Commentary
When the reader is introduced to Abigail she is described as “clever and beautiful” (1 Sam. 25:3). With those words, the gauntlet has been thrown down: Are we clever enough to understand the choices that she is about to make? Reading Abigail’s story there is a tension between her actions and the reader’s perception and understanding. The most interesting moments of her story to consider are the moments when she asserts herself and whatever authority she has cobbled together because when Abigail speaks up, the reader knows that it is a choice to speak in that moment and to say what she is saying. We must then ask Why now? and Why those words? To me, understanding Abigail’s cleverness seems akin to scrying Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile because the reader is never quite sure what Abigail wants in the end.
We first meet Abigail during the hustle and bustle of the festive shearing season. She is warned by one of the young men who works for her husband, the “surly and mean” Nabal, that Nabal has done something foolish. David had sent a messenger to Nabal to invoke his right to hospitality, and Nabal rudely rebuked him. The young man is concerned that violence will befall them all because of Nabal’s words. He says to Abigail, “Know this and consider what you should do” (1 Sam. 25:17). The young man does not tell Abigail what the household laborers would like her to do as the wife to save all of their skins. He trusts that Abigail will find a solution. So trusted, Abigail must have proven herself to the people of her husband’s household in past resolutions of her husband’s blunders.
Abigail knows that hospitality must be offered to correct her husband’s grave error. She loads up a number of donkeys and heads toward David’s camp just as David is headed toward her to raze Nabal’s estate. When the two parties meet, Abigail throws herself down to the ground before David and chastizes him for not speaking to the real authority of the estate – herself. (The young man’s report to Abigail reinforces this claim. The whole estate must have been accustomed to using subversive power to work around a fool with explicit authority.) In short order, Abigail makes it plain that she has brought the hospitality that he is owed and more. She goes on to assert that her appearance itself is a gift of the Lord. She identifies that David is the Lord’s man and as the Lord’s, David must defer to God’s sense of justice and God’s judgment. To take judgement into his own hands would be an act of unfaithfulness and would be a blemish on his future kingship. So Abigail’s appearance before David, to stay his hand, is actually a gift from the Lord to preserve David’s reputation as upright. Her statement builds her case that violence would be a mistake not on one front but two. It also positions Abigail not only as the real authority at Nabal’s estate, but also, as a fellow servant of the Lord, an equal of David’s. As readers we might observe that her argument could actually establish an authority over David, not in a dissimilar way to Nabal, because she correctly interprets the Lord’s aims where David did not and was ready to take things into his own hands.
It is worth noting the juxtaposition of Abigail’s prostrate position while claiming her own unusual authority within Nabal’s household. First, it portrays the tense situation she is navigating. Second, her bodily posture will be viscerally familiar to many women who have faced the necessity of lowering or flattening themselves in preparation to speak with authority. It would be interesting to contrast Abigail’s posture when speaking to the incensed David and her posture speaking to the hungover Nabal, which is unremarked upon, though I imagine it as much more mundane as the only setting marker we receive is that it is morning. Both times her words have their desired effect. In one instance her words prevent death and in the other they open the door for death.
After Nabal’s sudden death, proving Abigail’s words true, that the Lord will deal with the evil around David and leave him unblemished, David and Abigail are quickly married. Maybe David saw a woman that he desired, not unlike Bathsheba in the coming chapters. Maybe Abigail was attracted to a young, virile warrior who was on to great things, and she wanted to be in the midst of greatness. Maybe she was happy to avoid some kind of Levirite marriage within Nabal’s extended family. To ascribe romantic love as the motivation or main motivation in this moment cheapens the complexity of Abigail and the circumstances of her life. Whatever her motivation, it does seem that wealth goes with Abigail, signaled by the presence of her maids, to fund David’s campaign.
In very short order, David (and Abigail) takes on a second wife named Ahinoam. Wilda C. Gafney suggests in her book Womanist Midrash that Abigail married David before it could be ascertained that she was not pregnant with Nabal’s child. That seems a likely explanation for Ahinoam’s sudden appearance; she was brought into the household as a second wife as a kind of proxy wife or handmaiden. Taking on a second wife could have helped to establish both of their roles, David as a great warlord and Abigail as first wife (David’s marriage to Michal having been dissolved). It is intriguing to imagine this woman who threw herself down at David’s feet and yet positioned herself as an equal as the first or senior wife in this growing, tumultuous household.
Abigail births David’s second son called either Chileab or Daniel. Most commentators assume that he died in childhood since he does not make an appearance alongside his brothers in the turmoil to come in 2 Samuel. Abigail is also noticeably absent from the dynastic feuding that takes place at the end of David’s life. Readers are not told how or when her life ended.
Like reading into Mona Lisa’s smile, we are left with more questions than answers. Did she find some sort of happiness? Did she get what she wanted or was she simply fighting for survival in a sea of men’s ambitions? What kind of elder did she grow to be, if she did indeed get to her elder years? Her application of her cleverness to protect those even less powerful than herself and keep violence at bay is admirable.
Prayer of the Day
God of justice and peace, give us clear eyes and brave hearts when we must head toward danger and aggression. May we hear the words of your Spirit speak among us when we are reminded that God never asks us to carry out violence, but to stand in the way of violence. Justice belongs to the Lord, we wait patiently for it in prayer and hope, through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Hymn Suggestion
Both of the hymns below are in the stewardship category of the Evangelical Lutheran Worship. When considering hymns to pair with Abigail’s story, stewardship seemed to resonate with her ability to make do with what she had available to her.
“Praise and Thanksgiving”, text by Albert F. Bayly
~or~
“Accept, O Lord, the Gifts We Bring,” text by Beth Bergeron Folkemer
A Blessing
Like Abigail, may you use whatever gifts God has given you to protect the vulnerable. May God fill your mouth with bold and careful words. May you bear witness to the Lord’s faithfulness turning away death. Amen.
