1 Samuel 25:2-17

2Now, there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. He was a very rich man. He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats. And he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

3This man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was sensible and beautiful, but he was harsh and mean. He was a descendant of Caleb.

4While David was in the desert, he heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep.

5So David sent ten young men and told them, “Go to Carmel, visit Nabal, and greet him for me.

6Say to him, ‘May you live ⌞long⌟! May you, your home, and all you have prosper!

7I hear that your sheepshearers are with you. Your shepherds have been with us, ⌞and⌟ we have not mistreated them. Nothing of theirs has been missing as long as they’ve been in Carmel.

8Ask your young men, and let them tell you. Be kind to my young men, since we have come on a special occasion. Please give us and your son David anything you can ⌞spare⌟.’ ”

9When David’s young men came to Nabal, they repeated all of this to him for David, and then they waited.

10“Who is David?” Nabal answered David’s servants. “Who is Jesse’s son? So many servants nowadays are leaving their masters.

11Should I take my bread, my water, and my meat that I butchered for my shearers and give them to men coming from who knows where?”

12David’s young men returned and told him all this.

13“Each of you put on your swords!” David told his men. And everyone, including David, put on his sword. About four hundred men went with David, while two hundred men stayed with the supplies.

14One of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers from the desert to greet our master, who yelled at them.

15Those men were very good to us. They didn’t mistreat us, and we found that nothing was missing wherever we went with them when we were in the fields.

16They were a wall protecting us day and night as long as we were watching the sheep near them.

17Now, consider what you should do because our master and his whole household are doomed. And he’s such a worthless man that it’s useless to talk to him.”