1 Samuel 25:33

1Sa 25:33 And blessed [be] thy advice, and blessed [be] thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to [shed] blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.

Ver. 33. And blessed be thou.] Whom God hath made instrumental to my great good; and therefore I may not defraud thee of thy due commendation. If Solomon have his thousand, yet the vinedressers, his labourers, may well have two hundred. {Son 8:11} We send thanks to the donor: we also thank and pay the messenger that bringeth a present to us.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Read verse 26.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(33) And blessed be thy advice.—David, with his usual frank generosity, allows he has been in the wrong in giving way to wild, ungovernable passion, and openly confesses that if Abigail had not met him and reasoned with him, he would have carried out his purpose, and stained his fair fame for ever with a terrible crime. His dark purpose was to cut off, root and branch, the whole house of Nabal, amongst others the woman standing before him there. It is noticeable how, in this age of deeper religion and of higher culture, the old superstitious reverence for vows, taken in moments of frenzy or of extreme excitement, had given place to a calmer and more reasonable spirit. Never had a more solemn vow been taken than David’s that morning, when he took a solemn oath that he would murder the whole house of Nabal; and yet, before the sun set he is convinced of the wickedness of his purpose, and sooner than carry it out he deliberately breaks the oath. Some years before, Saul—had he not been forcibly hindered by the people—would, by the murder of his son, the hero-prince Jonathan, have fulfilled the rash oath which he swore at the battle of Michmash (1Sa_14:24; 1Sa_14:45); and Jephthah, the judge of Israel, we know, in the person of his loved daughter, ruthlessly carried out his wild, useless oath (Jdg_11:34; Jdg_11:40).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

33. advice] Better, discretion.

from coming to shed blood] From coming into blood-guiltiness, as in 1Sa_25:26.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And blessed be thy advice,.... Thanks be to God, and to thee for it, being wise, good, and seasonable; or "thy taste" (g), thy good sense, knowledge, as the Targum, discretion, prudence, and understanding:

and blessed be thou which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood; he came out with a full resolution to shed the blood of Nabal, and of all the males in his house, but was stopped by Abigail; who by her arguments so prevailed upon him as to cause him to desist from his design, and thankful he was to God for it; for though he had vowed he would destroy Nabal and his family, yet being a rash sinful vow, he saw it was better to break it than to keep it:

and from avenging myself with mine own hand; which to do would have been sinful, vengeance only belonging to God; and now he leaves it to him, and is very thankful that he was prevented doing it himself.

(g) "sapor tuus", Piscator; "discretio tua", Montanus.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, i.e. the Lord bless and recompense thee for this thy good advice.

From coming to shed blood, which I had sworn to do. Hereby it plainly appears that oaths whereby men bind themselves to any sin are null and void; and as it was a sin to make them, so it is adding sin to sin to perform them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

From coming, &c. - Which I had sworn to do. Hereby it plainly appears, that oaths whereby men bind themselves to any sin, are null and void: and as it was a sin to make them; so it is adding sin to sin to perform them.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Who prevented me. You stopped me, as in, 'You shall not stop [תִכְלָא] your mercy,' [and] 'will not stop [יׅכְלֶה] you.'

And from avenging myself with my own hand. This is connected with [the phrase], 'from coming into bloodshed.' The 'מ' [=from] of [מִבּוֹא] is connected to 'and avenging,' meaning, 'from coming into bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand.'

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.