1 Samuel 25:14-35

14Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to 12greet our master, and he spoke to them in anger. 15Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not 3harmed, nor did anything go missing 4as long as we went 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 then, be aware and 6consider what you should do, because harm 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 cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and she loaded them on donkeys. 19Then she said to her young men, “9Go 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 10returned me evil for good. 2211May God do so to the enemies of David, and more so, 12if by morning I leave alive 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 in front of 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 slave speak 16to you, and listen to the words of your slave. 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 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 20shedding blood, and 21from 22avenging yourself by your own hand, now then, 23may your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord, be like Nabal. 27And now let 24this 25gift which your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who 26accompany my lord. 28Please forgive 27the offense of your slave; for 28the Lord will certainly make for my lord an 29enduring house, because my lord is 30fighting the battles of the Lord, and 31evil will not be found in you all your days. 29Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your 32life, then the 33life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; but the 34lives of your enemies 35He will sling out 36as 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 37appoints you ruler over Israel, 31this will not become an obstacle to you, or a 38troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord’s having 39avenged himself. 40When the Lord deals well with my lord, then remember your slave.”

32Then David said to Abigail, “41Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, 33and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you, 42who have kept me this day from 43bloodshed and from 44avenging myself by my own hand. 34Nevertheless, as the Lord God of Israel lives, 45who 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 46male.” 35So David accepted from her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, “47Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to 48you and 4950granted your request.”