1 Samuel 25:37-38:
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.
And it came to pass about then days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died.
Notes on 1 Samuel 25:37-38:
The context above: Nabal (his name means Fool) was “churlish and evil in his doings” (1 Samuel 25:3) and “a son of Belial” (1 Samuel 25:17, 1 Samuel 25:25).
This is one of many cases where the LORD, not Satan, killed someone.
At first one could almost side with Nabal – it seemed like David wanted to invoice Nabal for unrequested protection services! If the only issue were Nabal balking that an unknown person was running a protection racket, it WOULD have been unreasonable for God to kill him. However, he was a fool, churlish, evil and a son of Belial, and this was the case before David even had any dealings with him. God saw his heart all along.
This passage is NOT a valid pretext to believe that God will kill a beautiful woman’s husband so that you can marry her. That is NOT how God deals with people under the New Covenant!
See also: