1 Samuel 25

25 ¹ Now Samuel died, and all Israel gathered together to mourn for him, and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David set out and went down to the wilderness of Maon.

Nabal Repays David's Kindness with Scorn

² There was a man in Maon whose property was at Carmel. The man was very wealthy; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep at Carmel. ³ The man's name was Nabal, and his wife's name was Abigail. She was a woman of good sense and beautiful in appearance, but the man was harsh and badly behaved; he was a Calebite. ⁴ While he was in the wilderness, David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep. ⁵ So David sent ten young men and said to them, “Go up to Carmel. Go to Nabal and greet him in my name. ⁶ Say to him: ‘Long life to you. Peace to you, peace to your household, and peace to all that you have. ⁷ Now I hear that you have shearers. Your shepherds were with us, and we did not mistreat them, and they missed nothing the whole time they were at Carmel. ⁸ Ask your young men, and they will tell you. So let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a festive day. Please give whatever you can spare to your servants and to your son David.

⁹ When David's young men arrived, they spoke to Nabal all these words in the name of David, and then they waited.

¹⁰ But Nabal answered David's servants, “Who is David? Who is this son of Jesse? These days many servants are breaking away from their masters. ¹¹ Why should I take my bread and my water and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men who come from I do not know where?

¹² So David's young men turned and went back, and when they arrived they reported to him every word.

¹³ David said to his men, “Each of you, strap on your sword!” So each man strapped on his sword, and David strapped on his too. About four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred stayed behind with the supplies.

¹⁴ But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, and he hurled insults at them. ¹⁵ Yet these men were very good to us. They never mistreated us, and the whole time we were out in the fields with them we missed nothing. ¹⁶ Night and day they were a wall around us the entire time we were with them tending the sheep. ¹⁷ Now think it over and see what you should do, for disaster is being planned against our master and his whole household. He is such a worthless man that no one can speak to him.

Abigail's Wise Plea for Peace

¹⁸ Then Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already prepared, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. ¹⁹ She told her young men, “Go on ahead of me; I will follow you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. ²⁰ As she rode her donkey down a hidden mountain path, there were David and his men coming down toward her, and she met them.

²¹ Now David had been saying, “It was all for nothing that I guarded everything this fellow had in the wilderness, so that nothing of his went missing. He has paid me back evil for good. ²² May our Father do so to the enemies of David, and even more, if by morning I leave alive so much as one male of all who belong to him.”

²³ When Abigail saw David, she quickly got down from her donkey and fell facedown before David, bowing low to the ground. ²⁴ She fell at his feet and said, “Let the blame be on me alone, my lord. Please let your servant speak to you; hear the words of your servant. ²⁵ Please, my lord, pay no attention to this worthless man Nabal, for he is just like his name: Nabal means Fool, and folly goes with him. But I, your servant, did not see the young men my lord sent. ²⁶ Now, my lord, as surely as our Father lives and as you yourself live, since our Father has held you back from shedding blood and from avenging yourself by your own hand, may your enemies and all who seek to harm my lord become like Nabal. ²⁷ And now let this gift your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord. ²⁸ Please forgive your servant's offense, for our Father will surely make my lord a lasting dynasty, because my lord fights our Father's battles. Let no wrongdoing be found in you as long as you live. ²⁹ Even if someone rises up to pursue you and to seek your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living in the care of your Father; but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling. ³⁰ When our Father has done for my lord every good thing he has promised concerning you, and has appointed you ruler over Israel, ³¹ my lord will have no grief or troubled conscience for having shed blood without cause or for having taken vengeance himself. And when our Father has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant.

³² David said to Abigail, “Blessed be our Father, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me. ³³ And blessed be your good judgment, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from shedding blood and from avenging myself by my own hand. ³⁴ For as surely as our Father, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not hurried to meet me, surely not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by morning.

³⁵ Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him, and he said to her, “Go home in peace. See, I have heard your voice and granted your request.

³⁶ When Abigail came to Nabal, he was holding a banquet in his house, like the banquet of a king. Nabal was in high spirits and very drunk, so she told him nothing at all until daybreak. ³⁷ In the morning, when the wine had left Nabal, his wife told him everything. His heart failed within him, and he became like a stone. ³⁸ About ten days later, our Father struck Nabal, and he died.

David Welcomes Abigail Home

³⁹ When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be our Father, who has taken up my cause against the reproach I suffered from Nabal and has kept his servant from doing wrong. Our Father has brought Nabal's wickedness down on his own head.” Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife.

⁴⁰ When David's servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent us to you to take you to be his wife.

⁴¹ She rose and bowed facedown to the ground and said, “Here is your servant, ready to serve and to wash the feet of my lord's servants. ⁴² Then Abigail quickly got ready, mounted her donkey, and with her five attendants she followed David's messengers and became his wife. ⁴³ David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, so both of them were his wives. ⁴⁴ But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Paltiel son of Laish, who was from Gallim.