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 made their way back and returned; and they came and informed him in accordance with all these words. 13Then David said to his men, “Each of you strap on his sword.” So each man strapped on his sword. And David also strapped on his sword, and about 4four hundred men went up behind David, while two hundred 5stayed with the baggage.

14Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to 67greet our master, and he spoke to them in anger. 15Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not 8harmed, nor did anything go missing 9as long as we went 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 then, be aware and 11consider what you should do, because harm 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 cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and she loaded them on donkeys. 19Then she said to her young men, “14Go on ahead of me; behold, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. 20And it happened 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, “It is certainly for nothing that I have guarded everything that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing has gone missing of all that belonged to him! For he has 15returned me evil for good. 2216May God do so to the enemies of David, and more so, 17if by morning I leave alive 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 in front of 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 slave speak 21to you, and listen to the words of your slave. 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 stupidity is with him; but I your slave did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.

26“Now then, 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, 28may your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord, be like Nabal. 27And now let 29this 30gift which your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who 31accompany my lord. 28Please forgive 32the offense of your slave; for 33the Lord will certainly make for my lord an 34enduring house, because my lord is 35fighting the battles of the Lord, and 36evil will not be found in you all your days. 29Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your 37life, then the 38life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; but the 39lives of your enemies 40He will sling out 41as from the hollow of a sling. 30And when the Lord does for my lord in accordance with all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and 42appoints you ruler over Israel, 31this will not become an obstacle to you, or a 43troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord’s having 44avenged himself. 45When the Lord deals well with my lord, then remember your slave.”

32Then David said to Abigail, “46Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, 33and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you, 47who have kept me this day from 48bloodshed and from 49avenging myself by my own hand. 34Nevertheless, as the Lord God of Israel lives, 50who has restrained me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, there certainly would not have been left to Nabal until the morning light as much as one 51male.” 35So David accepted from her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, “52Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to 53you and 5455granted your request.”

36Then Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was having 56a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was cheerful within him, 57for he was very drunk; so 58she did not tell him anything 59at 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 like a stone. 38About ten days later, 60the Lord struck Nabal and he died.

39When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has 61pleaded the cause of the shame inflicted on me by the hand of Nabal, and 62has kept back His servant from evil. The Lord has also returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent 6364a proposal to Abigail, to take her as his wife.