Verse 36
When Abigail returned home, she found her husband at a great feast, like a king's feast, very merry (עליו, “therewith,” refers to משׁתּה: cf. Pro 23:30), and drunken above measure, so that she told him nothing of what had occurred until the break of day.
Verse 37
Then, “when the wine had gone from Nabal,” i.e., when he had become sober, she related the matter to him; whereat he was so terrified, that he was smitten with a stroke. This is the meaning of the words, “his heart died within him, and it became as stone.” The cause of it was not his anger at the loss he had sustained, or merely his alarm at the danger to which he had been exposed, and which he did not believe to be over yet, but also his vexation that his wife should have made him humble himself in such a manner; for he is described as a hard, i.e., an unbending, self-willed man.
Verse 38
About ten days later the Lord smote him so that he died, i.e., the Lord put an end to his life by a second stroke.
Verses 39-44
When David heard of Nabal's death, he praised Jehovah that He had avenged his shame upon Nabal, and held him back from self-revenge. וגו רב עשׁר, “who hath pleaded the cause of my reproach (the disgrace inflicted upon me) against Nabal.” “Against Nabal” does not belong to “my reproach,” but to “pleaded the cause.” The construction of ריב with מן is a pregnant one, to fight (and deliver) out of the power of a person (vid., Psa 43:1); whereas here the fundamental idea is that of taking vengeance upon a person.
Verses 40-41
He then sent messengers to Abigail, and conveyed to her his wish to marry her, to which she consented without hesitation. With deep reverence she said to the messengers (1Sa 25:41), “Behold, thy handmaid as servant (i.e., is ready to become thy servant) to wash the feet of the servants of my lord;” i.e., in the obsequious style of the East, “I am ready to perform the humblest possible services for thee.”
Verse 42
She then rose up hastily, and went after the messengers to David with five damsels in her train, and became his wife.
Verse 43
The historian appends a few notices here concerning David's wives: “And David had taken Ahinoam from Jezreel; thus they also both became his wives.” The expression “also” points to David's marriage with Michal, the daughter of Saul (1Sa 18:28). Jezreel is not the city of that name in the tribe
