Abigail and Abel's Wise Woman

The biblical worldview is both androcentric and patriarchal. Women do not generally hold positions at the top of the political hierarchy, nor, with the exception of such figures as Deborah and Jael, do they generally play military roles. Nonetheless, they can be powerful and decisive figures, manifesting their agency in different ways. In the early days of the monarchy, at the end of the eleventh/early tenth centuries BCE, two such persons are Abigail of Maon (I Samuel 25) and Abel of Beth-maacah’s Wise Woman (II Samuel 20). As Abigail successfully defends and protects the wellbeing of her family and property, so does Abel’s Wise Woman defend and protect the body politic of her people. Yet both also subtly move themselves from their implicit alliance with opponents of David’s claims to obedience, to supporters who distance themselves from those who challenge David’s legitimacy. Both discourage David and his men from exercising indiscriminate violence, and yet offer other ways to achieve the same violent ends of eliminating the challenges to his authority.

In both cases these women use rhetorical suasion, but do so without explicit trickery. Both act to protect and preserve themselves and their household or community.¹ To achieve that end, each is willing to betray loyalty to a rebellious and foolish man: in Abigail’s case, this is her husband Nabal; in the case of Abel, it is the guest Sheba, who declared a revolt against David’s rule and who may be claiming sanctuary from the town of Beth-maacah, or perhaps support as an ally in the revolt of the northern tribes. One plays out on the micro level, the other on the macro; one is personal, the other political. In each case the protagonist chooses sides and declares loyalty to the assailant, while forestalling the catastrophe. In the case of Abigail and pre-monarchic David, it is explicit; with the Wise Woman of Abel, in her interchange with the military general Joab (King David’s representative), this choice is implied, if not actually declared. In each case the woman addresses the aggressor who threatens her and her community, and each makes the violence of forced submission unnecessary, though neither advocates pacific values in and of themselves. We see in these two examples the powerful agency of women within their limited positions as advisors to royalty, reflecting the wisdom tradition — not unlike Jonadab (II Sam. 13:3), Ahithophel (II Sam. 16:20), and Hushai (II Sam. 15:34). Beyond advice, the Wise Woman also exercises political power in the killing of Sheba. In the first case, David is a novice regional chieftain on his way up the ladder to monarchal pretensions; in the latter, David is an aging veteran monarch desperately trying to hold on to royal power and maintain national unity in a series of civil wars. A great many more verses are dedicated to the narrative of Abigail in I Samuel 25 than to the Woman of Abel in II Samuel 20; much more is known about Abigail and her domestic circumstances, both before and during her encounter with David, and finally that she becomes David’s wife. Abigail’s meeting with David is in the private sphere; Abel’s Wise Woman’s meeting with Joab is a public encounter — yet both contribute to the consolidation of David’s rule.

Comparisons

There are seven overlapping matters or parallel kinds of wording that connect these two narratives.

1. Placement in the book, and earlier relevant history. In each case, the chapter comes toward the end of the book: I Samuel 25 out of 31 chapters; II Samuel 20 out of 24 chapters. The earlier narrative is preceded by the somewhat tumultuous events that lead from the time of the judges (Samuel, although a priest and a prophet, is also the final judge in Israel) through the difficult days of Saul’s monarchy. The later narrative closes out the history of David recovering from divine punishment and disastrous civil wars, thereby regaining his empire, now ready to be transferred to his son.

2. Defense from imminent violence. Abigail acts to defend herself and her family from the imminent and indiscriminate violence they face: David and four hundred of his warriors are on the warpath, armed with swords, intent on annihilating Nabal and his possessions for the slight David feels he has suffered (I Sam. 25:21-22). In a similar manner, the Wise Woman of Abel acts to defend herself and her besieged community. In each case a spokesperson represents the whole, and in each case this is not the man who began the revolt but a woman who seeks reconciliation and renewed fealty to David by suggesting a less violent resolution of the tensions. Earlier, the instigator of violence is David, a rebel against the rule of King Saul, furious that he has not only been unpaid for his protection services (vv. 15-16) but also dismissed and denigrated by Nabal as a nobody (vv. 10-11). In the latter situation, Joab threatens violence because Sheba ben Bikhri led a revolt against David and has now sought refuge in Abel Beth-maacah.

3. Verbal links. Nabal dismisses David and his request with the derogatory words, “Who is David, who is the son of Jesse… there are many slaves nowadays who run away from their masters” (I Sam. 25:10). Sheba ben Bikhri proclaims, “We have no portion in David, no share in Jesse’s son” (II Sam. 20:1). Nabal is termed ben-beliya’al (I Sam. 25:17; ish ha-beliya’al, v. 25); Sheba ben Bikhri is described with the same words, ish beliya’al (II Sam. 20:1). The heroines share similar encomia: Abigail is intelligent (ha-isha tovat sekhel, I Sam. 25:3), and the Abel woman is wise (isha hakhama, II Sam. 20:16). Of the other women in David’s life, none is characterized as intelligent or wise: Merab never speaks to David; Michal is cunning in her trickery, but patently unwise in her comments to him in Jerusalem; Bathsheba is politically astute only under the tutelage of Nathan the prophet (I Kgs. 1:11-14), and in fact is rebuked by Solomon for her naivete (I Kgs. 2:22). Both Michal and Bathsheba lose their husbands to David’s imperial designs, yet neither protests, and Bathsheba pointedly says nothing to dissuade David from the greatest mistake of his reign, the murder of the innocent and loyal Uriah — while Abigail succeeds in dissuading David from killing Nabal, who is guilty merely of disloyalty to a self-styled benefactor. When addressing the man in charge of the imminent threat, David and Joab respectively, each woman refers to herself as “your maidservant” (Abigail: amatkha, 25:24 [twice], 28, 31, 41, and shifhatkha in v. 27; the Wise Woman: amatekha, 20:17). Nabal’s heart figuratively dies within him (vayamot libo b’kirbo, I Sam. 25:37), and Sheba’s severed head (rosh Sheva, II Sam. 20:22) is thrown over the wall as Joab sounds the horn and departs, leaving the town intact — verbal links here are references to the physical body.

4. Conceptual links. Each woman makes a specific reference to the deity. Abigail predicts that God will favor David and grant him a long legacy because he is fighting God’s battles (milhamot YHWH, I Sam. 25:28); the Wise Woman accuses Joab of seeking to destroy God’s possession (nahalat YHWH, II Sam. 20:19). As Abigail’s words are described as prophetic, so too are the words of the Wise Woman of Abel.²

5. Self-motivated. In Abigail’s case the text is clear: she acts on her own volition, and “did not tell her husband Nabal” (I Sam. 25:19). With the Wise Woman of Abel the matter is less clear, but without doubt she represents and speaks for the citizenry of Abel, self-describing as “one of those who seek the welfare of the faithful in Israel” (v. 19). Following her negotiation with Joab, she goes to the people of Abel and shares “her wise plan,” and they successfully act on it (II Sam. 20:19, 22). Both with Joab and with her own city, she persuades them to follow her advice.

6. Distancing oneself from the “rebel.” Abigail initially associates herself with Nabal — even as she disparages him, “he is just what his name says: his name means ‘boor’ and he is a boor” (I Sam. 25:25) — in effect saying he may be a boor, but he is still my husband, my problem, my boor. She soon changes tactics and distances herself from him: in the very next verse she tells David, “let your enemies… fare like Nabal.” The Wise Woman of Abel also identifies with the city under attack, but distances herself from Sheba from the very beginning of her dialogue, making no defense of his presence.

7. Negotiations with the leader of the threatening force; mission accomplished. Abigail directly, one-on-one, negotiates and placates David. In similar fashion, the Wise Woman directly, one-on-one, negotiates and placates David’s general, Joab. Both women admirably accomplish their mission; both David and, later, Joab retreat with honor intact, without causing any direct bloodshed.

Contrasts

And yet there are also seven substantial differences.

1. Describing Abigail / Abel’s Wise Woman. Abigail is described as being “intelligent and beautiful” (tovat sekhel vifat toar), with Nabal by contrast characterized as “a hard man and an evildoer” (I Sam. 25:3) — words that address Abigail’s intellect as well as her physical qualities. Abel’s protagonist is characterized only as a Wise Woman (isha hakhama, II Sam. 20:16), someone sagacious, sensible and judicious; no words describe her physical being. Abigail is young enough to bear a child by David; the implication for Abel’s Wise Woman is that she is a woman of mature years.

2. Talk and action. Abigail’s speech, the longest by any woman in the Bible, is filled with praise of David; she flatters him outrageously and is loquacious. By contrast, the Wise Woman’s “language is to the point, assertive and pithy.”³ Abigail takes no active part in the violence to eliminate Nabal, while in Abel the woman instigates violence.

3. A matter of loyalty. Abigail declares her allegiance to David as king-to-be; in Abel, although the townspeople act loyally by killing Sheba ben Bikhri, they are silent about declaring their loyalty to David and his throne.

4. Quid pro quo. Abigail, the wealthy and beautiful soon-to-be widow, hints that she will make herself available as a prize to David, who will marry her without David needing to kill her husband (I Sam. 25:31, 42), as he would later have Uriah killed in order to marry Bathsheba. There is no such future reward for the Woman of Abel, who already possesses high status as one who seeks the welfare of Israel (v. 19) and who saves her city.

5. Taking responsibility. Abigail takes moral responsibility for the insults to David (I Sam. 25:24), whereas the Woman of Abel does not take responsibility for welcoming Sheba to her town.

6. Asserting authority against rebels. There is some real ambiguity as to the political position of the town of Abel: was the Wise Woman protecting innocent lives, or trying to save guilty ones? Perhaps Abel was potentially in the rebel camp of the northern tribes but, faced with being razed and its inhabitants killed, changed allegiances. II Samuel 20:14 says that all the Beerites went inside the city with Sheba (it is likely that “Beerites” should be “Bikhrites”),⁴ which may mean that the community was known to be sympathetic to his cause; II Samuel 20:2 indicates that “all the men of Israel left David and followed Sheba ben Bikhri.” That Joab seems content to leave Abel Beth-maacah after Sheba’s death, and that the citizens of Abel were openly complicit in his death, suggests that Abel was not a hotbed of rebellion. As in the case of David and Nabal, Joab, representing David, “must refrain from blotting his record with unnecessary bloodshed… he must keep his personal fingerprints off the violent deaths of his personal enemies.”⁵

7. Following the immediate encounter. Following her encounter with David, Abigail returns home, where Nabal is feasting, “in a merry mood and very drunk, so she did not tell him anything at all until daybreak” (I Sam. 25:36). What she tells him has an adverse physical effect on him; less than two weeks later he dies, and David, learning of it, proposes marriage to Abigail and sends messengers for her. She joins David and later bears him a son, Chileab (II Sam. 3:3; also named Daniel, I Chron. 3:1). By contrast, once Sheba’s head is thrown over the wall, Joab and his men depart, and there is no further mention of Abel’s Wise Woman.

Opposing Indiscriminate Violence with Wise Advice, Yet Not Pacifists

L. Juliana M. Claassens specifically addresses “Abigail’s use of the spoken word” in I Samuel 25, though her description also applies to the Wise Woman of Abel. Their words add “an important perspective to the nature and significance of female resistance in the [Hebrew Bible]. Far from being a victim who is helpless to change her own situation as well as the situation of others around her, Abigail’s words… are life-giving in nature. She emerges as the quintessential embodiment of Wisdom, a prime example of what it means to do justice, to show kindness — in the process serving like Woman Wisdom as counselor to kings” in Proverbs.⁶ There, in chapter 8, Wisdom self-describes: “I, Wisdom, live with prudence… Mine are counsel and resourcefulness… courage is mine” (Prov. 8:12, 14); Wisdom also says, “I hate… duplicity in speech” (v. 13).

Yet Claassens’s understanding of the ethics of wisdom should be adjusted in light of Michael V. Fox’s analysis in Proverbs 10-31, which helps identify the uniqueness of Abigail’s and the Woman of Abel’s form of wisdom. Fox notes that “outside Proverbs, wisdom is not inherently ethical power,” as we see in Ahithophel and Jonadab, but merely “a practical, prudential faculty… the knowledge and skills that enable a [person]… to succeed and thrive.” However, in the Book of Proverbs, especially chapters 1-9, success has no value as wisdom unless it advances “worthy goals”⁷ including honesty, justice, self-restraint, and a moral and aesthetic balance between deeds and consequences in this world, based on fear of God. The method to achieve these goals is intellectual, but presupposes a wise moral character willing to accept rebuke and correction (Prov. 9:8). A wise person “knows how to adapt [one’s]… words to the needs of circumstances… [and] how to calm angry spirits (12:18; 29:8)… and also how to heal and cheer somber souls (12:18b). The wisdom of speech includes the good sense to be silent, as circumstances demand. The wise [person]… is restrained and reserved in speech (10:19; 12:23a; 17:27, 28b), even in the face of insult and offense (11:12b).”⁸

Here these two women in David’s story give wise, prudential and ethical advice, in persuasive ways, in order to help David build his house and maintain his kingdom, just as Proverbs teaches that wisdom supports the reign of kings (Prov. 8:12, 14-15). They warn David and Joab against temptations that can undermine their interests (Prov. 1:10; 2:12). In discouraging David from taking vengeance and retribution himself on a malefactor, Abigail represents the wisdom saying that teaches: “Do not say, ‘I will repay evil with harm’; wait for YHWH and He will give you victory” (Prov. 20:22).⁹

In both examples — that of Abigail of Maon and that of the Wise Woman of Abel — these women oppose indiscriminate violence, yet they are not pacifists. As Claassens observes, “even though Abigail is held up as a model of nonviolent resistance, elements in her speech in some sense undermine this portrayal. Her words in verse 29, in which she expresses the wish that David’s enemies will be like a pebble in a slingshot… offer some disconcerting associations with violence.”¹⁰ In Abel, as a response to the Woman’s “clever plan… they cut off the head of Sheba ben Bikhri and threw it down to Joab.”

Conclusion

The narratives concerning Abigail of Maon and the Wise Woman of Abel come relatively early and then fairly late in the turbulent career of biblical David. The two women appear to be quite different — one relatively young, the other seemingly of mature years commanding respect in her own personhood — yet there are compelling connections between them. Both, when confronted with a crisis, leap into action; both see a problem and, realizing they are in a position to change what appears to be a forthcoming disaster, come forward and assume responsibility, confronting the aggressor and his forces before he or they can wreak irreparable harm. These women take charge: through their presence and their wise suasion they impose their will upon others, but in the name of a moral and wisdom stance that opposes indiscriminate violence as counterproductive, damaging to reputation, and opposed to God’s plan and values. Abigail of Maon acts with due haste, leaving her home to confront the danger posed by a furious David, and courageously and successfully defends her family and property. Abel’s Wise Woman also acts with alacrity, literally standing her ground and confronting Joab and his forces, intent on laying siege to her community, and thereby protects and defends her people. These women, each in her own way, use rhetorical suasion successfully to achieve their goals, without resorting to explicit trickery. Not only do they preserve and protect their own, but they allow David to maintain his reputation by avoiding extended violence and needless bloodshed.