NABAL nā’ bəl (נָבָ֔ל, Ναβάλ; foolish). A wealthy descendant of Caleb who lived in Maon eight m. S of Hebron (1 Sam 25:2ff.). He owned 3000 sheep and 1000 goats which he pastured in the vicinity of Carmel (present Kurmul just N of Maon). He is described as “churlish and ill-behaved” (v. 3). David, a fugitive from Saul, had been in the neighborhood for a period when sheepshearing time, normally festive, came for Nabal. David had been giving protection to Nabal’s flocks from marauding Bedouins (vv. 15, 16) and so sent ten of his men now to extend good wishes to Nabal, remind him of his service to him, and request a gift in return. Nabal showed his ungrateful character in not only refusing David’s understandable request but also returning insulting remarks. David was a vagrant, escaped from his master like many others of the era. Immediately David prepared with 400 men to bring retaliation. However, Nabal’s wife Abigail, described as a woman “of good understanding and beautiful” (v. 3), came quickly to David to make amends. She brought a bountiful gift of food, needed by David and his men, and made humble apology for her husband’s conduct, asking David not to inflict his intended reprisal. David agreed. When Abigail later told her husband of his narrow escape, “his heart died within him” (v. 37), and ten days later he died. David then made Abigail one of his wives.

Bibliography The Books of Samuel, KD (1868), 238-247; E. G. Kraeling, Bible Atlas (1956), 187.