Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 25-27.

When I read the account of Nabal and Abigail I am always struck that it tells us a lot about how property was controlled in that ancient time.  Let’s look at the account.  Apparently, David and his men had guarded Nabal’s men as they herded his sheep, then when sheepshearing time came, David sent some men to request that Nabal give them supplies in payment for their protection against bandits.  Reading between the lines, it even looks as if there had been an implied agreement between David and Nabal.  Nabal’s response seems to be Nabal telling David, “What are you going to do about me violating our contract?  Are you going to appeal to the king?”  Then something interesting happens.  Nabal’s servants, recognizing that David had the means to enforce his contract without appealing to King Saul, went to Abigail, Nabal’s wife.  She immediately ordered the servants to gather supplies and take them to David.  The servants to whom Abigail gave these instructions would have known what Nabal had said, so they knew that she was doing this without her husband’s permission, or approval.  Later, after Nabal’s death, David asked Abigail to marry him, and she did so.  There is a bit of implication that David acquired Nabal’s wealth by marrying Abigail, or, perhaps I should say that he acquired Abigail’s wealth.  So, in reading this we learn a bit about how contracts worked.  We also learn that, although it was a male dominated society where a man controlled his wife’s economic assets, the wife still played a major role in managing those assets.  I wrote that by marrying Abigail, David gained control of Nabal’s wealth, but it occurs to me that perhaps David married Abigail because she showed wisdom in managing Nabal’s wealth, by gathering supplies for David and his men, rather than because he gained wealth by marrying her.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.