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נָבָל (Nabal): The Fool Who Says There Is No God · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to another session of reformed thinking.
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Usually when you look up a word in an English Dictionary, you
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know you expect it to stay in a fairly predictable lane.
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Right, it stays in its own neat category.
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Yeah, like you look up the word chair and you get variations on
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furniture design for sitting. You look up run and you get
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variations on moving your legs quickly.
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Our modern language is just it's very categorized and highly
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compartmentalized. Very much so.
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But when you step into the world of biblical Hebrew, well, those
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rigid boundaries just completely vanish.
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So today our mission for this deep dive is to unpack a single
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ancient Hebrew root word, NBL. Pronounced Nibel or Nibel
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depending on the form. Yeah, right.
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And what we are looking at today will give you a completely new
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lens for reading ancient texts. The scope of this single root
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is, well, it is stag. I mean, when you start tracking
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its usage across the Old Testament, it touches almost
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every aspect of ancient life. I want to lay out that scope
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right up front for you listening, because think about
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how bizarre this sounds to a modern ear.
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We were talking about a single ancient word that can
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simultaneously mean a withered leaf falling from a tree, right?
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A dead body rotting in a field, an exhausted national leader, a
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morally foolish person, a collapsed leather water bag.
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And get this a 12 stringed harp. Yeah, when you list them out
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like that, it sounds like a totally random collection of
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items pulled out of a hat. It really does.
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You have biology, human anatomy, moral philosophy, everyday
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household items, and musical instruments all sharing the
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identical root letters. It sounds absurd until you
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understand the underlying mechanics of ancient language.
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See, we tend to separate the physical world from the moral
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and spiritual world. Like we have one vocabulary for
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botany and a totally different vocabulary for ethics.
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Precisely. The ancient mind did not do
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that. They connected physical reality
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directly to moral states. So if we distill the fundamental
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idea of NBL down to its essence, it deals with the loss of vital
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moisture. OK.
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Loss of moisture. Yeah, it describes flaccidity,
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fading and the complete loss of internal vitality.
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Everything we are going to discuss today, from the dead
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leaf to the harp, originates from that single concrete
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biological observation. Which is what happens when
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something living loses its internal water, right?
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Let's start right there in the dirt.
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Basically, the most literal application of the verb in the
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qual stem is the physical withering of a plant.
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The basic biological level. Yeah, Isaiah chapter one verse
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30 uses it to describe leaves falling from an oak tree.
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Isaiah 28 verse one uses it for a fading flower and Psalm 37
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verse 2 talks about grass withering.
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Those are highly visual references that carried, you
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know, immense weight in the ancient Near East.
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Because they lived it every day. Exactly.
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In an agrarian society like ancient Israel, life was
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entirely dependent on the seasonal rains.
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They didn't have the massive, predictable irrigation systems
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of Egypt. Right.
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Egypt was sustained by the Nile. Yeah, the Israelites relied on
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the early and latter rains. So watching a vibrant green
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plant turn brown, lose its structural integrity and droop
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to the ground, that was a daily visceral reminder of mortality,
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independence. Wow.
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The quall form of nabal describes a plant losing its
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vital moisture. When that moisture is lost, the
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plant loses its natural color, its shape, and its life.
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I was thinking about the mechanics of this and it comes
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down to what botanist called turgor pressure right?
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Like if you buy a house plant, say a piece Lily, and you forget
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to water it for two weeks, it completely collapses.
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It just folds over. Right, because when it has
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enough water, the liquid fills the plant cells and pushes
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outward, making the stems rigid. So the plant stands upright.
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But when it loses that water, the pressure drops.
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The entire structure becomes limp and droops over the side of
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the pot. That is a great analogy.
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So that physical limpness, that loss of internal substance that
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keeps a thing upright, that seems to be the baseline for
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this entire word group. That is precisely the baseline.
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The word does not just mean falling down in the sense of
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tripping over a rock. It means falling down because
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your internal substance has dried up from the inside out.
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OK, you see this poetic contrast beautifully illustrated in
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Isaiah 40. The text says the grass Withers.
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The flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it.
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Surely the people are grass. Yeah, the grass Withers, the
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flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
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Right. And the word for Withers there
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is Nabel. It paints a picture of
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biological life as temporary and fragile.
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The moisture evaporates and the structure just collapses.
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And we actually see the inverse of this concept in Ezekiel 47.
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Oh, the river vision, Yeah. Ezekiel is given a vision of a
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future reality, describing trees growing along the banks of a
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river flowing from the temple. The text specifically notes that
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their leaves will not wither. It uses the exact same root
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navel, but negated. Yes, they will not lose their
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moisture. They will never go limp.
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They possess this perpetual, unending vitality.
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Which underscores the point that the ideal state of creation is
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continuous vital moisture. The fallen, decaying state of
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the present world is characterized by Nabal.
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Things drying up. Yeah, things drying up,
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shrinking and losing their intended form.
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Well, if plants can lose their internal vitality, it makes
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total sense that ancient writers would apply this concept to
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human beings. It's a very natural transition.
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Right, so this takes us from the garden into the realm of human
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experience. The definition extends to mean
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wearing out, tiring or crumbling away.
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I was reading through Exodus 18 in preparation for this, and the
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interaction between Moses and Jethro is a perfect example.
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Oh, that's a classic text for this.
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Yeah, so Moses is sitting from morning until evening judging
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the disputes of the Israelites. His father-in-law watches this
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administrative nightmare and pulls him aside.
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Jethro tells him You and the people with you will certainly
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wear yourselves out, for The thing is too heavy for you.
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The Hebrew phrase there uses this route twice for emphasis.
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Nabal Tibble. He is literally saying
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withering, you will wither. Jethro is looking at Moses and
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telling him you are losing your internal moisture.
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You are going to droop like a dry leaf under the sun.
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That changes the whole picture of what burnout meant in that
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culture. Moses isn't literally
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evaporating, obviously, but the text is describing a physical
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collapse brought on by an overwhelming psychological and
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spiritual burden. See, ancient Israelites did not
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compartmentalize the body and the mind.
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If your spirit is exhausted from bearing the weight of a million
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complaining people, your body is withering.
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It's all connected. Very much so.
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We see this applied to enemies in battle as well.
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Second Samuel 22, verse 46 and the parallel passage in Psalm 18
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verse 46 describe foreigners or foes losing heart.
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The text says foreigners lose heart and come trembling out of
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their fortresses, and the word for losing heart is nabal.
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It is an internal withering of courage.
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Their bravery evaporates, their resolve dries up, and they
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collapse emotionally and physically before the battle
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even commences. So they are experiencing A
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fearful attitude regarding their future circumstance.
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Yeah, and the language describes it as their inner vitality
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completely failing them. The application doesn't stop
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with humans either. The biblical writers apply this
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withering concept to geography and geology.
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Yes, the physical landscape. Job 14 verse 18 describes a
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mountain falling and crumbling away, comparing it to a dead man
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who cannot get up the mountain able.
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It crumbles. And Isaiah 24 verse 4 says the
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earth mourns and Withers, the world languishes and Withers.
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Isaiah 24 is a striking text. The devastation of the Earth is
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described in parallel terms. The physical planet is pictured
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as a dying plant losing its structural integrity under the
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weight of judgment. Just crumbling away.
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Yeah, crumbling away into dust. The creation itself is groaning
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and breaking down, losing the vitality it had at the
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beginning. So we have mapped A trajectory
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from a dying flower to an exhausted leader facing
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administrative burnout, to foreign armies losing their
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courage to a mountain crumbling into dust.
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We are seeing a clear, consistent line of things losing
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their strength. The definite pattern, yes.
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But what happens when that process of withering reaches its
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absolute final stage? Where does the loss of vitality
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inevitably lead? It leads to the final static
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result of the withering process. This brings us to a derived
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noun, nabila. This word means a carcass or a
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corpse. So it is the absolute end stage
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of nibble. Yes, the defining characteristic
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for this noun is being inert and flabby.
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That is a highly specific, almost grotesque detail.
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Flabby. It ties right back to your
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analogy of trigger pressure. When an animal or a human dies,
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the internal vitality, the life force, is permanently gone.
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The body loses its tension. It just gives out.
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It becomes inert matter. It is the physical manifestation
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of complete, irreversible withering.
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The text applies this noun frequently too.
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We see it used for human corpses in Joshua, in the historical
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books of kings, and in the prophets like Isaiah and
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Jeremiah. And animals too.
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Right. It is applied to dead animals
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heavily in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
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It is often used specifically for animals that dive
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themselves, rather than being properly slaughtered for a
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sacrifice or for food. That distinction carries immense
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weight in the Levitical law. An animal that dies of itself, a
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nibla is unclean. It makes you ritually impure.
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Yeah, it is a source of ritual impurity.
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It is rotting, decaying biological matter.
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If an Israelite touched a nabla, they contracted impurity and had
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to undergo a cleansing process, right?
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The carcass represented the encroachment of death and decay
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into the camp, which was meant to be a place of life and
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holiness where God dwelled. But here is where the ancient
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usage takes a fascinating turn. I noticed a striking detail in
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Jeremiah 16 verse 18. God says I will doubly
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recompense their iniquity and their sin because they have
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polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable
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idols. This word nebula, this term for
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a flabby rotting animal corpse, is applied directly to idols.
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Why would a stone or wooden idol, something carved out of
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hard solid material, be called a flabby corpse?
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What you're seeing there is brilliant, scathing theological
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sarcasm. Really.
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Oh yeah, the prophet Jeremiah is engaging in a heavy polemic
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against idolatry. The people worshipping these
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idols believed they were full of life, vitality and divine
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strife. You brought them offerings.
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They offered them food. They bowed down to them.
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They expected them to control the weather and bring victory in
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battle. And the prophet looks at them
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and basically uses the word for roadkill.
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It is the ultimate insult. By applying the word nebula to
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idols, the text strips them of any supposed divine status.
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He categorizes them as lifeless, inert, spiritually dead matter.
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Wow. They have no internal moisture,
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no life, no ability to act. They are parallel to a rotting
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animal carcass out in the field. They are an active pollutant in
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the land. The ancient mind clearly equated
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physical death with a total lack of value.
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An idol is a nebula, a worthless dead thing.
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Yes, And that observation leads us directly to the most
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significant conceptual leap in our discussion today.
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Because the biblical writers did not just use this word for dead
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plants and dead bodies. No, they.
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Took it much further. They use it to describe someone
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who is physically alive, walking around, breathing, participating
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in society, but who is intellectually or morally
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withered. This is where we look at the
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second major verb root, often identified as a second enable,
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and it's associated noun and adjective nabal or nabal.
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Here the idea of Wittering and decay is mapped directly onto
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human morality and the intellect.
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There is a linguistic connection across Semitic languages that
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sheds light on this right. Yes, very much so.
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In related Arabic words, the concepts of flaccidity and
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physical weakness are transferred to stupidity and
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dullness. Weakness of the body.
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The flaccidity we discuss with the dying plant and the corpse
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becomes a metaphor for weakness of the mind and the soul.
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In Hebrew, the noun nabal comes to mean stupid, foolish,
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worthless, or good for nothing. No, I want to clarify the
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severity of this term for you. Listening in modern English, if
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I call someone foolish, it might mean they lock their keys in
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their car. Right, a mistake.
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Or they made a risky financial decision.
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Or they told a poorly timed joke.
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Is this foolish in a light hearted, clumsy way?
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Or is it something far more sinister?
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It is significantly darker. The lexicon defines the specific
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type of folly as an insensitivity to the
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consequences of 1's actions, which leads to acting
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unbecomingly toward others, toward God, and toward
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established ethical norms. So it is not a low IQ, it is a
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withered moral compass. Precisely.
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It is highly impious. The Nabal is someone who is
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morally rotting from the inside out.
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They lack spiritual understanding in the most severe
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way possible. This aligns closely with a
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reformed understanding of total depravity.
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The foolishness is not a lack of access to education.
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It is an active, stubborn suppression of the truth.
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Psalm 14 verse one is the classic text for this.
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The fool says in his heart there is no God, they are corrupt,
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they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good.
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Yes, the word for fool there is nabal.
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The person denying God is not doing so out of a purely
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intellectual pandemic calculation.
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No, not at all. The text is saying their inner
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spiritual life has lost all its vital moisture, they're a moral
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corpse, their heart has withered and therefore their actions are
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corrupt. We also see this vividly
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illustrated in the historical narratives.
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First Samuel Chapter 25 features a literal character named Nabal.
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Oh, that is an extraordinary narrative.
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It really is. David and his men have been
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protecting Nabal's shepherds and flocks in the wilderness.
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When it is time for shearing the sheep, which is a time of
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traditional feasting and generosity, David sends his
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young men to politely ask for some provisions.
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And Nabal responds with absolute contempt.
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He insults David, acts as if he has no idea who David is, and
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refuses to give them anything. The text introduces him by
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essentially saying his name is Nabal and Folly is with him.
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His own wife Abigail later tells David.
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Let not, my Lord, regard this worthless fellow Nabal, For as
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his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and Folly is
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with him. She knew exactly who she she was
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married to. She did.
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He acts ruthlessly, selfishly, and entirely without regard for
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the ethical norms of hospitality or the severe consequences of
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insulting a military leader. Like David, he embodies the
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word. He's a man utterly devoid of
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moral vitality. And his physical end in that
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story mirrors his spiritual state perfectly.
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It does. After Abigail intervenes and
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prevents David from wiping out Nabal's household, she returns
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and tells Nabal what happened. The text says that when he heard
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the news, his heart died within him and he became as a stone.
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He experiences A literal physical withering that matches
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his withered soul, and 10 days later he dies.
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The feminine form of the noun nebula is used for incredibly
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dark, destructive actions, isn't it?
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Yes it is. It is often translated as
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outrage or disgraceful thing. It applies to shameful acts of
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wickedness, specifically citing instances of rape or incest in
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the books of Judges in Second Samuel.
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Yeah, when Tamar is assaulted by her half brother Amnon in Second
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Samuel 13, she pleads with him, saying, no, my brother, do not
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violate me for such a thing as not done in Israel.
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Do not do this outrageous thing. She calls it a nibola.
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The phrase committing a nabala in Israel appears several times
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in these dark historical accounts.
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It's a very heavy phrase. It describes an act so contrary
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to the moral fabric of the covenant community, so
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completely devoid of ethical vitality that it is categorized
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as a rotting dead thing. It is a severe term of moral
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condemnation. It is an action that brings the
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stench of death into the community.
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A nubal is someone whose soul has shriveled up.
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They have no moral turgor pressure.
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But as we continue examining this route, we see that it does
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not just describe being withered, it also describes the
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active process of making someone else wither.
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This brings us to the peel stem of the verb.
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The Peel form often carries A declarative, active or intensive
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sense. So when we look at the peel form
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of NBL, what specific action is it describing?
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It means to declare void, to consider invalid, to dishonor,
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to treat with contempt, or to disgrace.
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You are not the one withering. You are actively causing someone
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or something else to wither in status and honor.
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We see this happening in severe ways.
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Deuteronomy 32 verse 15 and the song of Moses talks about Israel
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growing fat and kicking and then it says he forsook God who made
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him and scoffed at the rock of his salvation.
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The word for scoffed or lightly esteemed is the peel form of NBL
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Mica 7 verse 6 and Nahum 3 verse 6 use it for treating someone
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disdainfully. And Jeremiah 14 verse 21 has
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this striking plea from the prophet to God.
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He says do not spurn us for your name's sake.
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Do not dishonor your glorious throne.
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Treating an object or a person in a contemptible manner is the
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core action. Here you are showing a lack of
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value for an object and actively reducing its status.
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They're pulling them down. You are treating it as if it
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were a nebula, a worthless corpse.
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In the ancient Near East, which was a strict honor shame
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culture, to disgrace someone in this manner is essentially
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inflicting social or legal execution upon them.
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You are stripping them of their vitality and they're standing in
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the eyes of the community. You basically turn their
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reputation into a corpse. The language provides another
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noun related to this extreme end of social degradation, noblet.
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Yes, it means shame, disgrace, or obscenity.
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It is found in Hosea 2 verse 10, where God says He will uncover
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Israel's lewdness or shame in the sight of her lovers.
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It represents the absolute bottom, the complete loss of
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honor, respectability, and covenantal standing.
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Let's take a breath and synthesize the heavy progression
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we have tracked so far. We started with dead dry leaves
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falling from an oak tree, right? Botany.
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We moved to physically and mentally exhausted humans like
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Moses. Facing administrative collapse,
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we arrived at rotting animal carcasses and the theological
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sarcasm of dead, inert idols. Which is still my favorite part
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of this. Yeah, the roadkill idols.
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Then we crossed into the moral realm, describing fools whose
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souls have shriveled, suppressing the truth in
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unrighteousness, and people committing acts of severe
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wickedness that threaten the covenant community.
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And we just looked at the active process of disgracing someone
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causing social death. It is a heavy, brilliantly
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consistent line of thought. Very consistent loss of
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moisture, loss of physical life, loss of morality, loss of social
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status. It is an unbroken chain of
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decay. And right at this point, the
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lexical data takes a turn that genuinely surprised me.
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It introduces a completely different, almost bizarre set of
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definitions related to everyday objects.
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When I first looked at this section of the notes, I honestly
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thought two different dictionary entries had been accidentally
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merged. It certainly looks that way at
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first glance. We are introduced to the noun
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nibble. Astonishingly, this exact same
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root, with all its heavy connotations of death, decay,
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and moral rot, produces the words for a skin bottle, a
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pottery pitcher, and a musical instrument.
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OK, a leather water bag, a clay pitcher and a harp.
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I need you to explain the logic here.
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How do we get from a rotting animal corpse and a moral fool
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to a musical instrument? What is the missing link?
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The missing link is the everyday reality of the ancient skin bag.
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The water skin. Yes, in the ancient world, you
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didn't have plastic canteens or stainless steel water bottles.
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You carried water, milk or wine in a container made from an
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animal skin, typically a goat skin.
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So you take the skin of the animal, sew it up, and use it as
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a leather bag. Exactly.
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And think about the physical properties of that leather bag.
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When it is full of liquid, it is taut, firm and holds its shape.
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But what happens when it is empty?
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When the liquid, the vital moisture is poured out.
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It completely collapses. It goes limp.
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It becomes flaccid because of this limp, collapsing nature.
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Because it entirely loses its internal volume when empty.
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The skin bag takes the root word for withering.
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It is a nebble. That is linguistic brilliance
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right there. It is the exact same mechanical
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process as the plant losing its turgor pressure.
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The water leaves the leaf. The leaf troops.
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The water leaves the leather bag.
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The bag collapses. We have great textual examples
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for this too. Job 38 verse 37 asks who can
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number the clouds by wisdom, or who can tilt the water skins of
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the heavens. It metaphorically calls the
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clouds the bottles of heaven. The clouds hold the rain like a
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skin bag holds water. The Septuagint, the Greek
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translation of the Old Testament, translates this word
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using askos, which specifically means a skin bag.
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So the leather bag is called a Niebel.
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I can clearly track that leap, and the usage shows that the
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name transferred to other types of vessels.
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Isaiah 30 verse 14 uses navel to describe a Potter's pitcher.
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Right, a clay pot. The Prophet talks about breaking
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a Potter's vessel so ruthlessly that not a single Shard is less
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to take fire from the hearth or water from the cistern.
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So even though a clay pitcher is rigid and does not physically
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collapse when empty, it took on the name of the leather bag
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because they serve the exact same function.
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Function dictates the vocabulary.
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The word for the flexible container becomes the generic
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standard word for a liquid container, including rigid clay
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vessels. OK, so I follow the logic
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perfectly. Withered leaf, collapsed leather
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bag name transfers to a clay pitcher based on function.
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But I still have a major hurdle. How on earth does this get us to
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a musical instrument? That's the best part.
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The text is clear that Nagel is frequently used for a stringed
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instrument, translated in various places as a sultry, a
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liar, a vile, or a harp. The Greek translates it as a
21:43
nabla. The Latin calls it a nablium.
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To understand this final leap, we have to look at the
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historical and visual data provided by ancient historians.
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It is entirely about the physical shape of the objects.
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I was reading the notes from Jerome regarding this and I
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could hardly believe it. He describes this HAR as an
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inverted delta breakdown, the visual data for us.
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According to historical sources like Jerome and Josephus, this
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specific stringed instrument had 10 or 12 strings.
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It was played with the fingers, not a pick, but the crucial
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detail is its shape. It was shaped like a pyramid or
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cone, or as Jerome said, an inverted Greek letter delta.
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A triangle pointing downwards. It has a wide top, narrows down
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at the bottom. Or vice versa, depending on how
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it was held. But it has a distinct bulging
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pyramidal shape. Now look at the ancient water
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vessels, the Katyay, the clay pitchers we just discussed.
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They had a distinct shape to maximize storage and maintain
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balance. They had a narrow neck, and then
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they bulged out at the bottom into a wide, rounded base.
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They had a pyramidal bulging shape.
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So the. Pitcher had a wide bottom and a
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narrow top. The harp had a wide sounding
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board at the bottom and narrowed to the top where the strings
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attached. Because the visual profile of
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the musical instrument exactly matched the visual profile of
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the water pitcher, the musical instrument took on the name of
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the water bottle. It is a visual pun that became
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the official standard name of the object.
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That is a staggering linguistic chain reaction.
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Let's map this out one more time.
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You start with the concept of biological death and the loss of
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moisture, right? That biological reality names
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the limp leather bag. The function of the leather bag
23:20
names the clay pitcher, and the physical shape of the clay
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pitcher names a soaring 12 stringed harp.
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And we see this harp showing up all over the poetic and
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prophetic books, often in context of high praise and
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worship. It is played alongside the lyre
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in Amos, in the Psalms, and in Isaiah.
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Give us some examples. Psalm 57 says Awake my glory,
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awake, O harp and lyre. Psalm 81 bands raise a song
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sound the tambourine, the Sweet Liar with the harp.
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Psalm 92 mentions declaring God's steadfast love with the
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music of the lute and the harp. An instrument of praise,
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declaring the steadfast love of God, sharing a root word with a
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rotting corpse and a moral fool. It's wild, isn't it?
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It is an unbelievable demonstration of how language
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evolves organically based on what people see and touch every
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single day. There is one final category we
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should touch on before we pull all of this together.
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The root is also used graphically.
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Oh, right, Nehemiah 11 verse 34 mentions a town where the
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Benjamites dwelled after the return from exile, called
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Neblet. The geographical location is
24:22
identified as being northeast of Litta.
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What is fascinating here is the proposed etymology of the town's
24:28
name. The text suggests it might mean
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folly in secret or wickedness in secret, combining nabel and the
24:35
word for secret, lat. If that etymology holds, it fits
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perfectly with the moral dimension of the route we
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discussed earlier. It suggests a geography that
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carries moral weight, a town named after hidden decay or
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hidden rebellion. Think about the sheer breadth of
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what we have just covered. We have mapped a single
24:52
conceptual idea across agriculture, theology, morality,
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law, everyday household items and music.
25:00
We've looked at leaves, Moses, mountains, dead animals, false
25:05
idols, fools, social disgrace, leather bags, clay pots and
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stringed instruments. It is a brilliant display of the
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concrete nature of ancient Hebrew.
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They did not deal in abstract, detached philosophical
25:18
categories. No, they didn't.
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They dealt in what they could see, touch and experience, and
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they applied those concrete realities to the deepest aspects
25:25
of the human soul. Let's run through a rapid fire
25:28
recap to cement this for you. We draw the line from the
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physical loss of water in a plant, causing it to wither and
25:34
drop. That same loss of internal
25:36
vitality applies to the physical exhaustion of a human leader
25:39
bearing a heavy burden or the crumbling of a mountain under
25:42
judgement. The absolute end of that
25:44
physical withering is the nebula, the inert, flabby
25:46
corpse, a term mockingly applied to lifeless idols to strip them
25:50
of their perceived glory. Then that physical decay maps
25:54
onto the human soul. The nabal is the fool, a person
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whose moral compass has dried up, leading to profound
26:00
wickedness and active denial of God and an insensitivity to
26:05
consequences. The active form of the verb
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describes inflicting that decay on someone else, disgracing
26:10
them, rendering their social status void, and treating them
26:13
with contempt. And finally, taking a completely
26:16
different path from the same starting point, the loss of
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water in a letter skin bag causes it to collapse, giving it
26:22
the name Nabel. That name transfers to a clay
26:25
pitcher of the same function, and then to a 12 string harp of
26:28
the same physical shape. It shows how a single
26:31
observation about the natural world can inform an entire
26:34
worldview. Which brings me to a final
26:36
thought. I want to leave you with
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something to chew on as you go about your day.
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In our modern language, we strictly separate the physical
26:42
world from the moral world. We keep them in separate
26:44
diction. We do.
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We have one set of words for biology, you know, trigger
26:49
pressure, decay, cellular breakdown.
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And we have a totally different set of words for ethics, like
26:54
foolishness, wickedness, immorality.
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Yeah, they don't crossover. But the ancient mind saw reality
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as one continuous, interconnected fabric.
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The physical and the spiritual were not separate, airtight
27:05
realms. They mirrored one another.
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A rotting leaf and a wicked action were fundamentally the
27:11
same type of tragedy, a loss of the vital substance that God
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intended for His creation. That's a great way to put it.
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So think back to that neglected House plan drooping over the
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side of its pot, entirely depleted of water.
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If we started viewing our own moral or intellectual failures
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not just as procedural errors or temporary lapses in judgement,
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but as a literal withering of our internal vitality, how would
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that alter the way we live tomorrow?
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Thank you for joining us for this session of Reformed
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Thinking.