1 Samuel 25:7-36

7Now then, I have heard 1that you have shearers. Now, your shepherds have been with us; we have not harmed them, 2nor has anything of theirs gone missing 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 in accordance with 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 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 8four hundred men went up behind David, while two hundred 9stayed with the baggage.

14Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to 1011greet our master, and he spoke to them in anger. 15Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not 12harmed, nor did anything go missing 13as long as we went 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 then, be aware and 15consider what you should do, because harm 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 cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and she loaded them on donkeys. 19Then she said to her young men, “18Go 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 19returned me evil for good. 2220May God do so to the enemies of David, and more so, 21if by morning I leave alive 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 in front of 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 slave speak 25to you, and listen to the words of your slave. 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 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 29shedding blood, and 30from 31avenging yourself by your own hand, now then, 32may your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord, be like Nabal. 27And now let 33this 34gift which your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who 35accompany my lord. 28Please forgive 36the offense of your slave; for 37the Lord will certainly make for my lord an 38enduring house, because my lord is 39fighting the battles of the Lord, and 40evil will not be found in you all your days. 29Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your 41life, then the 42life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; but the 43lives of your enemies 44He will sling out 45as 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 46appoints you ruler over Israel, 31this will not become an obstacle to you, or a 47troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord’s having 48avenged himself. 49When the Lord deals well with my lord, then remember your slave.”

32Then David said to Abigail, “50Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, 33and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you, 51who have kept me this day from 52bloodshed and from 53avenging myself by my own hand. 34Nevertheless, as the Lord God of Israel lives, 54who 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 55male.” 35So David accepted from her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, “56Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to 57you and 5859granted your request.”

36Then Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was having 60a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was cheerful within him, 61for he was very drunk; so 62she did not tell him anything 63at all until the morning light.