ABIGAIL. - Name of two women in the Bible.
1. Wife of Nabal, a resident of Maon, who owned vast fields and flocks on Carmel, at the edge of the desert of Paran, or rather (according to the best text of the Septuagint) of Maon (southern Judea).
David, then a wanderer with his 600 men in the desert, sent some armed men to ask the wealthy Nabal for food, as he was celebrating the shearing of the flock. At his insolent refusal, David was about to take vengeance on him, when there appeared before him the "beautiful and prudent" A., preceded by servants bearing conspicuous gifts: 200 loaves of bread, 2 skins of wine, 5 roasted rams, 5 measures of grain, grapes and dried figs. A.'s fine speech (I Sam. 25, 24-31) disarmed David. Indeed, when Nabal died ten days later, he immediately took the widow as his wife (I Sam. 25). A. followed her new husband in his adventurous life at Gath and Ziklag; here she was captured by the Amalekites, then freed by David (ibid. 30, 5, 18). In Hebron she bore David a son named Chileab (II Sam. 3, 3) or Daniel (I Chron. 3, 1).
2. Sister of David and mother of Amasa, leader of the armies of the rebel Absalom. While in I Chron. 2, 13-17 she is called a daughter of Jesse, in II Sam. 17, 25 she appears as a daughter of Nahash. This Nahash is identified by some with Jesse, by others is held to be the name of A.'s mother; but perhaps it is a gloss dependent on v. 27, where a son of Nahash is mentioned.
Angelo Penna