Abigail was generous with the provisions that she hoped to give to David and his men.1 That is the purpose of the detail of the provisions. She provided him with an appropriate portion. She loaded it all on a donkey—a common means of transportation at the time (see Exodus 4:20; Joshua 15:18; 2 Chronicles 28:15).2 The food items provided by Abigail give a good idea of the diet of an ancient army that was encamped in Palestine and living off the land.3
18 Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys.