Nabal נָבָל

Nabal, a wealthy man from Carmel, was known for his foolishness and mistreatment of David, which nearly led to his demise.

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Where Nabal appears

1 Samuel (16), 2 Samuel (2)

Key verses

• 1 Samuel 25:3 first mention — Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.
• 1 Samuel 25:10 — And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master.
• 1 Samuel 25:14 — But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them.
• 1 Samuel 25:25 — Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.
• 1 Samuel 25:26 — Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.
• 1 Samuel 25:34 — For in very deed, as the LORD God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.
• 1 Samuel 25:36 — And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.
• 1 Samuel 25:37 — But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.
• 1 Samuel 25:38 — And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died.
• 1 Samuel 25:39 — And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil: for the LORD hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him to wife.
• 1 Samuel 30:5 — And David’s two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
• 2 Samuel 3:3 — And his second, Chileab, of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom the son of Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur;

Person data: STEPBible.org TIPNR, Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0), adapted. Verse text: King James Version.