Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 25:23

"And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and alighted from her ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground." — 1 Samuel 25:23 (ASV)

Fell before David. —This act of homage, and, in fact, the whole tone of the wise wife of Nabal in her address to David, seems to indicate her awareness that she was addressing the anointed of Jehovah, the future king—in the near future—of Israel. Her worst fears she found realised when she met David, probably at no great distance from the principal residence of Nabal, accompanied by so large an armed force, evidently bent on some deed of violence. She tried to avert his wrath by representing her husband not merely as a bad man, but as one scarcely responsible for his actions. Had she only known of the mission of David’s followers to Nabal, she implies, their reception would indeed have been very different; they would not, at least, have returned to David empty-handed.