1 Samuel 25:22

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
May God punish me and do so severely if I let any of his males survive until morning.”

Hebrew Names Version
God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave of all that belongs to him by the morning light so much as one man-child.

King James Version
So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.

Lexham English Bible
May God severely punish the enemies of David and again do thus if I leave behind anything that is his until the morning, not even one male!"

English Standard Version
God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him."

New Century Version
May God punish my enemies even more. I will not leave one of Nabal's men alive until morning."

New English Translation
God will severely punish David, if I leave alive until morning even one male from all those who belong to him!"

Amplified Bible
"May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if by morning I leave [alive] even one male of any who belong to him."

New American Standard Bible
"May God do so to the enemies of David, and more so, if by morning I leave alive as much as one male of any who belong to him."

Geneva Bible (1587)
So and more also doe God vnto the enemies of Dauid: for surely I will not leaue of all that he hath, by the dawning of the day, any that pisseth against the wall.

Legacy Standard Bible
May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if by morning I leave as much as one male of any who belong to him."

Contemporary English Version
I swear that by morning, there won't be a man or boy left from his family or his servants' families. I pray that God will punish me if I don't do it!"

Complete Jewish Bible
Then he swore, "May God do the same and more to David's enemies if I leave alive even one male of everything he owns."

Darby Translation
So and more also do God to the enemies of David, if I leave of all that is his by the morning light any male.

Easy-to-Read Version
I swear, I won't let even one man in Nabal's family live until tomorrow morning."

George Lamsa Translation
The LORD do so and more also to his servant David, if I leave of all that belongs to him by morning any mature male.

Good News Translation
May God strike me dead if I don't kill every last one of those men before morning!"

Literal Translation
So may God do to the enemies of David, and may He do more so, if I leave any of all that is to him to the light of the morning, of one who urinates against a wall.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
God do this and yet more vnto the enemies of Dauid, yf vntyll tomorow in the mornynge I leaue this man (of all that he hath) so moch as one that maketh water agaynst ye wall.

American Standard Version
God do so unto the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light so much as one man-child.

Bible in Basic English
May God's punishment be on David, if when morning comes there is so much as one male of his people still living.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
So and more also do God vnto the enemies of Dauid, if I leaue of all that pertayne to him by the dawnyng of the day, any that pysseth against the wall.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
God do so unto the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light so much as one male.'--

King James Version (1611)
So and more also doe God vnto the enemies of Dauid, if I leaue of all that pertaine to him by the morning light, any that pisseth against the wall.)

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
So God do to David and more also, if I leave one male of all that belong to Nabal until the morning.

English Revised Version
God do so unto the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light so much as one man child.

Berean Standard Bible
May God punish David, and ever so severely, if I let one of his men survive until morning."

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
The Lord do these thingis, and adde these thingis to the enemyes of Dauid, if Y schal leeue of alle thingis that perteynen to him til the morewe a pisser to the wal.

Young's Literal Translation
thus doth God do to the enemies of David, and thus He doth add, if I leave of all that he hath till the light of the morning -- of those sitting on the wall.'

Update Bible Version
God do so to David, and more also, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light so much as one urinating against a wall.

Webster's Bible Translation
So and more also do God to the enemies of David, if I leave of all that [pertain] to him by the morning light any male person.)

World English Bible
God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave of all that belongs to him by the morning light so much as one man-child.

New King James Version
May God do so, and more also, to the enemies of David, if I leave one male of all who belong to him by morning light."

New Living Translation
May God strike me and kill me if even one man of his household is still alive tomorrow morning!"

New Life Bible
May God do the same to David and more, if I leave until morning as much as one male alive of all who belong to him."

New Revised Standard
God do so to David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him."

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
So may God do to David and so may he add, if I leave remaining, of all that he hath, until the morning, - so much as a little boy.

Douay-Rheims Bible
May God do so and so, and add more to the foes of David, if I leave of all that belong to him till the morning, any that pisseth against the wall.

Revised Standard Version
God do so to David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him."

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if by morning I leave as much as one male of any who belong to him."

Contextual Overview

¹⁸Abigail flew into action. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep dressed out and ready for cooking, a bushel of roasted grain, a hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes, and she had it all loaded on some donkeys. Then she said to her young servants, "Go ahead and pave the way for me. I'm right behind you." But she said nothing to her husband Nabal. ²⁰As she was riding her donkey, descending into a ravine, David and his men were descending from the other end, so they met there on the road. David had just said, "That sure was a waste, guarding everything this man had out in the wild so that nothing he had was lost—and now he rewards me with insults. A real slap in the face! May God do his worst to me if Nabal and every cur in his misbegotten brood aren't dead meat by morning!" ²³As soon as Abigail saw David, she got off her donkey and fell on her knees at his feet, her face to the ground in homage, saying, "My master, let me take the blame! Let me speak to you. Listen to what I have to say. Don't dwell on what that brute Nabal did. He acts out the meaning of his name: Nabal, Fool. Foolishness oozes from him. "I wasn't there when the young men my master sent arrived. I didn't see them. And now, my master, as God lives and as you live, God has kept you from this avenging murder—and may your enemies, all who seek my master's harm, end up like Nabal! Now take this gift that I, your servant girl, have brought to my master, and give it to the young men who follow in the steps of my master. "Forgive my presumption! But God is at work in my master, developing a rule solid and dependable. My master fights God 's battles! As long as you live no evil will stick to you. If anyone stands in your way, if anyone tries to get you out of the way, Know this: Your God-honored life is tightly bound in the bundle of God-protected life; But the lives of your enemies will be hurled aside as a stone is thrown from a sling. "When God completes all the goodness he has promised my master and sets you up as prince over Israel, my master will not have this dead weight in his heart, the guilt of an avenging murder. And when God has worked things for good for my master, remember me." And David said, "Blessed be God , the God of Israel. He sent you to meet me! And blessed be your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and taking charge of looking out for me. A close call! As God lives, the God of Israel who kept me from hurting you, if you had not come as quickly as you did, stopping me in my tracks, by morning there would have been nothing left of Nabal but dead meat." Then David accepted the gift she brought him and said, "Return home in peace. I've heard what you've said and I'll do what you've asked." When Abigail got home she found Nabal presiding over a huge banquet. He was in high spirits—and very, very drunk. So she didn't tell him anything of what she'd done until morning. But in the morning, after Nabal had sobered up, she told him the whole story. Right then and there he had a heart attack and fell into a coma. About ten days later God finished him off and he died. When David heard that Nabal was dead he said, "Blessed be God who has stood up for me against Nabal's insults, kept me from an evil act, and let Nabal's evil boomerang back on him." Then David sent for Abigail to tell her that he wanted her for his wife. David's servants went to Abigail at Carmel with the message, "David sent us to bring you to marry him." She got up, and then bowed down, face to the ground, saying, "I'm your servant, ready to do anything you want. I'll even wash the feet of my master's servants!" Abigail didn't linger. She got on her donkey and, with her five maids in attendance, went with the messengers to David and became his wife. David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel. Both women were his wives. Saul had married off David's wife Michal to Palti (Paltiel) son of Laish, who was from Gallim. ²⁶To Fight God's Battles Samuel died. The whole country came to his funeral. Everyone grieved over his death, and he was buried in his hometown of Ramah. Meanwhile, David moved again, this time to the wilderness of Maon. There was a certain man in Maon who carried on his business in the region of Carmel. He was very prosperous—three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and it was sheep-shearing time in Carmel. The man's name was Nabal (Fool), a Calebite, and his wife's name was Abigail. The woman was intelligent and good-looking, the man brutish and mean. David, out in the backcountry, heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep and sent ten of his young men off with these instructions: "Go to Carmel and approach Nabal. Greet him in my name, ‘Peace! Life and peace to you. Peace to your household, peace to everyone here! I heard that it's sheep-shearing time. Here's the point: When your shepherds were camped near us we didn't take advantage of them. They didn't lose a thing all the time they were with us in Carmel. Ask your young men—they'll tell you. What I'm asking is that you be generous with my men—share the feast! Give whatever your heart tells you to your servants and to me, David your son.'" David's young men went and delivered his message word for word to Nabal. Nabal tore into them, "Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? The country is full of runaway servants these days. Do you think I'm going to take good bread and wine and meat freshly butchered for my sheepshearers and give it to men I've never laid eyes on? Who knows where they've come from?" David's men got out of there and went back and told David what he had said. David said, "Strap on your swords!" They all strapped on their swords, David and his men, and set out, four hundred of them. Two hundred stayed behind to guard the camp. Meanwhile, one of the young shepherds told Abigail, Nabal's wife, what had happened: "David sent messengers from the backcountry to salute our master, but he tore into them with insults. Yet these men treated us very well. They took nothing from us and didn't take advantage of us all the time we were in the fields. They formed a wall around us, protecting us day and night all the time we were out tending the sheep. Do something quickly because big trouble is ahead for our master and all of us. Nobody can talk to him. He's impossible—a real brute!" Abigail flew into action. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep dressed out and ready for cooking, a bushel of roasted grain, a hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes, and she had it all loaded on some donkeys. Then she said to her young servants, "Go ahead and pave the way for me. I'm right behind you." But she said nothing to her husband Nabal. As she was riding her donkey, descending into a ravine, David and his men were descending from the other end, so they met there on the road. David had just said, "That sure was a waste, guarding everything this man had out in the wild so that nothing he had was lost—and now he rewards me with insults. A real slap in the face! May God do his worst to me if Nabal and every cur in his misbegotten brood aren't dead meat by morning!" As soon as Abigail saw David, she got off her donkey and fell on her knees at his feet, her face to the ground in homage, saying, "My master, let me take the blame! Let me speak to you. Listen to what I have to say. Don't dwell on what that brute Nabal did. He acts out the meaning of his name: Nabal, Fool. Foolishness oozes from him. "I wasn't there when the young men my master sent arrived. I didn't see them. And now, my master, as God lives and as you live, God has kept you from this avenging murder—and may your enemies, all who seek my master's harm, end up like Nabal! Now take this gift that I, your servant girl, have brought to my master, and give it to the young men who follow in the steps of my master. "Forgive my presumption! But God is at work in my master, developing a rule solid and dependable. My master fights God 's battles! As long as you live no evil will stick to you. If anyone stands in your way, if anyone tries to get you out of the way, Know this: Your God-honored life is tightly bound in the bundle of God-protected life; But the lives of your enemies will be hurled aside as a stone is thrown from a sling. "When God completes all the goodness he has promised my master and sets you up as prince over Israel, my master will not have this dead weight in his heart, the guilt of an avenging murder. And when God has worked things for good for my master, remember me." And David said, "Blessed be God , the God of Israel. He sent you to meet me! And blessed be your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and taking charge of looking out for me. A close call! As God lives, the God of Israel who kept me from hurting you, if you had not come as quickly as you did, stopping me in my tracks, by morning there would have been nothing left of Nabal but dead meat." Then David accepted the gift she brought him and said, "Return home in peace. I've heard what you've said and I'll do what you've asked." When Abigail got home she found Nabal presiding over a huge banquet. He was in high spirits—and very, very drunk. So she didn't tell him anything of what she'd done until morning. But in the morning, after Nabal had sobered up, she told him the whole story. Right then and there he had a heart attack and fell into a coma. About ten days later God finished him off and he died. When David heard that Nabal was dead he said, "Blessed be God who has stood up for me against Nabal's insults, kept me from an evil act, and let Nabal's evil boomerang back on him." Then David sent for Abigail to tell her that he wanted her for his wife. David's servants went to Abigail at Carmel with the message, "David sent us to bring you to marry him." She got up, and then bowed down, face to the ground, saying, "I'm your servant, ready to do anything you want. I'll even wash the feet of my master's servants!" Abigail didn't linger. She got on her donkey and, with her five maids in attendance, went with the messengers to David and became his wife. David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel. Both women were his wives. Saul had married off David's wife Michal to Palti (Paltiel) son of Laish, who was from Gallim. ²⁷To Fight God's Battles Samuel died. The whole country came to his funeral. Everyone grieved over his death, and he was buried in his hometown of Ramah. Meanwhile, David moved again, this time to the wilderness of Maon. There was a certain man in Maon who carried on his business in the region of Carmel. He was very prosperous—three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and it was sheep-shearing time in Carmel. The man's name was Nabal (Fool), a Calebite, and his wife's name was Abigail. The woman was intelligent and good-looking, the man brutish and mean. David, out in the backcountry, heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep and sent ten of his young men off with these instructions: "Go to Carmel and approach Nabal. Greet him in my name, ‘Peace! Life and peace to you. Peace to your household, peace to everyone here! I heard that it's sheep-shearing time. Here's the point: When your shepherds were camped near us we didn't take advantage of them. They didn't lose a thing all the time they were with us in Carmel. Ask your young men—they'll tell you. What I'm asking is that you be generous with my men—share the feast! Give whatever your heart tells you to your servants and to me, David your son.'" David's young men went and delivered his message word for word to Nabal. Nabal tore into them, "Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? The country is full of runaway servants these days. Do you think I'm going to take good bread and wine and meat freshly butchered for my sheepshearers and give it to men I've never laid eyes on? Who knows where they've come from?" David's men got out of there and went back and told David what he had said. David said, "Strap on your swords!" They all strapped on their swords, David and his men, and set out, four hundred of them. Two hundred stayed behind to guard the camp. Meanwhile, one of the young shepherds told Abigail, Nabal's wife, what had happened: "David sent messengers from the backcountry to salute our master, but he tore into them with insults. Yet these men treated us very well. They took nothing from us and didn't take advantage of us all the time we were in the fields. They formed a wall around us, protecting us day and night all the time we were out tending the sheep. Do something quickly because big trouble is ahead for our master and all of us. Nobody can talk to him. He's impossible—a real brute!" Abigail flew into action. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep dressed out and ready for cooking, a bushel of roasted grain, a hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes, and she had it all loaded on some donkeys. Then she said to her young servants, "Go ahead and pave the way for me. I'm right behind you." But she said nothing to her husband Nabal. As she was riding her donkey, descending into a ravine, David and his men were descending from the other end, so they met there on the road. David had just said, "That sure was a waste, guarding everything this man had out in the wild so that nothing he had was lost—and now he rewards me with insults. A real slap in the face! May God do his worst to me if Nabal and every cur in his misbegotten brood aren't dead meat by morning!" As soon as Abigail saw David, she got off her donkey and fell on her knees at his feet, her face to the ground in homage, saying, "My master, let me take the blame! Let me speak to you. Listen to what I have to say. Don't dwell on what that brute Nabal did. He acts out the meaning of his name: Nabal, Fool. Foolishness oozes from him. "I wasn't there when the young men my master sent arrived. I didn't see them. And now, my master, as God lives and as you live, God has kept you from this avenging murder—and may your enemies, all who seek my master's harm, end up like Nabal! Now take this gift that I, your servant girl, have brought to my master, and give it to the young men who follow in the steps of my master. ²⁸"Forgive my presumption! But God is at work in my master, developing a rule solid and dependable. My master fights God 's battles! As long as you live no evil will stick to you. If anyone stands in your way, if anyone tries to get you out of the way, Know this: Your God-honored life is tightly bound in the bundle of God-protected life; But the lives of your enemies will be hurled aside as a stone is thrown from a sling. ³⁰"When God completes all the goodness he has promised my master and sets you up as prince over Israel, my master will not have this dead weight in his heart, the guilt of an avenging murder. And when God has worked things for good for my master, remember me."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

So and more: Nothing can justify this conduct of David, which was rash, unjust, and cruel in the extreme. David himself condemns it, and thanks God for being prevented from executing this evil - 1 Samuel 25:32-34. 1 Samuel 3:17, 1 Samuel 14:44, 1 Samuel 20:13, 1 Samuel 20:16, Ruth 1:17

if I leave: 1 Samuel 25:34

any that pisseth: etc. This seems to have been a proverbial expression among the Israelites; and may with the utmost propriety be read "any male." 1 Kings 14:10, 1 Kings 16:11, 1 Kings 21:21, 2 Kings 9:8

Reciprocal: Leviticus 5:4 - to do evil 1 Samuel 25:37 - had told him 2 Samuel 3:9 - So do God 2 Samuel 12:5 - David's 2 Kings 6:31 - God do so Proverbs 15:1 - grievous Ecclesiastes 7:9 - hasty Matthew 14:9 - the oath's 1 Corinthians 13:4 - vaunteth not itself

Cross-References

1 Samuel 10:22
Samuel went back to God : "Is he anywhere around?" God said, "Yes, he's right over there—hidden in that pile of baggage."

1 Samuel 28:6
Saul prayed to God , but God didn't answer—neither by dream nor by sign nor by prophet.

1 Samuel 30:8
Then David prayed to God , "Shall I go after these raiders? Can I catch them?" The answer came, "Go after them! Yes, you'll catch them! Yes, you'll make the rescue!"

Ezekiel 36:37
"‘Message of God , the Master: Yet again I'm going to do what Israel asks. I'll increase their population as with a flock of sheep. Like the milling flocks of sheep brought for sacrifices in Jerusalem during the appointed feasts, the ruined cities will be filled with flocks of people. And they'll realize that I am God .'"

Gill's Notes on the Bible

So and more also do God unto the enemies of David,.... Give them as much health and prosperity, as much wealth and riches, as Nabal has, and much more:

if I leave of all that [pertain] to him, by the morning light, any that pisseth against the wall; which is generally understood of a dog, that he, would not leave him so much as a dog: but it is better, with Ben Gersom, to interpret it of the males in his house, himself, his sons, and servants; and so the Targum paraphrases it of reasonable creatures, of such

"that know knowledge,''

or are knowing and understanding creatures; it seems to have been towards the evening; of the day when David was marching towards Nabal's house, designing to fall upon him and his, amidst their jollity that night, and cut them all off before morning. This must be imputed to the sudden and violent passion David was thrown into when off his guard, through the necessity he was in, the disappointment he met with, and the opprobrious language he was treated with; but in this his conduct was not as it used to be, and as it was towards Saul his enemy. Nor is his rage and passion to be vindicated, or the rash vow he made to destroy Nabal and his family; his crime, though great, yet not to be published with death; his ingratitude and insolence deserved resentment, but were not capital crimes worthy of death, and especially of the destruction of his whole family; the Jews indeed make him to be guilty of treason, in that he knew that David was anointed king, and yet both abused him, and disobeyed his commands, and therefore being guilty of overt acts of treason, he and his were deserving of death; but David was not yet king.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The concluding phrase denotes the utter destruction of a family, and is rightly explained to mean “every male,” perhaps with the idea, “down to the very meanest member of the household.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Samuel 25:22. So and more also do God — Nothing can justify this part of David's conduct. Whatever his provocation might have been, he had suffered, properly speaking, no wrongs; and his resolution to cut off a whole innocent family, because Nabal had acted ungenerously towards him, was abominable and cruel, not to say diabolic. He who attempts to vindicate this conduct of David is, at least constructively, a foe to God and truth. David himself condemns this most rash and unwarrantable conduct, and thanks God for having prevented him from doing this evil, 1 Samuel 25:32, c.

Any that pisseth against the wall. — This expression certainly means either men or dogs, and should be thus translated, if I leave-any male and this will answer both to men and dogs, and the offensive mode of expression be avoided. I will not enter farther into the subject: Bochart and Calmet have done enough, and more than enough; and in the plainest language too.