Avigail
1035 BCE · Biblical · Carmel (in Judah)
Avigail was the wife of Naval, a rich sheep-owner of Maon whose flocks grazed at Carmel in the hills south of Hebron. The book of Samuel calls her intelligent and beautiful, and her husband harsh (1 Samuel 25:2-3). Naval insulted David, then an outlaw whose men had protected his shepherds, and David set out to take revenge. Avigail rode out to meet him with a large gift of food (25:18) and talked him out of shedding blood. David blessed her good sense for holding him back (25:32-33). Naval died about ten days later (25:37-38), and David married her (25:39-42). She went with David into exile among the Philistines at Gath and Ziklag (27:3). She was taken captive when Ziklag was raided, and David rescued her (30:5, 18). She moved with him to Hebron when he became king of Judah (2 Samuel 2:2), and there she bore his second son. Samuel calls the son Kilav (2 Samuel 3:3); Chronicles calls him Daniel (1 Chronicles 3:1). Rabbinic tradition counts Avigail among the seven prophetesses of Israel (Talmud, Megillah 14a; Seder Olam 21).
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Carmel (in Judah)Land of Israel — Judean hills south of Hebron
What they did here
Naval's flocks were sheared at Carmel in Judah, and David's messengers found Avigail there when he proposed marriage (1 Samuel 25:2, 40). This is the southern Carmel near Hebron, not Mount Carmel.
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Avigail’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
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