John Gill Commentary 1 Samuel 25

And Samuel died
In the interval, when Saul and David were parted, and before they saw each other again; according to the Jewish chronology ^F7 , Samuel died four months before Saul; but other Jewish writers say ^F8 he died seven months before; Abarbinel thinks it was a year or two before; which is most likely and indeed certain, since David was in the country of the Philistines after this a full year and four months, if the true sense of the phrase is expressed in (1 Samuel 27:7) ; and Saul was not then dead; and so another Jewish chronologer ^F9 says, that Saul died two years after Samuel, to which agrees Clemens of Alexandria ^F11 ; and according to the Jews ^F12 , he died the twentieth of Ijar, for which a fast was kept on that day:

and all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him ;
his death being a public loss, not only to the college of the prophets, over which he presided, but to the whole nation; and they had reason to lament his death, when they called to mind, the many good offices he has done them from his youth upwards; and when the government was in his hands, which was administered in the most prudent and faithful manner; and after that they had his wise counsel and advice, his good wishes and prayers for them; and the rather they had reason to lament him, since Saul their king proved so bad as he did, and at this time a difference was subsisting between David and him:

and buried him in his house at Ramah ;
where he lived and died; not that he was buried in his house, properly so called, or within the walls of that building wherein he dwelt; though the Greeks ^F13 and Romans ^F14 used to bury in their own dwelling houses; hence sprung the idolatrous worship of the Lares, or household gods; but not the Hebrews, which their laws about uncleanness by graves would not admit of, see (Numbers 19:15Numbers 19:18) ; but the meaning is, that they buried him in the place where his house was, as Ben Gersom interprets it, at Ramah, in some field or garden belonging to it. The author of the Cippi Hebraici says ^F15 , that here his father Elkanah, and his mother Hannah, and her two sons, were buried in a vault shut up, with, monuments over it; and here, some say ^F16 , Samuel's bones remained, until removed by Arcadius the emperor into Thrace; Benjamin of Tudela reports ^F17 , that when the Christians took Ramlah, which is Ramah, from the Mahometans, they found the grave of Samuel at Ramah by a synagogue of the Jews, and they took him out of the grave, and carried him to Shiloh, and there built a large temple, which is called the Samuel of Shiloh to this day:

and David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran ;
on hearing of the death of Samuel, there to indulge his mourning for him; or rather that he might be in greater safety from Saul, being further off, this wilderness lying on the south of the tribe of Judah, and inhabited by Arabs, and these called Kedarenes; and now it was that he dwelt in the tents of Kedar, (Psalms 120:5) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F7: Seder Olam Rabba, c. 13. p. 37.
• F8: In Kimchi & Abarbinel in loc.
• F9: Juchasin, fol. 11. 1.
• F11: Stromat. l. 1. p. 325.
• F12: Schulchan Aruch, par. 1. c. 580. sect. 2.
• F13: Plato in Mino.
• F14: Servius in Virgil. Aeneid. l. 6. p. mihi, (?) 1011.
• F15: P. 30.
• F16: Heldman apud Hottinger in ib.
• F17: Itinerar. p. 52.

And [there was] a man in Maon
A city of the tribe of Judah, from which the wilderness had its name before mentioned; of which place, see (Joshua 15:55) ; though Ben Gersom takes it to signify a dwelling place; and that this is observed to show, that he did not dwell in a city, but has his habitation where his business lay, which was in Carmel, where his fields, gardens, and vineyards were: wherefore it follows,

whose possessions [were] in Carmel ;
not Carmel in the tribe of Issachar, but in the tribe of Judah, not far from Maon, and are mentioned together, (See Gill on Joshua 15:55); his cattle were there, his sheep particularly, for they are afterwards said to be shorn there; or "his work" ^F18 ; his agriculture, his farming, where he was employed, or employed others in sowing seed, and planting trees:

and the man [was] very great ;
in worldly substance, though not in natural wisdom and knowledge, and especially in true religion and piety:

and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats ;
so the substance of men in those times was generally described by the cattle they had, whether of the herd or flock, in which it chiefly lay:

and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel ;
which was the custom in Judea and Syria, and was a very ancient one, as early as the times of Judah, yea, of Laban, see (Genesis 31:19) (Genesis 38:12Genesis 38:13) ; though the old Romans used to pluck off the wool from the sheep's backs; hence a fleece of wool was called "vellus [a] vellendo", from the plucking it off; and Pliny says {s}, in his time, that sheep were not shorn everywhere, but in some places the custom of plucking off the wool continued; and who elsewhere observes ^F20 , that the time of shearing was in June or July, or thereabouts; at which times a feast was made, and it is for the sake of that this is observed.

FOOTNOTES:

• F18: (whvem) "opus ejus", Montanus, Vatablus; "eujus opus", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
• F20: Ibid. l. 18. c. 27.

Now the name of the man [was] Nabal
Which signifies a "fool"; one would think his parents should not give him this name, though it is a name proper enough to men in common; and Kimchi thinks this was a nickname, which men gave him agreeably to his genius and conduct, and which is not improbable:

and the name of his wife Abigail ;
which signifies "my father's joy", he delighting in her for her wit and beauty, as follows:

and [she was] a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful
countenance ;
she was not only of a good understanding in things natural, civil, and domestic, but in things spiritual, as her speech to David shows, and which, with her external form, completed her character, and greatly recommended her; which is the character Aelianus^F21

but the man [was] churlish and evil in his doings ;
morose and ill natured in the temper and disposition of his mind, and wicked in his conversation, and fraudulent and oppressive in his dealings with men:

and he [was] of the house of Caleb ;
or he was a Calebite ^F23 , a descendant of that great and good man Caleb the son of Jephunneh; which was an aggravation of his wickedness, that he should be the degenerate plant of such a noble vine:

some interpret it, he was as his heart, as his heart was bad, so was he; some men, their outside is better than their inside; but this man was no hypocrite, he was as bad outwardly as he was inwardly: the word "Caleb" sometimes signifies a dog; hence the Septuagint version renders it, a doggish man, a cynic; and to the same purpose are the Syriac and Arabic versions; and so some Jewish writers interpret it; but the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi, supply it as we do, that he was of the house or family of Caleb, and so of the tribe of Judah, as David was.

FOOTNOTES:

• F21: gives of Aspasia, wise and fair:
• F23: (wblk) "keri" (yblk) "Calibita", Pagninus, Montanus; "Calebita" Tigurine version, Junius & Tremcilius, Piscator.

And David heard in the wilderness
In the wilderness of Paran, where he was, and a wilderness it was to him, being in want of food, as the following relation shows:

that Nabal did shear his sheep ;
when there was generally good living, and so a proper person, and a proper time, for David to apply for the relief of his wants.

And David sent out ten young men
Such persons, and such a number of them, he sent to show honour and reverence to Nabal:

and David said, to the young men, get you up to Carmel ;
which lay higher than the wilderness, in which he was:

and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name ;
ask him of his peace and welfare, as the Targum; wish all health and happiness in my name, present my service and best respects to him.