3. Wed 90 - 1 Samuel 25 · Acts 17 - FeedTheGoodHorse
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Day 90: 1 Samuel 25 · Acts 17 · Commentary · Commentary²
The Bible text is included for reading continuity; it is accurate in substance, aligned with major modern translations, and may be read alongside any Bible you prefer.1
Special Note about the following Bible text: The following translation uses the Hebrew terms tamé (טָמֵא) and tahor (טָהוֹר) instead of the traditional “unclean” and “clean.” These terms describe ritual status in relation to sanctuary access, not moral fault, shame, or physical dirtiness. A fuller explanation will follow in a dedicated article.
1 Samuel 25
Samuel died, and all Israel gathered and mourned for him, and they buried him at his house in Ramah. Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.
There was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very wealthy. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. The man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. The woman was perceptive and beautiful, but the man was harsh and evil in his dealings. He was a Calebite.
David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. So David sent ten young men. David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel and go to Nabal and greet him in my name. Say this: ‘Peace be to you, peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. I hear that you have shearers. Your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and nothing of theirs was missing all the time they were in Carmel. Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David.’”
When David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David. Then they waited.
Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?”
So David’s young men turned away and came back and told him all these words.
David said to his men, “Each man strap on his sword.” And each man strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword, and about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred stayed with the baggage.
But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “Look, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he shouted insults at them. Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and nothing was missing all the time we went with them while we were in the fields. They were a wall to us both by night and by day all the time we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, for harm has been determined against our master and against all his house, and he is such a worthless man that no one can speak to him.”
Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves, two skins of wine, five prepared sheep, five measures of roasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys.
She said to her young men, “Go on before me; look, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
As she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, look, David and his men were coming down toward her, and she met them.
Now David had said, “Surely in vain I guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missing of all that belonged to him, and he has repaid me evil for good. May God do so to the enemies of David and more also if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.”
When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground.
She fell at his feet and said, “On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your servant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your servant. Please let not my lord pay attention to this worthless man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and foolishness is with him. But I your servant did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.
Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives and as you live, because the Lord has held you back from bloodguilt and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek harm against my lord be like Nabal. And now let this gift that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord.
Please forgive the transgression of your servant, for the Lord will certainly make my lord a lasting house, because my lord fights the battles of the Lord, and evil shall not be found in you all your days. If a man rises up to pursue you and to seek your life, the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God, but the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling.
And when the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you ruler over Israel, this shall not be a grief to you or a cause of stumbling of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause or that my lord has avenged himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant.”
David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me. Blessed be your judgment, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from avenging myself with my own hand. For as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from harming you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely by morning not one male would have been left to Nabal.”
Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. Look, I have listened to your voice and granted your request.”
Abigail came to Nabal, and look, he was holding a feast in his house like the feast of a king. Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until the morning light.
In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became like a stone.
About ten days later the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.
When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be 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 evil of Nabal on his own head.”
Then David sent and spoke to Abigail, to take her for his wife. When David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her and said, “David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.” She rose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, “Look, your servant is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.”
Then Abigail hurried and rose and rode on a donkey, with five young women who attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife. David had also taken Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives.
Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was from Gallim.
Acts 17
After passing through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. As was his custom, Paul went in to them, and for three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Messiah.”
Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of God-fearing Greek-speaking people and not a few of the leading women.
But the Jews, becoming jealous, took along some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a crowd, and set the city in an uproar. Attacking the house of Jason, they sought to bring them out to the crowd. When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some siblings before the city authorities, shouting, “These people who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them. All of them are acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”
They troubled the crowd and the city authorities when they heard these things. After taking security from Jason and the others, they released them.
The siblings immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, because they received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, along with not a few Greek women of high standing and men.
But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was being proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there too, stirring up and troubling the crowds. Then the siblings immediately sent Paul away to go as far as the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there.
Those who were escorting Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.
Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he observed the city full of idols. So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing people, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also encountered him. Some were saying, “What does this seed-picker want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign deities,” because he was proclaiming the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
Taking him along, they brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears, so we want to know what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners staying there spent their time in nothing else but telling or hearing something new.
So Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said:
“Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I was passing through and observing your objects of worship, I also found an altar on which was inscribed, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all people life and breath and everything.
He made from one every nation of humanity to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted times and the boundaries of their dwelling place, so that they would seek God, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’
Since then we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human art and imagination.
Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to change their minds, because he has set a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, having given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Now when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul went out from among them.
But some joined him and believed, among whom were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
Commentary - Day 90
1 Samuel 25 · Acts 17
Summary:
After Samuel’s death, David asks Nabal for provisions in peace, reminding him that his men protected Nabal’s shepherds. Nabal answers with contempt, and David prepares for revenge. Abigail intervenes before bloodshed begins. She humbles herself, speaks toward David’s future, and warns him not to carry the guilt of personal vengeance. David listens and is restrained from violence. Nabal later dies without David taking judgment into his own hands.
In Acts 17, Paul faces different responses in each city: jealousy and unrest in Thessalonica, careful examination and belief in Berea, and endless curiosity mixed with mockery in Athens. Again and again the readings separate impulsive reaction from the willingness to listen, examine, restrain oneself, and leave judgment with God rather than seizing it personally.
Samuel’s death stands at the opening without extended reflection. The text moves immediately into a conflict over provision, insult, and restraint. David is in the wilderness while Nabal is introduced through wealth and abundance: flocks, servants, and a feast during sheep-shearing. David sends messengers peacefully, reminding Nabal that his men protected the shepherds and took nothing from them. The request is measured and tied to relationship and timing: “Please give whatever comes to your hand.”
Nabal answers with contempt. He rejects not only the request but David himself: “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse?” He treats David as a runaway servant with no claim on him. David’s response is immediate. He straps on his sword and prepares to destroy Nabal’s household. The same David who refused to strike Saul in the cave is now ready to avenge insult and repayment of evil for good. The threat comes from wounded pride moving toward action.
The turning point comes through Abigail. A servant describes David’s protection and Nabal’s worthlessness, saying no one can even speak to him. Abigail acts quickly and quietly. She prepares food in abundance and rides out before David reaches the house. When she meets him, she lowers herself completely and asks him to hear her words.
Abigail does not pretend Nabal is innocent. She names the foolishness directly. But her concern is David. She asks him not to take judgment into his own hands and not to carry unnecessary bloodguilt into the future God has promised him. Again and again she redirects David away from immediate vengeance and toward trust that God will establish his house without this violence.
David listens. He recognizes that he has been restrained from avenging himself with his own hand. The momentum toward destruction breaks. Abigail returns home while Nabal continues feasting, drunk and unaware. Only later, when the wine is gone, does he hear what nearly happened. His heart fails, and later he dies. David sees this not as his own victory but as judgment handled outside himself. The evil returns onto Nabal’s own head without David carrying it out personally.
Acts 17 moves through several kinds of response to truth. In Thessalonica, Paul reasons from the scriptures, explaining that the Messiah had to suffer and rise. Some are persuaded, but jealousy rises alongside belief. Crowds form, accusations spread, and the proclamation is turned into a political threat: another king besides Caesar. The city is thrown into unrest.
In Berea, the response is different. The people receive the word eagerly while examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things are true. Openness is joined to testing rather than impulse or hostility. Many believe. But the opposition from Thessalonica follows Paul there too and stirs up the crowds again. Conflict travels.
In Athens, Paul encounters a city full of idols and endless curiosity. The Athenians spend their time hearing and discussing whatever is new. Paul begins from what they already have in front of them: an altar to an unknown god. He speaks of the Creator not as something shaped by human imagination or contained in temples made by hands, but as the one giving life and breath to all people.
The movement of Paul’s speech goes from ignorance toward responsibility. God overlooked former ignorance, but now calls people everywhere to change their minds because judgment is coming through the one raised from the dead. When resurrection is mentioned, the responses divide. Some mock. Some delay commitment and want to hear later. Some believe and join themselves to the message.
Across these readings, the central pressure is what happens when the self is confronted—through insult, truth, or challenge. Nabal hardens himself completely and cannot be reasoned with. David nearly answers evil with personal vengeance until Abigail interrupts him with humility and judgment. In Thessalonica, jealousy turns into uproar. In Berea, examination leads many toward belief. In Athens, curiosity alone proves insufficient; hearing endlessly is not the same as turning toward truth. The readings keep separating impulsive reaction from the slower willingness to listen, examine, restrain oneself, and leave judgment with God rather than seizing it personally.
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