1 Samuel 25:9

NABAL'S OUTRAGEOUS TREATMENT REGARDING DAVID'S REQUEST

"When David's young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David; and then they waited. And Nabal answered David's servants, "Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who are breaking away from their masters. Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men who come from I do not know where?" So David's young men turned away, and came back and told him all this. And David said to his men, "Every man gird on his sword"! And every man of them girded on his sword; and David also girded on his own sword; and about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage."

"Shall I take my bread and my water ...and give it ..." (1 Samuel 25:11)? Nabal's mention of water in this verse does not please some critics who insist that the word should be "wine." Based upon the Septuagint (LXX) rendition of the place, which is followed by the Jerusalem Bible and the New International Version, H. P. Smith changed the verse, making it read, "Must I take my bread and my wine ... etc."[10] This is precisely the type of meddling with the text which this writer finds frequently unacceptable. Yes, there's no doubt that Nabal had plenty of wine and that he drank enough of it that it required a whole day and night for him to become sober; and it is a fact that wine was usually used at such feasts instead of water. But none of these things nullifies the message Nabal sent back to David, which, in effect, declared that, he would not even give David and his men a drink of water, much less any other things he mentioned. The text tells us what Nabal said, not what the customary beverage was at such feasts.

"Every man gird on his sword" (1 Samuel 25:13). 1 Samuel 25:22, below, tells us what David had in mind. He planned to murder Nabal and every male member of his whole establishment. This contemplated action on David's part was sinful. Henry pointed out that only a few days ago David had spared Saul's life. Saul was David's bitterest enemy; from him David expected nothing except hatred, or even death; and now, because of a few hard, ugly words, David felt that nothing but the blood of a whole family must be shed to avenge the affront. "Lord, what is man? What is in the best of them when God leaves them to themselves to try them"[11]