1 Samuel 25:7-36

7Now I have heard 1that you have shearers; now your shepherds have been with us and we have not insulted them, 2nor have they missed anything all the days they were in Carmel. 8Ask your young men and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on 3a 4festive day. Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants and to your son David.’”

9When David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in David’s name; then they waited. 10But Nabal answered David’s servants and said, “5Who 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 6take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men 7whose 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 8four hundred men went up behind David while two hundred 9stayed with the baggage.

14But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to 1011greet our master, and he scorned them. 15Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not 12insulted, nor did we miss anything 13as long as we went about with them, while we were in the fields. 1614They 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 15consider what you should do, for evil is plotted against our master and against all his household; and he is such a 16worthless man that no one can speak to him.”

18Then Abigail hurried and 17took 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, “18Go 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 19returned me evil for good. 2220May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, 21if by morning I leave as much as one 22male of any who belong to him.”

23When Abigail saw David, she hurried and dismounted from her donkey, and fell on her face before David 23and bowed herself to the ground. 24She fell at his feet and said, “On me 24alone, my lord, be the blame. And please let your maidservant speak 25to you, and listen to the words of your maidservant. 25Please do not let my lord 26pay attention to this 27worthless man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. 28Nabal 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 29shedding blood, and 30from 31avenging yourself by your own hand, now then 32let your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord, be as Nabal. 27Now let 33this 34gift which your maidservant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who 35accompany my lord. 28Please forgive 36the transgression of your maidservant; for 37the Lord will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord is 38fighting the battles of the Lord, and 39evil will not be found in you all your days. 29Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your 40life, then the 41life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; but the 42lives of your enemies 43He will sling out 44as 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 45appoints you ruler over Israel, 31this will not 46cause grief or a troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord having 47avenged himself. 48When the Lord deals well with my lord, then remember your maidservant.”

32Then David said to Abigail, “49Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, 33and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you, 50who have kept me this day from 51bloodshed and from 52avenging myself by my own hand. 34Nevertheless, as the Lord God of Israel lives, 53who 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 54male.” 35So David received from her hand what she had brought him and said to her, “55Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to 56you and 5758granted your request.”

36Then Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding 59a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, 60for he was very drunk; so 61she did not tell him anything 62at all until the morning light.