In this chapter we see not only the folly of Nabal but also the wisdom of Abigail, Nabal's wife, in appeasing David (vv. 14-20, 23-25). She "hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread and two skins of wine and five sheep ready dressed and five measures of parched grain and one hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and she put them on her donkeys" (v. 18). When she saw David, she fell at his feet and said, "Upon me alone, my lord, be this iniquity; and let your maidservant speak in your hearing, and hear the words of your maidservant. May my lord not take this worthless man Nabal to heart" (vv. 24-25a). Abigail went on to ask David to please forgive the transgression, and then she concluded, saying, "When Jehovah has done to my lord according to all the good He has spoken concerning you and has appointed you ruler over Israel, this will not be a qualm of conscience to you or a stumbling block in heart to my lord, that you shed blood without cause or that my lord has avenged himself. And when Jehovah has dealt well with my lord, may you remember your maidservant" (vv. 30-31).
David responded to Abigail's appeal by blessing Jehovah, who sent her to meet him, and also by blessing her, who kept him from entering into bloodshed and from avenging himself by his own hand. David then took from her hand what she had brought and said to her, "Go up in peace to your house. See, I have listened to your voice and have accepted your person" (v. 35). Here we see that David's anger was appeased by Abigail's wisdom.
When Abigail told Nabal all these things, "his heart died within him, and he became like a stone. And about ten days later Jehovah struck Nabal, and he died" (vv. 36-38).
This chapter concludes with a word regarding David's marriage to Abigail (vv. 39-44). Her beauty and wisdom caught David, and after Nabal's death he took her as his wife. Here we see the weak point in David's life. He was quite prevailing and overcoming in nearly everything, but he was weak in the matter of sex. David overcame the lion and the bear, but he did not overcome his sexual lust. Eventually, David's weakness and indulgence contaminated the kingship of God's holiness. The root of his later failure in murdering Uriah and taking Bath-sheba was manifested here.