(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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1 Samuel 25:2–11, “And there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 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. And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep. And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name: And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be both to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast. And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel. Ask thy young men, and they will shew thee. Wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David. And when David’s young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased. 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. Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?”
When people live on the margins, that is, in places where the living is extremely hard, like in the semi desert areas on the fringes of the desert, they need to cooperate and trust each other. David was hiding in a fringe area so that the could have good prospects of escape if Saul came looking for him. There was another man who had lived in the same area called Nabal, whose name means “fool”. He was probably a descendant of Caleb, because this area was part of Caleb’s inheritance as it was close to Hebron. Nabal was a wealthy man, with large herds of sheep. When it was shearing time David sent some of his young men to ask Nabal to reward him because he had not plundered any of Nabal’s sheep and, in fact, he had kept Nabal’s sheep safe from wild animals and other desert people who lived by plunder. Nabal was an arrogant and angry man and refused to do anything for David. He ignored all the rules of hospitality and treated David and insulted David as well. David had been a shepherd himself and understood the importance of working together in a place like that so he was hurt by Nabal’s words.
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