1 Samuel 25:10-39

10But Nabal answered David’s servants and said, “1Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today who are each breaking away from his master. 11Shall I then 2take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men 3whose origin I do not know?” 12So David’s young men retraced their way and went back; and they came and told him according to all these words. 13David said to his men, “Each of you gird on his sword.” So each man girded on his sword. And David also girded on his sword, and about 4four hundred men went up behind David while two hundred 5stayed with the baggage.

14But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to 67greet our master, and he scorned them. 15Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not 8insulted, nor did we miss anything 9as long as we went about with them, while we were in the fields. 1610They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the time we were with them tending the sheep. 17Now therefore, know and 11consider what you should do, for evil is plotted against our master and against all his household; and he is such a 12worthless man that no one can speak to him.”

18Then Abigail hurried and 13took two hundred loaves of bread and two jugs of wine and five sheep already prepared and five measures of roasted grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19She said to her young men, “14Go on before me; behold, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. 20It came about as she was riding on her donkey and coming down by the hidden part of the mountain, that behold, David and his men were coming down toward her; so she met them. 21Now David had said, “Surely in vain I have guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; and he has 15returned me evil for good. 2216May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, 17if by morning I leave as much as one 18male of any who belong to him.”

23When Abigail saw David, she hurried and dismounted from her donkey, and fell on her face before David 19and bowed herself to the ground. 24She fell at his feet and said, “On me 20alone, my lord, be the blame. And please let your maidservant speak 21to you, and listen to the words of your maidservant. 25Please do not let my lord 22pay attention to this 23worthless man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. 24Nabal is his name and folly is with him; but I your maidservant did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.

26“Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, since the Lord has restrained you from 25shedding blood, and 26from 27avenging yourself by your own hand, now then 28let your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord, be as Nabal. 27Now let 29this 30gift which your maidservant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who 31accompany my lord. 28Please forgive 32the transgression of your maidservant; for 33the Lord will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord is 34fighting the battles of the Lord, and 35evil will not be found in you all your days. 29Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your 36life, then the 37life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; but the 38lives of your enemies 39He will sling out 40as from the hollow of a sling. 30And when the Lord does for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and 41appoints you ruler over Israel, 31this will not 42cause grief or a troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord having 43avenged himself. 44When the Lord deals well with my lord, then remember your maidservant.”

32Then David said to Abigail, “45Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, 33and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you, 46who have kept me this day from 47bloodshed and from 48avenging myself by my own hand. 34Nevertheless, as the Lord God of Israel lives, 49who has restrained me from harming you, unless you had come quickly to meet me, surely there would not have been left to Nabal until the morning light as much as one 50male.” 35So David received from her hand what she had brought him and said to her, “51Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to 52you and 5354granted your request.”

36Then Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding 55a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, 56for he was very drunk; so 57she did not tell him anything 58at all until the morning light. 37But in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him so that he became as a stone. 38About ten days later, 59the Lord struck Nabal and he died.

39When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has 60pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal and 61has kept back His servant from evil. The Lord has also returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent 6263a proposal to Abigail, to take her as his wife.