You are strongly recommended to add to your library the excellent revised edition of Harper's Bible Dictionary titled, The Harper Collins Bible Dictionary, Revised Edition, edited by Paul J. Achtemeier, with the Society of Biblical Literature (NY: Harper Collins, 1996). It is currently the best one-volume Bible dictionary in English, and it is available at Border's Books, Christian Science Reading Rooms, http://www.borders.com, or http://www.christianbook.com.

Nabal (Heb., ‘fool’), a Calebite who acquired much wealth from raising sheep and goats in Carmel and who was married to a beautiful woman named Abigail. Shortly after the death of Samuel when David and his men were encamped in the Wilderness of Paran, David sent messengers to Nabal requesting food for his soldiers. Even though David’s men had done no harm to Nabal’s sheepshearers, Nabal (true to the meaning of his name) responded to the request with insults. As David gathered his men to avenge this impropriety, Abigail went out to meet David with provisions and with a plea for mercy. When Abigail reported David’s favorable response to her husband the morning after a drunken feast, Nabal became ill and died ten days later. His death not only prevented David from committing an evil act of revenge but also provided him with Abigail to be his wife and the mother of his son Chileab (1 Sam. 25:1-42; 2 Sam. 3:3).