Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 25:36

"And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal`s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light." — 1 Samuel 25:36 (ASV)

He held a feast in his house. — This completes the picture of the wealthy sheep-master. The contrast between him and his wife, the high-minded and wise Abigail, is very striking. The husband was rude, obstinate, a friend of Saul and the old disorderly state of affairs, haughty, unyielding, selfish, and indulged to excess in the coarse pleasures of the table, ultimately falling victim to his own untamed passions. His wife, by contrast—“the good angel of the household,” as Stanley phrases it—was thoughtful, prudent, far-seeing, a patient listener, evidently an apt pupil of the new masters of learning and culture in Israel, and a beautiful example of the highest type of devout Hebrew woman who, during the long, checkered history of the chosen race, so often exercised a holy influence on the life of the people.

Nabal may be taken as an extreme, though not an uncommon, example of the leading Israelites of the days before Samuel; Abigail, as the representative of the nobler spirit among the higher classes after the spirit of Samuel had influenced the inhabitants of the land.