What Does 1 Samuel 25:36 Mean?
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 good within him, for he was very drunken. So she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
The Hebrew word translated “feast” means a drinking-feast, joining the kinglike banquet and Nabal’s drunkenness into one event.
THE MEANING
A house can look lavish and royal while its host is too intoxicated to receive what matters. Abigail holds her words until morning light; her silence is a pause in the message, not its absence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that restraint means evasion: Abigail keeps the message for a moment when it can be heard.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁתֶּה
mishteh
GROWS FROM
שתה
to drink
The word translated “feast” grows from the verb “to drink” and can mean a drinking-feast. The next clause says Nabal is drunk exceedingly, making the drink at the heart of the feast visible in a way English separates.
ALSO GROWS
shatah: to drink
שָׁתָה
The verb beneath “feast” shows what kind of gathering this is.
shtiyah: drinking; a drink
שְׁתִיָּה
This noun keeps the root’s action of drinking present in the feast word.
שִׁכֹּר
shikkor
GROWS FROM
שכר
to become drunk; to intoxicate
“drunken” in this verse is shikkor. The same root names the intoxicated state, strong drink, and the act of making someone drunk. Nabal’s “merry” heart is immediately placed beside that state: his pleasure is not separate from his impairment.
ALSO GROWS
shekar: strong drink
שֵׁכָר
It names the drink associated with the state described in the verse.
hishkir: to make drunk; to intoxicate
הִשְׁכִּיר
This form shows the root can describe not only being drunk but the act that brings intoxication about.
נָבָל
Nabal
GROWS FROM
נבל
to be foolish or senseless; to wither or fade
Earlier in this chapter Abigail pairs Nabal’s name with folly (1 Samuel 25:25). The same root also describes withering, sharpening the contrast between the feast’s royal appearance and its host’s impaired judgment.
ALSO GROWS
nevalah: folly; disgraceful conduct
נְבָלָה
Abigail uses this word when she says folly is with Nabal.
navel: to wither; to fade
נָבֵל
This branch of the root adds the image of something losing its strength or fullness.
THE PATTERN
Intoxication can turn outward festivity into impaired judgment and an inability to receive or weigh what is said.
Wine is a mocker, strong drink is roaring, and whoever reels in it is not wise.Lest they drink and forget the statute, and twist the judgment of all who are bowed.And do not become drunk with wine, in which is excess, but be filled with the breath.THE THREAD
It is not for kings, Lemuel; it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink.The same Hebrew root שכר describes Nabal as drunk here and names “strong drink” in Proverbs. Nabal’s house holds a feast “like the feast of a king,” so the shared root makes the royal appearance part of the scene’s irony.
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