Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 25:37

But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became [as] a stone.

37. and his wife, &c.] Better, that his wife told him and his heart died, &c. An outburst of passion on hearing that his will had been thwarted brought on a fit of apoplexy, in which he lingered on insensible for ten days, until

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

He became as a stone – Probably his violent anger at hearing it brought on a fit of apoplexy to which he was disposed by the drunken revel of the night before. After lying senseless for ten days he died.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 37. His heart died within him, and he became as a stone.] He was thunderstruck, and was so terrified at the apprehension of what he had escaped, that the fear overcame his mind, he became insensible to all things around him, probably refused all kinds of nourishment, and died in ten days.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

He was oppressed with grief, and fainted away through the fear and horror of so great a mischief, though it was past. As one who, having in the night galloped over a narrow plank, laid upon a broken bridge, over a deep river, when in the morning he came to review it, was struck dead with. the horror of the danger he was in.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

37, 38. in the morning . . . hiswife had told him these things, that his heart died within himHeprobably fainted from horror at the perilous situation in which hehad unconsciously placed himself; and such a shock had been given himby the fright to his whole system, that he rapidly pined and died.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal,…. When he had slept, and was become sober, and so capable of attending to and understanding what might be related to him:

and his wife had told him these things; recorded in this chapter, before observed:

that his heart died within him, and he became [as] a stone; he swooned away, became as cold as a stone, and remained as senseless, spoke not a word, but lay in a stupor; the Jewish writers generally say this was occasioned by the distress and uneasiness the present his wife carried to David gave him; but it is more likely the sense of the danger that was impressed upon his mind, which he had been exposed to through his carriage to David and his men; who, he feared, notwithstanding all his wife said would return and take vengeance on him.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(37) When the wine was gone out.Simply, when the brutish, selfish reveller had become sober by lapse of time.

His heart died within him.These words are generally understood as signifying that an attack of apoplexy had seized the intemperate man. Commentators are a little divided as to the immediate cause of the stroke. (a) It was brought on by fear, hearing to what a terrible danger he had been, through his reckless, unguarded language and churlish conduct, exposed. In that drunken sleep, out of which he was then scarcely awakened, he and all his family would have perished miserably had it not been for his wifes forethought. In his enfeebled state, feverish and excited still with the strong drink, terror and horror seized him, and the stroke followed. (b) A furious burst of anger at his wifes intelligence swept over him: that she should have humiliated herself before one whom he evidently hated, like David, was to him unbearable; and the wild burst of anger acting on the ruined, drink-shattered frame completed the mischief, and the result was the stroke of apoplexy. The first is, however, the more probable.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

37. His heart died within him Through vexation, as some suppose, that his wife had so far complied with the desires of David; but more likely through excessive terror at learning the danger from which he had so narrowly escaped.

He became as a stone Utterly paralyzed with horror and fear.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

1Sa 25:37. His heart died within him The baseness of Nabal’s own heart made him believe David incapable of forgiving him; and therefore, upon Abigail’s representing the case to him, which, no doubt, she did in lively colours, his terror became irremediable. This extremity of terror we commonly express by the term thunderstruck; which is finely and feelingly described by Ovid. Trist. lib. i, eleg. 3.

So was I stunn’d, as one that’s thunder-struck, Who lives, but lives unconscious of his life.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

1Sa 25:37 But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became [as] a stone.

Ver. 37. When the wine was gone out of Nabal. ] That is, The perturbation of his brain, the alienation of his mind, – when sleep had cooled his head, and restored him to himself.

And his wife had told him these things. ] In a pathetical manner no doubt, as she could well do it. That tongue of hers had oft advised him well and prevailed not. Now it occasioneth his death, whose reformation it could not effect. She meant nothing but his amendment. God meant to make that loving instrument the means of his revenge. Wonderful, saith one, a was the force of this woman’s speech, that as it before allayed David’s rage, so now it pierceth Nabal to the heart. This power was not in her human eloquence, but proceeded from the Spirit of God.

That his heart died within him. ] Through fear, which hath a deadly force upon feeble spirits; for some have died for fear they should die: as a gentleman at the siege of St Paul, in France, fell down stark dead in the breach, without any stroke or touch, save what his heart gave him by a fearful apprehension of danger near at hand. b And at the massacre of Paris, where Peter Ramus was slain in his study, Lambinus, a learned man, but a Papist – through fear of his adversary, Carpenter, a Sorbonnist, who had slain Ramus – was so frightened, that he died shortly after. c

And he became as a stone. ] A sot he had been in his life, and as senseless he lay at his death, though he had the benefit of ten days’ sickness. d Who then would defer to do the great work?

“ Non aliter stupuit quam qui Iovis ignibus ictus

Vivit, at est vitae nescius ipse sum. ”

– Ovid. Trist., lib. i. eleg. iii.

a Dr Willet.

b Dr Hall, of Christ. Moder., lib. i. sect. 14.

c Epit. Hist. Gallic., p. 148.

d Praeclusis sensibus rigebat. – Jun.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)