How many times is Nabal mentioned in the Bible?
The word Nabal appears 18 times in the King James Version, in 15 verses. Counting every form (Nabal, Nabal's), it appears 22 times in 18 verses across 2 of the 66 books. The World English Bible uses Nabal 19 times (22 with every form).
Nabal in the King James Version and the World English Bible
Each form of Nabal counted in each translation.
| Form | KJV | WEB |
|---|---|---|
| Nabal | 18 | 19 |
| Nabal's | 4 | 3 |
| Total | 22 | 22 |
What the name Nabal means
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary glosses Nabal as "fool; senseless".
This is the 1869 traditional meaning; modern scholars often read names differently.
See every name and place with its meaning and count on Bible names and their meanings.
Source: Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (1869), checked 2026-10-22.
First and last mention of Nabal
Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.
And his second, Chileab, of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom the son of Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur;
The verse that uses it most is 1 Samuel 25:39, 3 times:
And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil: for the LORD hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him to wife.
Common questions
How many times is Nabal in the Old Testament and the New Testament?
In the King James Version, counting every form, 22 of the 22 uses are in the Old Testament and 0 in the New Testament. Nabal appears in 2 books of the 66 in the King James Version. 1 Samuel has the most (20), then 2 Samuel (2).
Where is Nabal first mentioned in the Bible?
The first use in the King James Version is 1 Samuel 25:3: "Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb." The last is 2 Samuel 3:3.
What does the name Nabal mean in the Bible?
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary glosses Nabal as "fool; senseless".
More word counts: Omri, Abigail, Athaliah, Naaman, Shem, Ham, Japheth, Miriam, or all 484 words.
Counted by Bible Says About from the full public-domain text of the King James Version (1769 edition) and the World English Bible. Verse text only: headings and psalm titles are left out. A word is a run of letters: a hyphenated name like Beer-sheba counts as two, and an apostrophe stays inside its word (LORD'S is one). Matching ignores capital letters. Data compiled 2026-10-22.