Chapter 4
David, intending to strike down Nabal of Carmel, is appeased by the intervention and gifts of his wife Abigail. After Nabal dies ten days later, David takes her as his wife; he also takes Ahinoam of Jezreel, after his wife Michal was given to Phalti, the son of Laish. There was a man in the wilderness of Maon, etc., up to what is written: But Saul gave Michal his daughter, David's wife, etc. This reading typically teaches that the synagogue, condemned by the wickedness of its leaders and teachers, was saved by the Lord, but it was later also partly rejected when the Gentiles were called to faith; it marks the salvation of the humble with some characters, but the rejection of the proud with others. Thus, there was a man in the wilderness of Maon, that is, of habitation. There was a congregation of scribes and Pharisees engaged in the studies of the Holy Scripture, which, being endowed with a unique virtue beyond all other Scriptures, moreover teaches all its readers to become solitary in the world, that is, separated from its desires and pomps, and to make themselves a dwelling worthy of God. And his possession, he says, was in Carmel, that is, in the knowledge of circumcision; because the word of the law, which they preached, proclaimed the true chastisement, but it did not give the perfection. For what the letter showed by commanding, it did not perfect, but grace aiding did. Therefore, not in perfection, but in the acknowledgment of consummate chastisement did the Pharisee and legal scribe have possession, because the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1). That man was indeed called very great; because the mentioned teacher, although in no small part wise in earthly matters, yet excels greatly above all the preceptors of secular philosophy, who were entirely ignorant of the divine law and used themselves alone as masters in those things which they taught.
[1 Samuel 25:2] -- And he had three thousand sheep, etc. To the scribes and Pharisees were committed innocent and penitent souls for teaching: these perfected by faith, hope, and charity; those still following the rudiments of first faith which begins from fear.
[1 Samuel 25:2] -- And it happened that his flock was being sheared in Carmel. It happened that some of the more perfect listeners among the scribes, in the recognition of external chastity, were abandoning their legal acts so that the inner man might be renewed day by day. It happened that all the people subject to them were giving the Lord their wool, as if it were the first fruits and tithes of their produce, which could be lost without pain.
[1 Samuel 25:3] -- The name of that man was Nabal, etc. Nabal means foolish, Abigail is called the father's joy: and the foolish man was a legal expert who, having the key of knowledge, neither entered himself, nor allowed those who wished to enter. The father's joy, however, is rightly called the synagogue among those to whom it is said: But rejoice that your names are written in heaven (Luke X). For she was most prudent in such matters, understanding the word of faith; and beautiful in doing what she could understand. Meanwhile, her masters were hardened in unbelief, wicked in living badly, and malicious in plotting against the Lord.
[1 Samuel 27:3] -- He was from the tribe of Caleb. The teachers of the synagogue were from the disciples of the lawgiver. For the scribes and Pharisees sat on Moses' seat (Matthew XXIII); who, since they then led other mortals by the grace of both human and divine wisdom, can, not unjustly, be called Caleb, that is, the whole heart; or because we read that patriarch Caleb was powerful in faith and virtue, we can say that the faithfulness of the faithful is the increase of damnation for the faithless, who have degenerated from the life of their parents.
[1 Samuel 25:4] -- When therefore David heard in the desert that Nabal was shearing his sheep, etc. When the Lord, conversing in the world in man, heard that the learned in the law were preparing their hearers either to cleanse themselves from sins or to offer their own for the Lord, as if with the fitting scissors of practice, He sent His most valiant disciples, namely the heralds of the heavenly denarius to be attained, whose youth had been renewed like the eagle in baptism, and said to them: Ascend into the recognition of circumcision, open in the progresses of virtues and doctrine, show that you truly know and have ascended the height of spiritual chastity: and by doing this you will come to the very teachers of the law, and also evangelists announcing salvation from my name, which I am called and am the Savior, to those future heavenly in peace, saying: Let there be peace to all who by believing in the name of God the Father wish to be brothers of Christ, let there also be peace to you converted in pious society to the same faith; nay, and to all whom you have taught, and to all that you do, peace. That is, the peace which made both one and broke down the middle wall of partition, the enmities in His flesh (Ephesians II).
[1 Samuel 25:7] -- I heard that your shepherds are shearing, etc. And the Lord spoke these things through his apostles to the chiefs of the Jews, "I heard that your disciples are teaching the people, who used the same pastures of sacred Scripture as we did. We were never troublesome to them, but behaved quietly toward everyone, and moreover preached the gentle yoke of humility and the light burden: nor did anything ever perish from their teaching or deeds: they were with us at all times in the recognition of circumcision, that is, where they, like us, acknowledged spiritual circumcision in the highest words of divine eloquence. It must be understood here that something could have perished from the substance of those who had been in Carmel without David; that is, the superfluous reading in many ways, not profitable for the salvation of the soul, of those who, reading the Scriptures, did not know how to understand Christ in the Scriptures. Ask, he says, some of the innocent and knowingly humble among your people of whom the kingdom of heaven is; and they will tell you that the grace of the Gospel is not contrary to the letter of the law, but in both Testaments the just live by faith.
[1 Samuel 25:8] -- Now therefore let the young men find favor in your eyes, etc. Because, they say, you teach the people, which is to intellectually shear the flock, ensure that even the disciples of Christ preaching may find in you the grace of faith and good action. For indeed we come to preach uniquely good things in the light of grace, so remarkably good, that the previously unheard kingdom of heaven is proclaimed to mortals; and to this, the whole race of men is called, from which the Gospel also received its name in Greek due to this foremost goodness. Whatever virtuous obedience your strength finds, willingly bestow it upon those teachers rejoicing in serving your salvation, and upon the offspring from your lineage, to the truly strong and desirable hand of Jesus Christ.
[1 Samuel 25:10] -- Answering, however, Nabal spoke to David's young men, etc. The foolish leaders of the Jews, responding to the disciples of Christ preaching to them, said: We are disciples of Moses, but this man we do not know where he comes from (John IX). And the disciples of Jesus grew in the presumption of teaching, so that they could not be surpassed by anyone, who fled by despising the experts in the law, much their superiors in knowledge. Therefore, we will take up the words of the Holy Scripture, entrusted to us specifically for teaching, which can be read and understood simply; that is, to drink water: partly to be handled more carefully, so that they may be understood in this way, which is to break and eat bread by chewing. We will also take the deeds of the preceding fathers, which we have prepared for teaching to aid the life and virtue of our listeners, and we will give them to teachers, entirely separated from our religion and faith, who pervertedly transfer the holy words to the sense of their doctrine.
[1 Samuel 25:13] -- Then David said to his men, Let each one gird on his sword, etc. The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, can indeed be understood; with which the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (Ephes. VI), was girded to vanquish the unbelievers, whenever he revealed the word of the Father to the world through his Gospel. And his disciples were girded when they preached the same. But because it is read in the following: David, being prohibited from striking the wicked, thanks to Abigail's intercession. The Church never prays, however, that Christ might not inflict the saving wound of his word upon the unbelievers. It is better understood in this place that the sword signifies the vengeance of destruction, which threatened the Jews after the Lord's passion; with which sword, indeed, the Lord himself, and his ministers of the same word, were girded, not by inflicting punishment on sinners, but by predicting this punishment as future to the sinners, unless they repented. Due to the fear of this sword, the Church, interceding with the Lord, suspended its blow for more than LX years.
[1 Samuel 25:13] -- And about four hundred men followed David, etc. Whoever could be found perfect in prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice followed the Lord to the office of preaching. Moreover, others, content with the twin perfection of charity, preferred to live quietly with those they had won for Christ, rather than gird themselves for spiritual battles to win others.
[1 Samuel 25:14] -- But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, etc. When the chiefs of the Jews scorned the word of faith, the unity of Christ's disciples announced to the synagogue subject to them, saying: Behold, Jesus Christ sent apostles, namely messengers of truth, instructed in the divine Scriptures, to command eternal blessing to our elders, and they rejected them. These men, that is, Christ's apostles, were good apostles, were good enough for us by preaching the heavenly kingdom; and not troublesome, by imposing the burdens of the law on our necks anymore. Nor did anything ever perish of what we established during all the time we lived in their faith, living in deserts from the allurements of the world, and in a quasi-solitary life. At all times, I say, whether observing the rites of the law still, or celebrating the mysteries of the revealed and proclaimed grace, whoever joined themselves to the faith of Christ were saved from all destruction. They were helpful to us in teaching, both in investigating the obscure parts of the Scriptures, and in plainly bringing forth the clear ones, all the days in which we instructed our listeners according to their truly evangelical understanding.
[1 Samuel 25:17] -- Wherefore consider and reflect upon what you do, because, etc. I have explained, he says, what benefit and grace the faith of Christ has, and how great a hardness our leaders have shown in resisting it. Wherefore consider and reflect upon, by what order you have declined and avoided the malice of the proud, who did not want the blessing, and it will be prolonged from them, that you might not only escape His wrath but also be deemed worthy to receive the blessing of inheritance; because the malice of vindication against the leaders of your people, and against your own people, has been fulfilled; who, having formerly killed and stoned the prophets, to complete the malice of their sin, did not fear to lay hands on the Lord, the uniquely powerful one among the prophets, and they are the sons of the devil, choosing Barrabas the robber for themselves instead of Christ the Savior; so hardened in their minds, that they are unable to grasp the words of any of the spiritual teachers.
[1 Samuel 25:18] -- Abigail then hurried and took two hundred loaves, etc. Motivated by the preaching of the apostles, the Synagogue hastened to be reconciled to Christ, whom she recognized had been offended by her leaders, and brought her listeners, who had already been instructed in the letter of the law; and she placed them upon the humble and simple dispensers of the word of the gospel, by whose ministry or intercession they were brought to Christ: upon those, namely, who could say, We have become like a beast before you on earth, and we are always with you (Psalm LXXII); and: We are fools for Christ’s sake (I Cor. IV). For the two hundred loaves are those who, through the fellowship of the same faith and action, are so mutually connected by a bond, so strengthened by the fire of supreme devotion, that they can in no way be separated from each other. The two skins of wine, who, intoxicated with the virtue of twin love, desire to mortify the flesh, but be quickened by the Spirit, and be inwardly renewed day by day, to receive and contain the must of spiritual grace. The five roasted rams, whatever in their senses is proud, and found to be like ill-horned against weaker neighbors, they are accustomed to cook entirely with the flame of devout mortification devoted to God. The five measures of parched corn, who know how to subjugate the aforementioned senses of the body to the spirit, and to tame the necessary humility as a mill; which in fact the humiliation or contrition of the flesh, because it must be done moderately, neither less nor more than just, this parched corn is well described by the measure of five, which among the Hebrews is a definite measure, one and a half modium. The hundred clusters of raisins signify those who rejoice in virginal continence, and moreover are bound to each other with the bonds of indivisible charity, and even in the flesh relish the most perfect beauty of angelic chastity. For the dried grape, cut off from the vine that bore it full of its own wine, is usually kept uncrushed for the gift of greater grace; and the virgin flesh, separated from the common fellowship of the Church by the iron of stricter continence, embraces within itself the sweetness of mature chastity, beloved by the Lord for the grace of the whole Church. Indeed, one hundred, because it signifies the mystery of heavenly and angelic perfection, is widely known to all. The two hundred cakes of figs are souls who impart the sweetness of their spiritual and perfect fellowship to their neighbors by teaching, so that by doubled virtue they may also merit a double palm. All these things were sent as a feast to David through Abigail, with men imbued with various virtues through the teaching of the law, whom the Synagogue sent to be baptized and instructed in the sacraments of the Gospel to Christ.
[1 Samuel 25:19] -- And he said to his servants: Go before me, etc. Many from Judea had gone before, coming to the faith individually, and the Synagogue followed after them. For it was first said: But the Lord added to the number those who were being saved daily (Acts II); and afterward, indeed, the Church throughout all Judea and Galilee, and Samaria, had peace, and was being built up, walking in the fear of the Lord, and was filled with the comfort of the Holy Spirit. However, lest it provoke its foolish leaders to worse, the believing Synagogue refrained from indicating the mystery of its faith.
[1 Samuel 25:20] -- Therefore, when he had ascended the donkey, etc. When the Synagogue confessed to all that it had served a foolish sense until then, and descended to the beginnings of the Christian faith, which starting from the infirmity of the Lord's incarnation, usually leads to the heights of recognizing divinity, Christ and his disciples descended to meet it, so that by preaching they might assist its efforts and, from the mysteries of his humanity with which it was imbued, they might elevate it to the highest summits of Divinity.
[1 Samuel 25:21] -- And David said: Truly, in vain have I kept, etc. The Lord said, detesting the long foolishness of the proud Jews: Truly in vain for so long a time have I offered the gifts of my grace to those out of their minds compared to other nations, and in return they gave the evil of faithlessness, persecution, and the cross, for the good of the grace I gave. Therefore, I will take the wicked from the land, so that until the morning of the universal judgment, no one from the perverse lineage may be left immune. This was said not so that all faithless Jews before the day of judgment might be shown to be dying, but so that they may be taught to be deserving of death and damnation in all respects. This is similar to when Korah stirred sedition in the desert, the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, Separate yourselves from the congregation of this people, so that I may destroy them suddenly (Num. XVI); and yet by their interceding and saying, Almighty God of the spirits of all flesh, will Your wrath rage against everyone because of one sinner? wrath was suspended, and the grace of mercy was bestowed. And on the following day, when the whole multitude murmured against them, he said, Separate yourselves from among this congregation, I will destroy them now. But what He showed that the wicked deserved by just judgment, He changed by mercy through the intercession of the faithful. Therefore, in this place also, under the figure of David, the Lord defers judging what the faithless have deserved, as the following spiritual interpretation of this reading will show. For it follows:
[1 Samuel 25:23] -- When Abigail saw David, she hastened and descended from the donkey, etc. When the synagogue recognized Christ, or rather, having itself been recognized by Christ, it hastened to renounce its old way of life, which had zeal for God, but not according to knowledge; and with the most devout humility, bearing witness to itself as dust and ashes, it began to worship the steps of the Lord's incarnation with humble prayer, either repenting for itself to be accepted by the Lord, or praying for its people and unbelieving leaders that they may not be struck corporally, with an open confession, and testifying that the wicked are reserved for eternal punishment, and that Christ's kingdom will remain in perpetual peace, and begging with every desire of the soul that it may belong to this.
[1 Samuel 25:25] -- Do not, I beseech you, my lord the king, set your heart upon this wicked man, Nabal, etc. The synagogue of believers, moved by pious humility, begs the Lord not to utterly destroy their wicked rulers and nobles before the punishment of the final judgment, so that those who are awaiting eternal destruction for their foolishness of disbelief, may at least enjoy a little temporal pleasure. At the same time, humbly excusing or rather lamentably accusing herself, that she too recognized the messengers of such great good, that is the apostles whom He sent, so late.
[1 Samuel 25:27] -- Wherefore, accept this blessing, etc. Because, he says, it is not hidden that the impious are destined to perish by just judgment, I beseech you to kindly receive those whom I have offered to be dedicated to you, converted piously, to be consecrated by you, to be blessed by you, and to commit them to the ecclesiastical society of your servants who have gone before.
[1 Samuel 25:28] -- Take away the iniquity of your servant, etc. Wash me more, he says, from my injustice, and cleanse me from my sin (Psalm 51). For I believe and confess without any doubt, that when the plans of the persecutors are suppressed and defeated, God the Father, who alone is sufficient to save and protect the world from the evil one, will multiply far and wide the people consecrated by your faith.
[1 Samuel 25:31] -- And when the Lord has done good to my lord, etc. When God the Father has made all your enemies a footstool for your feet, and you have entered the kingdom with your elect forever; I beseech you, establishing me at the right hand of your throne, to deem me worthy to be a participant in the same kingdom.
[1 Samuel 25:32] -- And David said to Abigail: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, etc. The Lord refers the grace to the believing synagogue to the glory of the Father, signifying that we should always bless and praise Him; also rewarding the believing synagogue that prays even for the unbelievers with deserved blessing. Simultaneously showing how pleasing He considers a prayer that is made with a benevolent mind for the adversaries.
[1 Samuel 25:35] -- David then took from her hand everything she had brought him. The Lord accepted the devotion of all believers, which the hand, that is, the work of the Synagogue preaching, had brought to Him on behalf of her children. He kindly advised that after receiving from Him the grace of heavenly peace, they should return to conscience and diligently discern how they should live for themselves.
[1 Samuel 25:36] -- Moreover, Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, there was a feast in his house. After showing the Lord the affection of her devotion, the Synagogue of believers came to see the life and mind of the unbelievers, in case she might be able to call them to faith as well. But when she saw them satiated with the feasts of legal sacrifices, rejoicing that they were a royal race above other nations, and, what is worse, inflated with a mad intoxication against the word of the Gospel, she was silent for a while about the danger of the crime committed, until she herself, more and more confirmed by the light of the Holy Spirit, proceeded more freely to reprove and they, with the glory of Christ shining openly, would recognize the sin they had committed against Him more evidently, and recognizing, would lament, lamenting would cleanse themselves. However, they, recognizing their guilt, chose not to cleanse it with repentance, but to increase it with pride. For even the apostles and all who repented from the snares of the devil are believed to pertain to Abigail, that is, to the person of the Father's exultation, either as companions or as gifts.
[1 Samuel 25:38] -- When ten days had passed, the death of Nabal can be understood as nothing better than the extermination of the most proud kingdom of the Jews, the overthrow of the temple, and the cessation of legal observances. Indeed, after the procession of ten days, it is evident that it pertains to the consummation of the law given in the Decalogue.
[1 Samuel 25:39] -- David therefore sent and spoke to Abigail. The Lord sent preachers, so that, with the Synagogue's perfidious leaders destroyed by the sword of the Romans with their followers, they might invite her, in the remnants that remained, to His spiritual marriage.
[1 Samuel 25:41] -- Rising, she worshipped prostrate on the ground, etc. Rising to the exercise of good work, the synagogue of believers of those times first gives an indication of its belief by worshipping Christ as God; then it promises to wash its earthly works polluted by impurity with the humble service of His servants, first with the wave of baptism, and afterward with the pleasant source of its intercession and exhortation. According to which He Himself, having washed their feet, insinuates: How much more, He says, you ought to wash one another's feet (John XIII).
[1 Samuel 25:42] -- And she rode upon an ass, etc. Following the messengers of the Lord's word, the faithful synagogue, the closer it comes to receiving His gifts, the more surely it recognizes its own foolishness, slowness, and impurity. This can also be rightly understood of each faithful soul which, having mounted an ass, also leads five maidens with her to David; when recognizing her natural sluggishness and dullness, whatever she can do by seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching, she joyfully expends all this in fulfilling the commands of her master. Otherwise, coming to David, Abigail has five maidens as companions; because the synagogue, to be coupled with the mysteries of Christ, brings with her none other than souls imbued with the rites of the law, which is written in five books. If anyone doubts that after the slaughter inflicted upon the Jews by Vespasian and Titus, the Church was gathered from their number, let him read ecclesiastical history, and he will find that after the destruction of Jerusalem was completed, Christians dwelling there, especially of the circumcision, who had fled from the Roman sword the Lord revealing it, immediately returned; and there for more than sixty years until the final destruction, which was done under Hadrian, there were not lacking Jews who served the Lord faithfully in the Church, so that during all that time bishops in Jerusalem were chosen from no other source but circumcision. Therefore, Abigail, holding the type of the faithful synagogue, not only signifies the persons of any one time, but sometimes those who began to believe in the Lord existing in the flesh; sometimes those who, after His ascension, repented at the preaching of the apostles; sometimes those who even from their number could reach the office of preaching; sometimes those who, after the killers, sellers, and dispersers of Christ and the Church, came to faith. Since they all learned to have one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father, rightly they are all signified by the same Abigail, a very prudent and beautiful woman, whose name is transferred to the rejoicing of the Father; truly signifying that one whom, assisting at His right hand in vesture of gold, that is, in works of charity shining in glory, the same Father rejoicing addresses: Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house, because the King has desired your beauty (Psalm XLIV).
[1 Samuel 25:43] -- But David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, etc. Ahinoam means brother's beauty, Jezreel is interpreted as seed of God. Therefore, the Lord chose not only from the synagogue of the Jews those whom He would join to Himself with internal love, but also graciously took from the gentiles a people to be imbued with His sacraments, confirmed by His love. He who is rightly called brother's beauty, insofar as he delights in seeking the glory of his Redeemer, not his own. For He Himself deigned to become our brother, either because of the humanity of His nature similar to ours which He assumed; or because He gave the power to become sons of God to as many as received Him (John 1). Finally, in the Song of Songs, the Lord Himself is called the brother of the Church because of the communion of the same nature, and she is called His sister; whence this: You have wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse, you have wounded my heart (Song 4). And she, desiringly expecting His incarnation in the ancient faithful: Who will give you to me for my brother, sucking the breasts of my mother, that I may find you outside and kiss you (Song 8)? that is, that I may deserve to see and speak to you in the form of a man, whom I have always been accustomed to believe, love, and adore in the invisible nature of deity. He who is most beautifully called brother's beauty from Jezreel, that is, born of the seed of God, namely that seed that went out to sow, who sows (Matthew 13), that is, the word of faith; which, after He Himself entrusted to the Jews, the Lord also took care to evangelize to the foreign gentiles through His apostles; so that, according to the parable of the Gospel, there might be one fold and one shepherd (John 10).
[1 Samuel 25:44] -- But Saul gave Michal his daughter as a wife to David, etc. Phalti means my savior, Lais means lion, or fears for himself, Gallim means those who are transmigrated. The leaders and teachers of the Jews, after they saw that the Gentiles believed in Christ, withdrew the common people subject to the Synagogue from him and taught them to believe rather in the Antichrist, whom they await as their savior at the end, indeed the son of the devil, who was made so that he would fear no one, and roamed around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (I Pet. V); and he is numbered among the unclean spirits, who also formerly transmigrated from the heavens to Tartarus, and daily do not cease to lead their followers from virtues to vices, from bad to worse.