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 of David. “The prudent woman uses a good argument; for a wise man should pardon a fool” (Seb. Schmidt). She then endeavours to bring David to a friendly state of mind by three arguments, introduced with ועתּה (1Sa 25:26, 1Sa 25:27), before asking for forgiveness (1Sa 25:28). She first of all pointed to the leadings of God, by which David had been kept from committing murder through her coming to meet him. “As ''truly as Jehovah liveth, and by the life of thy soul! yea, the Lord hath kept thee, that thou camest not into blood-guiltiness, and thy hand helped thee''” (i.e., and with thy hand thou didst procure thyself help). אשׁר, introducing her words, as in 1Sa 15:20, lit. “as truly as thou livest, (so true is it) that,” etc. In the second place, she points to the fact that God is the avenger of the wicked, by expressing the wish that all the enemies of David may become fools like Nabal; in connection with which it must be observed, in order to understand her words fully, that, according to the Old Testament representation, folly is a correlate of ungodliness, which inevitably brings down punishment. The predicate to the sentence “and they that seek evil to my lord” must be supplied from the preceding words, viz., “may they become just such fools.”

Verse 27
It is only in the third line that she finally mentions the present, but in such a manner that she does not offer it directly to David, but describes it as a gift for the men in his train. “And now this blessing (בּרכה here and 1Sa 30:26, as in Gen 33:11 : cf. ἡ εὐλογία, 2Co 9:5-6), which thine handmaid hath brought, let it be given to the young men in my lord's train” (lit. “at the feet of:” cf. Exo 11:8; Jdg 4:10, etc.).

Verse 28
The shrewd and pious woman supports her prayer for