Now I have heard that you have shearers: your shepherds have now been with us, and we did them no hurt, neither was there anything missing to them, all the while they were in Carmel.
David’s armed followers had been patrolling the wilderness of Paran in Judah where Nabal’s shepherds had been tending his flocks. They had made that area safe from raiding Amalekites, Philistines, and occasional wild animals that might have harassed Nabal’s shepherds. It was only common courtesy that wealthy Nabal would have expressed his appreciation to David by providing some food for David’s men. Sheep-shearing was a happy time for shepherds and usually involved feasting (cf. 2 Samuel 13:23-24). [Note: Baldwin, p. 147. Cf. 1 Samuel 25:8.] We can see in these verses that David, as one committed to the Mosaic Law and as the Lord’s anointed, was a blessing and an indirect source of fertility to his companions.