Abigail אביגיל
she stopped David halfway to bloodshed — and he thanked her for it
Nabal was rich and coarse; his shepherds had grazed all winter beside David's men and lost nothing. When David sent to ask for provisions, he answered: who is David? There are many servants these days breaking away from their masters. David girded on his sword and led out four hundred men.
One of the servants got word to Abigail. She did not argue with her husband — "but she told her husband Nabal nothing" — and at once loaded a train: bread, wine, dressed sheep, grain, raisins, figs; she rode to meet David and got down from her donkey before him.
Her speech is a model of how a man in a rage is stopped. She takes the blame on herself, names her husband for what he is, and shifts the ground: let this not be a stumbling block and a trouble of heart to you — that you shed blood for nothing and took your own part. And when the LORD does for my lord all the good He promised, remember your servant.
David's answer is rare for him: "blessed be the LORD who sent you to meet me today, and blessed be your good sense, and blessed be you, who kept me from bloodshed."
Ten days later Nabal died, and Abigail became David's wife. Megillah 14a counts her among the seven prophetesses of Israel.
On the timeline
Sources
Tanakh
- Shmuel I 25:14–19 — the supply train prepared without her husband's knowledge
- Shmuel I 25:23–31 — the speech that stopped David
- Shmuel I 25:32–33 — “blessed be your good sense”
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Megillah 14a — among the seven prophetesses of Israel
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.