Remorse and Fear Take Nabal’s Life

When Abigail returned home she found Nabal and his guests in a drunken celebration. She did not tell her husband what had happened in her meeting with David until the next morning. When he realized how near his foolishness had brought him to sudden death, he seemed to become paralyzed. He was filled with horror and sank down in a helpless daze. After ten days he died. In the middle of his celebrations, God had said to him, as to the rich man of the parable, “This night your soul will be required of you.” (Luke 12:20).BOE 338.1

Later David married Abigail. He was already the husband of one wife, but the custom of the nations of his time had perverted his judgment. Throughout all of his life, David felt the bitter result of marrying many wives.BOE 338.2

The Ziphites, hoping to win favor with the king, again told him about David’s hiding place. Once more Saul summoned his men of arms and led them in hunting David. But friendly spies brought word to the son of Jesse, and with a few of his men, David started out to learn the location of his enemy.BOE 338.3

It was night when they came upon the tents of the king and his attendants and saw, unobserved, the camp quiet in sleep. David asked, “Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?” Abishai promptly responded, “I will go down with you.”BOE 338.4

Hidden by the shadows of the hills, David and his attendant entered the camp. They came near to Saul who was sleeping, with his spear stuck in the ground and a jug of water at his head. Beside him lay Abner, his chief commander, and all around them were the soldiers, locked in sleep. Abishai raised his spear. “God has delivered your enemy into your hand this day. Now therefore, please let me strike him at once with the spear, right to the earth; and I will not have to strike him a second time!” He waited for permission, but instead he heard the whispered words: “‘Do not destroy him; for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed, and be guiltless? ... As the Lord lives, the Lord shall strike him, ... or he shall go out to battle, and perish. The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord’s anointed. But please take now the spear and the jug of water that are by his head, and let us go.’ ... And no man saw or knew it or awoke ... because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen on them.”BOE 338.5

When David was a safe distance from the camp, he called with a loud voice to Abner, “‘Are you not a man? And who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not guarded your lord the king? For one of the people came in to destroy your lord the king. This thing that you have done is not good. As the Lord lives, you deserve to die, because you have not guarded your master, the Lord’s anointed. And now see where the king’s spear is, and the jug of water that was by his head.’ Then Saul knew David’s voice, and said, ‘Is that your voice, my son David?’ David said, ‘It is my voice, my lord, O king.’ And he said, ‘Why does my lord thus pursue his servant? For what have I done, or what evil is in my hand?’”BOE 338.6