1 Samuel 25
25
Samuel’s Death
1Then Samuel died; and all Israel gathered together and mourned for him, and buried him at his house in Ramah. And David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.
Nabal and Abigail
2Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel; and the man was very rich, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And it came about while he was shearing his sheep in Carmel 3(now the man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. And the woman was intelligent and beautiful in appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his dealings, and he was a Calebite), 4that David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. 5So David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, visit Nabal and greet him in my name; 6and thus you shall say, ‘Have a long life, peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. 7Now I have heard that you have shearers; now your shepherds have been with us and we have not insulted them, nor have they missed anything 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 a festive 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 according to all these words in David’s name; then they waited. 10But Nabal answered David’s servants and said, “Who 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 take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men whose origin I do not know?” 12So David’s young men retraced their way and went back; and they came and told him according to all these words. 13David said to his men, “Each of you gird on his sword.” So each man girded on his sword. And David also girded on his sword, and about four hundred men went up behind David while two hundred stayed with the baggage.
14But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, and he scorned them. 15Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not insulted, nor did we miss anything as long as we went about with them, while we were in the fields. 16They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the time we were with them tending the sheep. 17Now therefore, know and consider what you should do, for evil is plotted against our master and against all his household; and he is such a worthless man that no one can speak to him.”
Abigail Intercedes
18Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread and two jugs of wine and five sheep already prepared and five measures of roasted grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19She said to her young men, “Go on before me; behold, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. 20It came about 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, “Surely in vain I have guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; and he has returned me evil for good. 22May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if by morning I leave as much as one male of any who belong to him.”
23When Abigail saw David, she hurried and dismounted from her donkey, and fell on her face before David and bowed herself to the ground. 24She fell at his feet and said, “On me alone, my lord, be the blame. And please let your maidservant speak to you, and listen to the words of your maidservant. 25Please do not let my lord pay attention to this worthless man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name and folly is with him; but I your maidservant did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.
26“Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, since the Lord has restrained you from shedding blood, and from avenging yourself by your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord, be as Nabal. 27Now let this gift which your maidservant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who accompany my lord. 28Please forgive the transgression of your maidservant; for the Lord will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil will not be found in you all your days. 29Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, then the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; but the lives of your enemies He will sling out as from the hollow of a sling. 30And when the Lord does for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and appoints you ruler over Israel, 31this will not cause grief or a troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord having avenged himself. When the Lord deals well with my lord, then remember your maidservant.”
32Then David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, 33and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand. 34Nevertheless, as the Lord God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from harming you, unless you had come quickly to meet me, surely there would not have been left to Nabal until the morning light as much as one male.” 35So David received from her hand what she had brought him and said to her, “Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to you and granted your request.”
36Then Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk; so she did not tell him anything at 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 as a stone. 38About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.
David Marries Abigail
39When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal and has kept back His servant from evil. The Lord has also returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent a proposal to Abigail, to take her as his wife. 40When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, “David has sent us to you to take you as his wife.” 41She arose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, “Behold, your maidservant is a maid to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.” 42Then Abigail quickly arose, and rode on a donkey, with her five maidens who attended her; and she followed the messengers of David and became his wife.
43David had also taken Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both became his wives.
44Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was from Gallim.
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1 Samuel 25: NASB1995
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1 Samuel 25
25
Samuel dies
1Samuel died, and people from all over Israel gathered to mourn for him when he was buried at his home#25.1 at his home: Hebrew “in his house”. Family tombs were sometimes underneath the house or in the courtyard of the home. in Ramah. Meanwhile, David moved his camp to Paran Desert.#25.1 Paran Desert: Hebrew; some manuscripts of one ancient translation “Maon Desert”.
Abigail keeps David from killing innocent people
2-3Nabal was a very rich man who lived in Maon. He owned three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, which he kept at Carmel.#25.2,3 Carmel: About one and a half kilometres north of Maon in the Southern Desert of Judah. His wife Abigail was sensible and beautiful, but he was from the Caleb clan#25.2,3 from the Caleb clan: Or “behaved like a dog”. and was rough and mean.
4One day, Nabal was in Carmel, while his servants cut the wool from his sheep. David was in the desert when he heard about it. 5-6So he sent ten men to Carmel with this message for Nabal:
I hope that you and your family are healthy and that all is going well for you. 7I've heard that you are cutting the wool from your sheep.
When your shepherds were with us in Carmel, we didn't harm them, and nothing was ever stolen from them. 8Ask your shepherds, and they'll tell you the same thing.
My servants are your servants, and you are like a father to me. This is a day for celebrating,#25.8 celebrating: Cutting the wool from the sheep was a time for celebrating as well as for working. so please be kind and share some of your food with us.
9David's men went to Nabal and gave him David's message, then they waited for Nabal's answer.
10This is what he said:
Who does this David think he is? That son of Jesse is just one more slave on the run from his master, and there are too many of them these days. 11What makes you think I would take my bread, my water, and the meat that I've had cooked for my own servants#25.11 servants: Hebrew “shearers”, the servants who cut the wool from the sheep. and give it to you? Besides, I'm not sure that David sent you!#25.11 I'm not sure…sent you: Or “I don't know where you come from.”
12The men returned to their camp and told David everything Nabal had said.
13“Everybody get your swords!” David ordered.
They all strapped on their swords. Two hundred men stayed behind to guard the camp, but the other four hundred followed David.
14-16Meanwhile, one of Nabal's servants told Abigail:
David's men were often nearby while we were taking care of the sheep in the fields. They were very good to us, they never hurt us, and nothing was ever stolen from us while they were nearby. With them around day or night, we were as safe as we would have been inside a walled city.
David sent some messengers from the desert to wish our master well, but he shouted insults at them. 17He's a bully who won't listen to anyone.
Isn't there something you can do? Please think of something! Or else our master and his family and everyone who works for him are all doomed.
18Abigail quickly got together two hundred loaves of bread, two large clay jars of wine, the meat from five sheep, a large sack of roasted grain, a hundred handfuls of raisins, and two hundred handfuls of dried figs. She loaded all the food on donkeys 19and told her servants, “Take this on ahead, and I'll catch up with you.” She didn't tell her husband Nabal what she was doing.
20Abigail was riding her donkey on the path that led around the hillside, when suddenly she met David and his men heading straight at her.
21David had just been saying, “I wasted my time guarding Nabal's things in the desert and keeping them from being stolen! I was good to him, and now he pays me back with insults. 22I swear that by morning, there won't be a man or boy left from his family or his servants' families. I pray that God will punish me#25.22 me: One ancient translation; Hebrew “my enemies”. if I don't do it!”
23Abigail quickly got off her donkey and bowed down in front of David. 24Then she said:
Sir, please let me explain! 25Don't pay any attention to that good-for-nothing Nabal. His name means “fool”, and it really fits him!
I didn't see the men you sent, 26-27but please take this gift of food that I've brought and share it with your followers. The LORD has kept you from taking revenge and from killing innocent people. But I hope your enemies and anyone else who wants to harm you will end up like Nabal. I swear this by the living LORD and by your life.
28Please forgive me if I say a little more. The LORD will always protect you and your family, because you fight for him. I pray that you won't ever do anything evil as long as you live. 29The LORD your God will keep you safe when your enemies try to kill you. But he will snatch away their lives quicker than you can throw a stone from a sling.
30The LORD has promised to do many good things for you, even to make you the ruler of Israel. The LORD will keep his promises to you, 31and now your conscience will be clear, because you won't be guilty of taking revenge and killing innocent people.
When the LORD does all those good things for you, please remember me.
32David told her:
I praise the LORD God of Israel! He must have sent you to meet me today. 33And you should also be praised. Your good sense kept me from taking revenge and killing innocent people. 34If you hadn't come to meet me so quickly, every man and boy in Nabal's family and in his servants' families would have been killed by morning. I swear by the living LORD God of Israel who protected you that this is the truth.
35David accepted the food Abigail had brought. “Don't worry,” he said. “You can go home now. I'll do what you asked.”
36Abigail went back home and found Nabal throwing a party fit for a king. He was very drunk and feeling good, so she didn't tell him anything that night. 37But when he sobered up the next morning, Abigail told him everything that had happened. Nabal had a heart attack, and he lay in bed as still as a stone. 38Ten days later, the LORD took his life.
39-40David heard that Nabal had died. “I praise the LORD!” David said. “He has judged Nabal guilty for insulting me. The LORD kept me from doing anything wrong, and he made sure that Nabal hurt only himself with his own evil.”
David and Abigail are married
Abigail was still at Carmel. So David sent messengers to ask her if she would marry him.
41She bowed down and said, “I would willingly be David's slave and wash his servants' feet.”
42Abigail quickly got ready and went back with David's messengers. She rode on her donkey, while five of her servant women walked beside her. She and David were married as soon as she arrived.
43David had earlier married Ahinoam from the town of Jezreel, so both she and Abigail were now David's wives.#25.43 wives: Having more than one wife was allowed in those times. 44Meanwhile, Saul had arranged for Michal#25.44 Michal: David's first wife (see 18.20—19.17). to marry Palti the son of Laish, who came from the town of Gallim.#2 S 3.14-16.
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