Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: therefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.
The best explanation of what happened here is perhaps that of Smith who wrote, "A stroke of paralysis is the natural explanation of this."[15]  When Abigail informed Nabal of what she had done, it is easy to suppose that he flew into a violent rage and that the initial stroke of paralysis put him into a coma for ten days, at the expiration of which the final stroke ended his life.