my lord's slaves" (1Sa 25:41). She rides to David with five attendant women and becomes his wife (1Sa 25:42).

She is named thereafter alongside Ahinoam the Jezreelitess as one of the two wives David takes with him to Achish at Gath: "even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife" (1Sa 27:3). The same pairing recurs when David moves up to Hebron after Saul's death: "his two wives also, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite" (2Sa 2:2).

Captivity at Ziklag

While David and his men are away, the Amalekites burn Ziklag and carry off the women: "And David's two wives were taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite" (1Sa 30:5). The crisis pushes David to inquire by the ephod, and Yahweh's answer is that he will overtake them and recover all (1Sa 30:8). After the pursuit and the night-long battle, "David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken; and David rescued his two wives" (1Sa 30:18).

Mother of Chileab

Abigail bears David a son in Hebron. The Samuel list names him Chileab: "his second, Chileab, of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite" (2Sa 3:3). The Chronicles list at the parallel point gives the same place in the order but a different name: "the second, Daniel, of Abigail the Carmelitess" (1Ch 3:1). Both notices identify Abigail by her former marriage to Nabal, anchoring her in the Carmel narrative even after her marriage to David.

Sister of David, Mother of Amasa

A second Abigail appears in connection with David's family rather than his wives. In the Absalom narrative, when Absalom appoints Amasa over the rebel army, the genealogical aside reads: "Now Amasa was the son of a man, whose name was Ithra the Israelite, that entered Abigal the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah, Joab's mother" (2Sa 17:25). The form Abigal in this verse is simply a spelling variant of the name. The Chronicler's genealogy of Jesse's house clarifies the relationship: "and their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. And the sons of Zeruiah: Abishai, and Joab, and Asahel, three. And Abigail bore Amasa; and the father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite" (1Ch 2:16-17).