1 Samuel 1:4

1:4 Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he used to give meat portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters.

1 Samuel 1:6

1:6 Her rival wife used to upset her and make her worry, ¹  for the Lord had not enabled her to have children.

1 Samuel 25:14

25:14 But one of the servants told Nabal’s wife Abigail, “David sent messengers from the desert to greet ²  our lord, but he screamed at them.

1 Samuel 25:37

25:37 In the morning, when Nabal was sober, ³  his wife told him about these matters. He had a stroke and was paralyzed. ⁴ 

1 Samuel 25:40

25:40 So the servants of David went to Abigail at Carmel and said to her, “David has sent us to you to bring you back to be his wife.”

1 Samuel 25:42

25:42 Then Abigail quickly went and mounted her donkey, with five of her female servants accompanying her. ⁵  She followed David’s messengers and became his wife.

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¹ tn Heb “and her rival wife grieved her, even [with] grief so as to worry her.”

² tn Heb “bless.”

³ tn Heb “when the wine had gone out from Nabal.”

⁴ tn Heb “and his heart died within him and he became a stone.” Cf. TEV, NLT “stroke”; CEV “heart attack.” For an alternative interpretation than that presented above, see Marjorie O’Rourke Boyle, “The Law of the Heart: The Death of a Fool (1 Samuel 25),” JBL 120 (2001): 401-27, who argues that a medical diagnosis is not necessary here. Instead, the passage makes a connection between the heart and the law; Nabal dies for his lawlessness.

⁵ tn Heb “going at her feet.”