Nabal

2 definitions found

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Nabal
     foolish, a descendant of Caleb who dwelt at Maon (1 Sam. 25),
     the modern Main, 7 miles south-east of Hebron. He was "very
     great, and he had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats...but the man was
     churlish and evil in his doings." During his wanderings David
     came into that district, and hearing that Nabal was about to


     shear his sheep, he sent ten of his young men to ask "whatsoever
     cometh unto thy hand for thy servants." Nabal insultingly
     resented the demand, saying, "Who is David, and who is the son
     of Jesse?" (1 Sam. 25:10, 11). One of the shepherds that stood
     by and saw the reception David's messengers had met with,
     informed Abigail, Nabal's wife, who at once realized the danger
     that threatened her household. She forthwith proceeded to the
     camp of David, bringing with her ample stores of provisions
     (25:18). She so courteously and persuasively pled her cause that
     David's anger was appeased, and he said to her, "Blessed be the
     Lord God of Israel which sent thee this day to meet me."
     
       On her return she found her husband incapable from drunkenness
     of understanding the state of matters, and not till the
     following day did she explain to him what had happened. He was
     stunned by a sense of the danger to which his conduct had
     exposed him. "His heart died within him, and he became as a
     stone." and about ten days after "the Lord smote Nabal that he
     died" (1 Sam. 25:37, 38). Not long after David married Abigail
     (q.v.).
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Nabal, fool; senseless