His residence was on the southern Carmel, in the pasture lands of Maon. His wealth, as might be
expected from his abode, consisted chiefly of sheep and goats. It was the custom of the shepherds
to drive them into the wild downs on the slopes of Carmel; and it was whilst they were on one of
these pastoral excursions that they met a band of outlaws, who showed them unexpected kindness,
protecting them by day and night, and never themselves committing any depredations. (1 Samuel
25:7,15,18) Once a year there was a grand banquet on Carmel, “like the feast of a king.” ch. ( 1
Samuel 25:2,4; 36) It was on one of these occasions that ten youths from the chief of the freebooters
approached Nabal, enumerated the services of their master, and ended by claiming, with a mixture
of courtesy and defiance characteristic of the East, “whatsoever cometh into thy hand for thy servants
and for thy son David.” The great sheepmaster peremptorily refused. The moment that the messengers
were gone, the shepherds that stood by perceived the danger that their master and themselves would
incur. To Nabal himself they durst not speak. ch. (1 Samuel 25:17) To his wife, as to the good angel
of the household, one of the shepherds told the state of affairs. She, with the offerings usual on
such occasions, with her attendants running before her, rode down the hill toward David’s
encampment. David had already made the fatal vow of extermination. ch. (1 Samuel 26:22) At this
moment, as it would seem, Abigail appeared, threw herself on her face before him, and poured
forth her petition in language which in both form and expression almost assumes the tone of poetry.
She returned with the news of David’s recantation of his vow. Nabal was then at the height of his
orgies and his wife dared not communicate to him either his danger or his escape. ch. (1 Samuel
28:36) At break of day she told him both. The stupid reveller was suddenly roused to a sense of
that which impended over him. “His heart died within him, and he be came as a stone.” It was as
if a stroke of apoplexy or paralysis had fallen upon him. Ten days he lingered “and the Lord smote
Nabal, and he died.” ch. (1 Samuel 25:37,38)
Naboth
(fruits), the victim of Ahab and Jezebel, was the owner of a small vineyard at Jezreel, close to
the royal palace of Shab. (1 Kings 21:1,2) (B.C. 897.) It thus became an object of desire to the king,
who offered an equivalent in money or another vineyard. In exchange for this Naboth, in the
independent spirit of a Jewish landholder, refused: “The Lord forbid it me that I should give the
inheritance of my father unto thee.” Ahab was cowed by this reply; but the proud spirit of Jezebel
was aroused. She took the matter into her own hands. A fast was proclaimed, as on the announcement
of some impending calamity. Naboth was “set on high” in the public place of Samaria; two men
of worthless character accused him of having “cursed God and the king.” He and his children, ( 2
Kings 9:26) were dragged out of the city and despatched; the same night. The place of execution
there was by the large tank or reservoir which still remains an the slope of the hill of Samaria,
immediately outside the walls. The usual punishment for blasphemy was enforced: Naboth and his
sons were stoned; and the blood from their wounds ran down into the waters of the tank below. For
the signal retribution taken on this judicial murder—a remarkable proof of the high regard paid in
the old dispensation to the claims of justice and independence—see Ahab; Jehu; Jezebel.
Nabuchodonosor
[Nebuchadnezzar, Or Nebuchadrezzar]
Nachons
(prepared) threshing floor, the place at which the ark had arrived in its progress from
Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem, when Uzzah lost his life in his too-hasty zeal for its safety. (2 Samuel
6:6) (B.C. 1042.)
frankie
(Frankie)
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