1 Samuel 25:18-37

18Then Abigail hurried and 1took 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, “2Go 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 3returned me evil for good. 224May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, 5if by morning I leave as much as one 6male of any who belong to him.”

23When Abigail saw David, she hurried and dismounted from her donkey, and fell on her face before David 7and bowed herself to the ground. 24She fell at his feet and said, “On me 8alone, my lord, be the blame. And please let your maidservant speak 9to you, and listen to the words of your maidservant. 25Please do not let my lord 10pay attention to this 11worthless man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. 12Nabal 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 13shedding blood, and 14from 15avenging yourself by your own hand, now then 16let your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord, be as Nabal. 27Now let 17this 18gift which your maidservant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who 19accompany my lord. 28Please forgive 20the transgression of your maidservant; for 21the Lord will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord is 22fighting the battles of the Lord, and 23evil will not be found in you all your days. 29Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your 24life, then the 25life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; but the 26lives of your enemies 27He will sling out 28as 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 29appoints you ruler over Israel, 31this will not 30cause grief or a troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord having 31avenged himself. 32When the Lord deals well with my lord, then remember your maidservant.”

32Then David said to Abigail, “33Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, 33and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you, 34who have kept me this day from 35bloodshed and from 36avenging myself by my own hand. 34Nevertheless, as the Lord God of Israel lives, 37who 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 38male.” 35So David received from her hand what she had brought him and said to her, “39Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to 40you and 4142granted your request.”

36Then Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding 43a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, 44for he was very drunk; so 45she did not tell him anything 46at 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.