1 Samuel 25:18-37

18Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of roasted grain, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys.1 19And she said to her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal. 20And it was so, as she rode on the donkey, that she came down by the covert of the hill, and, behold, David and his men came down toward her; and she met them. 21Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained to him: and he hath repaid me evil for good. 22So and more also do God to the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any male person. 23And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and got off the donkey, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, 24And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be : and let thy handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thy hearing, and hear the words of thy handmaid.2 25Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this worthless man, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thy handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.34 26Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withheld thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thy own hand, now let thy enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.5 27And now this blessing which thy handmaid hath brought to my lord, let it even be given to the young men that follow my lord.67 28I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thy handmaid: for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the LORD, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days. 29Yet a man hath risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thy enemies, them shall he sling out, as from the middle of a sling.8 30And it shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel; 31That this shall be no grief to thee, nor offence of heart to my lord, either that thou hast shed blood without cause, or that my lord hath avenged himself: but when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thy handmaid.9

32And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who sent thee this day to meet me: 33And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, who hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with my own hand. 34For in very deed, as the LORD God of Israel liveth, who hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left to Nabal by the morning light any male person. 35So David received from her hand that which she had brought him, and said to her, Return in peace to thy house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person.

36And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk: therefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light. 37But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine had left Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.