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 cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and she loaded them on donkeys. 19Then she said to her young men, “2Go 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 3returned me evil for good. 224May God do so to the enemies of David, and more so, 5if by morning I leave alive 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 in front of 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 slave speak 9to you, and listen to the words of your slave. 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 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 13shedding blood, and 14from 15avenging yourself by your own hand, now then, 16may your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord, be like Nabal. 27And now let 17this 18gift which your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who 19accompany my lord. 28Please forgive 20the offense of your slave; for 21the Lord will certainly make for my lord an 22enduring house, because my lord is 23fighting the battles of the Lord, and 24evil will not be found in you all your days. 29Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your 25life, then the 26life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; but the 27lives of your enemies 28He will sling out 29as 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 30appoints you ruler over Israel, 31this will not become an obstacle to you, or a 31troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord’s having 32avenged himself. 33When the Lord deals well with my lord, then remember your slave.”

32Then David said to Abigail, “34Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, 33and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you, 35who have kept me this day from 36bloodshed and from 37avenging myself by my own hand. 34Nevertheless, as the Lord God of Israel lives, 38who 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 39male.” 35So David accepted from her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, “40Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to 41you and 4243granted your request.”

36Then Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was having 44a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was cheerful within him, 45for he was very drunk; so 46she did not tell him anything 47at 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.