Verse 4
DAVID REQUESTS PROVISIONS FROM NABAL
"David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep, So David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, "Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. And thus you shall salute him, `Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. I hear that you have shearers; now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing, all the time they were in Carmel. Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes; for we come on a feast day. Pray give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.'"
To some people of our generation, it might appear that David's method of supporting his small army was an illegal "protection racket." But the situation mentioned here was not that at all. David's expectations of supplies from Nabal were fully justified according to the customs and standards of that time and circumstance. "Even Nabal's servants and his own wife felt that David was due some compensation for the protection which he had provided for Nabal's flocks and shepherds."[8]
"This type of `protection money' is regularly levied at the present day by the Bedouins living on the borders of the desert and the cultivated land. In return for gifts they guarantee the protection of life and property in those notoriously insecure districts."[9]
Nabal's vast flocks of sheep and goats would doubtless have been confiscated by roving bands of outlaws had it not been for David's protection. After all, we learned in 1 Samuel 23 that such marauders even attacked walled towns (Keilah); and without David's wall of protection around Nabal's flocks (1 Samuel 25:16), there can be little doubt that Nabal's flocks would have been taken away from him. The man's stupidity in failing to recognize this is amazing. The fact that David sent ten men to bring back the gift indicates that he certainly expected Nabal to come through with a very generous contribution.
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