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1 Samuel 25 · a question people ask

Was David right to set out against Nabal?

In the text

The chapter lets David answer. When Abigail meets him, he blesses her as the one "who have kept me today from blood guiltiness, and from avenging myself with my own hand" (25:33), and he says the LORD "has withheld me from harming you" (25:34). After Nabal's death he says the LORD "has kept back his servant from evil" (25:39). Abigail had put it the same way: the LORD "has withheld you from blood guiltiness" (25:26), so that it would be "no grief to you, nor offense of heart" that he had "shed blood without cause" (25:31). In the chapter before, David would not "stretch out my hand against" Saul (24:6), and told him, "may the LORD avenge me of you; but my hand will not be on you" (24:12). Here the one kept back is David himself, and the chapter says who kept him: the LORD, who "sent you today to meet me" (25:32), and Abigail.

The verses

“Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, since the LORD has withheld you from blood guiltiness and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now therefore let your enemies and those who seek evil to my lord be as Nabal.”
1 Samuel 25:26 · World English Bible
“When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed is the LORD, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil. The LORD has returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.” David sent and spoke concerning Abigail, to take her to himself as wife.”
1 Samuel 25:39 · World English Bible
“He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the LORD’s anointed.””
1 Samuel 24:6 · World English Bible
“May the LORD judge between me and you, and may the LORD avenge me of you; but my hand will not be on you.”
1 Samuel 24:12 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 1 Samuel 25

1 Samuel 25: As his name is, so is he

David set out to avenge himself on Nabal, and Abigail met him first. In Hebrew David's "avenging myself with my own hand" (25:33) is the verb save, with "my hand" and "for me". He blessed her for keeping him from it, and it was the LORD who "struck Nabal, so that he died" (25:38).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions