1 Samuel 25:14-35

14But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to 12greet our master, and he scorned them. 15Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not 3insulted, nor did we miss anything 4as long as we went about with them, while we were in the fields. 165They 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 6consider what you should do, for evil is plotted against our master and against all his household; and he is such a 7worthless man that no one can speak to him.”

18Then Abigail hurried and 8took 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, “9Go 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 10returned me evil for good. 2211May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, 12if by morning I leave as much as one 13male of any who belong to him.”

23When Abigail saw David, she hurried and dismounted from her donkey, and fell on her face before David 14and bowed herself to the ground. 24She fell at his feet and said, “On me 15alone, my lord, be the blame. And please let your maidservant speak 16to you, and listen to the words of your maidservant. 25Please do not let my lord 17pay attention to this 18worthless man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. 19Nabal 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 20shedding blood, and 21from 22avenging yourself by your own hand, now then 23let your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord, be as Nabal. 27Now let 24this 25gift which your maidservant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who 26accompany my lord. 28Please forgive 27the transgression of your maidservant; for 28the Lord will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord is 29fighting the battles of the Lord, and 30evil will not be found in you all your days. 29Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your 31life, then the 32life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; but the 33lives of your enemies 34He will sling out 35as 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 36appoints you ruler over Israel, 31this will not 37cause grief or a troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord having 38avenged himself. 39When the Lord deals well with my lord, then remember your maidservant.”

32Then David said to Abigail, “40Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, 33and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you, 41who have kept me this day from 42bloodshed and from 43avenging myself by my own hand. 34Nevertheless, as the Lord God of Israel lives, 44who 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 45male.” 35So David received from her hand what she had brought him and said to her, “46Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to 47you and 4849granted your request.”