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

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

We think of the society in which David lived as being a patriarchy where women had limited rights, and we are not wrong.  But the story told in this passage reveals that women were not as powerless in that society as we assume.  When Nabal insulted David’s men, one of the servants told Nabal’s wife Abigail about it.  Clearly that servant believed that Abigail could do something, and he was right.  On her own authority, Abigail gathered supplies and sent them to David, following behind to make amends for her husband’s rudeness..  After Nabal’s death, Abigail married David in what appears to me to be a negotiated alliance.  At about the same time, David married Ahinoam from Jezreel and King Saul gave his daughter Michal, who had been married to David, to another man as that man’s wife.  Up until this point, David’s power as a national figure came from being King Saul’s son-in-law.  Even on the run from King Saul, David would still have had a certain cache as his son-in-law.  When Saul gave Michal to be the wife of another man, that ended.  By marrying these two women, David gained a new power base.  This is important because in a totalitarian system, the ruler makes sure that everyone’s power derives from their relationship to him.  King Saul worked to eliminate any power base which did not derive its power from him.  Here David is seeking to gain the support of such power bases.