1 Samuel 25

1 And Samuel died. All Israel gathered and mourned for him, and they buried him at his house in Ramathaim. And David set out and went down to the wilderness of Maon. [a] 2 There was a man in Maon whose flocks were in Carmel, and the man was very great; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And it happened that he was shearing his flock in Carmel. 3 The man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. His wife was good in understanding and very beautiful to look at, but the man was hard and evil in the way he went about things, and the man was surly. [b]

4 And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal the Carmelite was shearing his flock, 5 and David sent ten young men. And he said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. 6 And you are to say this: ‘Long life to you! May you be well, and your household well, and everything that is yours well. [c] 7 And now I have heard that they are shearing for you. Your shepherds were with us in the wilderness, and we did not hinder them, and we demanded nothing from them all the days they were in Carmel. 8 Ask your own young men and they will tell you. So let these young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a good day. Give, please, whatever your hand can find, to your son David.’”

9 So the young men came and spoke these words to Nabal, all of them in David’s name. And he sprang up 10 and Nabal answered David’s servants and said, “Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? These days there are plenty of slaves running off, every one of them from his master. 11 And am I to take my bread and my wine and the meat I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they are from?” 12 So David’s young men turned back on their road, and returned and came and reported all of this to David. 13 And David said to his men, “Every man strap on his sword.” And they went up after David, about four hundred men, and two hundred stayed with the baggage.

14 And one of the young men reported to Abigail, Nabal’s wife, and said, “David sent messengers out of the wilderness to bless our master, and he turned away from them. [d] 15 And the men were very good to us. They did not hinder us, and they demanded nothing from us all the days we were with them; and while we were out in the field 16 they were a wall around us, by night and by day, all the days we were with them shepherding the flock. 17 And now think, and see what you will do, because harm has been settled on against our master and against his whole household. And he is a plague of a man; no one can speak to him.”

18 So Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread, and two jars of wine, and five sheep already dressed, and about three bushels of barley meal, and two quarts of raisins, and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. [e] 19 And she said to her young men, “Go on ahead of me; I am coming behind you.” But she did not tell her husband. 20 And as she was riding her donkey and coming down under the cover of the mountain, there were David and his men coming down to meet her — and she met them.

21 Now David had said, “Perhaps it was for nothing that I guarded everything this man had in the wilderness, and we gave no order to take anything of all that was his — and he has paid me back evil for good. 22 May God do so to David, and more, if I leave one male alive until morning out of all that belongs to Nabal.” [f]

23 And Abigail saw David, and she hurried and got down off the donkey, and fell in front of David on her face, and bowed to him to the ground, 24 down at his feet, and said, “On me, my lord, be the wrong. Let your slave speak in your ears, and hear the words of your slave. 25 Please, my lord, do not set your heart against this plague of a man, because he is exactly what his name says: Nabal is his name, and folly goes with him. But I, your slave, never saw the young men my lord sent. [g] 26 And now, my lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives — since the Lord has held you back from coming into innocent blood, and from saving yourself by your own hand — now then, may your enemies, and those who look for harm to come to my lord, turn out like Nabal. [h] 27 And now take this blessing that your slave has brought to my lord, and give it to the young men who attend my lord. [i] 28 Take away, please, the lawless deed of your slave; for the Lord will surely make my lord a house that stands, because my lord fights the Lord’s battles, and no evil will ever be found in you. 29 And if a man rises up to hunt you down and seek your life, the life of my lord will be bound up in the bundle of life with the Lord God, and the lives of your enemies you will sling away out of the pocket of a sling. [j] 30 And when the Lord has done for my lord all the good he has spoken about you, and appoints you leader over Israel, 31 this will not be a detestable thing to you, or a stumbling block to my lord — to have poured out innocent blood for no cause, and to have saved himself by his own hand. And may the Lord do good to my lord; and remember your slave, to do her good.”

32 And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you out this very day to meet me; 33 and blessed be the way you have acted, and blessed are you, who have held me back this very day from coming into bloodshed and from saving myself by my own hand. 34 But truly, as the Lord the God of Israel lives, who kept me today from doing you harm — if you had not hurried and come out to meet me, then, as I said, there would not have been one male left to Nabal by the light of morning.” 35 And David took from her hand everything she had brought him, and said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See — I have listened to your voice, and I have granted what you asked.” [k]

36 And Abigail came to Nabal, and there he was, holding a drinking feast in his house like a king’s feast; and Nabal’s heart was merry in him, and he was very drunk. So she told him nothing, small or great, until the light of morning. 37 And in the morning, when Nabal had come out of his wine, his wife told him these things; and his heart died inside him, and he became like a stone. 38 And about ten days later the Lord struck Nabal, and he died. 39 And David heard it and said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has judged the case of my disgrace at Nabal’s hand, and has kept his slave clear of harm; and the Lord has turned Nabal’s evil back on his own head.” And David sent and spoke for Abigail, to take her to himself as a wife.

40 So David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel and spoke to her and said, “David has sent us to you, to take you to himself as a wife.” 41 And she got up and bowed to the ground on her face and said, “Here is your slave, a servant girl to wash the feet of your servants.” 42 And Abigail got up and mounted her donkey, and five young women went along behind her; and she followed David’s servants and became his wife. 43 And David took Ahinoam from Jezreel, and the two of them were his wives. 44 And Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Romma. [l]