1 Samuel 25:1

DRASTIC CHANGES IN DAVID'S SITUATION

The changes referred to in our title of this chapter include (1) the death of the prophet Samuel, David's truest friend and ally; (2) the increasing difficulty of providing supplies for his growing band of followers; (3) the renewal of Saul's efforts to hunt him down and kill him; (4) his withdrawal to the wilderness of Paran; and (5) his acquisition of Nabal's estate through marriage to Abigail.

THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF SAMUEL

"Now Samuel died; and all Israel assembled and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house at Ramah."

Critical scholars complain that this verse is an insertion by some later hand, but there is no solid evidence whatever to back up such opinions. Keil remarked that, "The death of Samuel is inserted here, because it occurred at that time."[1] Also, present-day scholars of the highest rank confirm that understanding. "Chronologically, Samuel died while David and his men were at Engedi,"[2] and this accounts for the fact that, immediately, "David thought that he needed to move farther to the southwest in the fear that Samuel's death might give Saul new stimulus to try to get rid of him."[3]

"They buried him in his house at Ramah." The meaning of this is uncertain because in 2 Chronicles 3:20, it is recorded that Manasseh was buried "in his house"; but the parallel passage in 2 Kings 21:18, states that the burial was "in the garden of his house." Furthermore, the burial of a dead body in Samuel's house would have made the place ceremonially "unclean" in perpetuity. In the light of these reasons, we believe that Samuel was buried in the garden or the courtyard of his residence.

1 Samuel 25:1-2

DAVID WITHDRAWS TO THE WILDERNESS OF PARAN

"Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. And there was a man in Maon, whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel."

"To the wilderness of Paran" (1 Samuel 25:1b). "In a wide sense, the wilderness of Paran extended all the way to the wilderness of Beersheba and eastward to the mountains of Judah."[4] This makes it unnecessary to follow such renditions as those of the Jerusalem Bible and the New International Version which render the passage: "The wilderness of Maon." The wilderness of Maon was on the edge of the much larger wilderness of Paran; and it should be noted that the text does not say that David entered the wilderness of Paran, but that, "he went down to it." This he did when he was in the wilderness of Maon. Since this smaller wilderness adjoined the much larger wilderness of Paran, David was in a position to retreat farther out of Saul's reach if necessary.

Nabal is introduced here, though not by name, as a very rich man whose residence was in Carmel, but whose great flocks of sheep and goats were in the wilderness of Maon. "Carmel is the modern Kermel, between Ziph and Maon."[5] Of course, this is a different Carmel from Mount Carmel on the Mediterranean coast.