1 Samuel 25
25
David, Nabal and Abigail
1When Samuel died, the whole nation of Israel gathered together. They were filled with sorrow because he was dead. They buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David went down into the Desert of Paran.
2A certain man in Maon was very wealthy. He owned property there at Carmel. He had 1,000 goats and 3,000 sheep. He was clipping the wool off the sheep in Carmel. 3His name was Nabal. His wife’s name was Abigail. She was a wise and beautiful woman. But her husband was rude and mean in the way he treated others. He was from the family of Caleb.
4David was staying in the Desert of Paran. While he was there, he heard that Nabal was clipping the wool off his sheep. 5So he sent for ten young men. He said to them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel. Greet him for me. 6Say to him, ‘May you live a long time! May everything go well with you and your family! And may things go well with everything that belongs to you!
7“ ‘I hear that you are clipping the wool off your sheep. When your shepherds were with us, we treated them well. The whole time they were at Carmel nothing that belonged to them was stolen. 8Ask your own servants. They’ll tell you. We’ve come to you now at a happy time of the year. Please be kind to my men. Please give me and my men anything you can find for us.’ ”
9When David’s men arrived, they gave Nabal the message from David. Then they waited.
10Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are running away from their masters these days. 11Why should I give away my bread and water? Why should I give away the meat I’ve prepared for those who clip the wool off my sheep? Why should I give food to men who come from who knows where?”
12So David’s men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported to David every word Nabal had spoken. 13David said to his men, “Each of you put on your swords!” So they did. David put his sword on too. About 400 men went up with David. Two hundred men stayed behind with the supplies.
14One of the servants warned Abigail, Nabal’s wife. He said, “David sent some messengers from the desert to give his greetings to our master. But Nabal shouted at them and was rude to them. 15David’s men had been very good to us. They treated us well. The whole time we were near them out in the fields, nothing was stolen. 16We were taking care of our sheep near them. During that time, they were like a wall around us night and day. They kept us safe. 17Now think it over. See what you can do. Horrible trouble will soon come to our master and his whole family. He’s such an evil man that no one can even talk to him.”
18Abigail didn’t waste any time. She got 200 loaves of bread and two bottles of wine. The bottles were made out of animal skins. She got five sheep that were ready to be cooked. She got a bushel of grain that had been cooked. She got 100 raisin cakes. And she got 200 cakes of pressed figs. She loaded all of it on the backs of donkeys. 19Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead. I’ll follow you.” But she didn’t tell her husband Nabal about it.
20Abigail rode her donkey into a mountain valley. There she saw David and his men. They were coming down toward her. 21David had just said, “Everything we’ve done hasn’t been worth a thing! I watched over that fellow’s property in the desert. I made sure none of it was stolen. But he has paid me back evil for good. 22I won’t leave even one of his men alive until morning. If I do, may God punish me greatly!”
23When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey. She bowed down in front of David with her face toward the ground. 24She fell at his feet. She said, “Pardon your servant, sir. Please let me speak to you. Listen to what I’m saying. Let me take the blame myself. 25Please don’t pay any attention to that evil man Nabal. His name means Foolish Person. And that’s exactly what he is. He’s always doing foolish things. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to see the men you sent. 26Sir, the Lord has kept you from killing Nabal and his men. He has kept you from using your own hands to get even. So may what’s about to happen to Nabal happen to all your enemies. May it happen to everyone who wants to harm you. And may it happen just as surely as the Lord your God and you are alive. 27I’ve brought a gift for you. Give it to the men who follow you.
28“Please forgive me if I shouldn’t have done that. The Lord your God will certainly give you and your family line a kingdom that will last. That’s because you fight the Lord’s battles. You won’t do anything wrong as long as you live. 29Someone may chase you and try to kill you. But the Lord your God will keep your life safe like a treasure hidden in a bag. And he’ll destroy your enemies. Their lives will be thrown away, just as a stone is thrown from a sling. 30The Lord will do for you every good thing he promised to do. He’ll appoint you ruler over Israel. 31When that happens, you won’t have this heavy load on your mind. You won’t have to worry about how you killed people without any reason. You won’t have to worry about how you got even. The Lord your God will give you success. When that happens, please remember me.”
32David said to Abigail, “Give praise to the Lord. He is the God of Israel. He has sent you today to find me. 33May the Lord bless you for what you have done. You have shown a lot of good sense. You have kept me from killing Nabal and his men this day. You have kept me from using my own hands to get even. 34It’s a good thing you came quickly to meet me. If you hadn’t come, not one of Nabal’s men would have been left alive by sunrise. And that’s just as sure as the Lord, the God of Israel, is alive. He has kept me from harming you.”
35Then David accepted from her what she had brought him. He said, “Go home in peace. I’ve heard your words. I’ll do what you have asked.”
36Abigail went back to Nabal. He was having a dinner party in the house. It was the kind of dinner a king would have. He had been drinking too much wine. He was very drunk. So she didn’t tell him anything at all until sunrise. 37The next morning Nabal wasn’t drunk anymore. Then his wife told him everything. When she did, his heart grew weak. He became like a stone. 38About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal down. And he died.
39David heard that Nabal was dead. So he said, “Give praise to the Lord. Nabal was rude to me. But the Lord stood up for me. He has kept me from doing something wrong. He has paid Nabal back for the wrong things he did.”
Then David sent a message to Abigail. He asked her to become his wife. 40His servants went to Carmel. They said to Abigail, “David has sent us to you. He wants you to come back with us and become his wife.”
41Abigail bowed down with her face toward the ground. She said, “I am your servant. I’m ready to serve him. I’m ready to wash the feet of his servants.” 42Abigail quickly got on a donkey and went with David’s messengers. Her five female servants went with her. She became David’s wife. 43David had also married Ahinoam from Jezreel. Both of them became his wives. 44But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s first wife, to Paltiel. Paltiel was from Gallim. He was the son of Laish.
Currently Selected:
1 Samuel 25: NIrV
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV®
Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998, 2014 by Biblica, Inc.®
Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
1 Samuel 25
25
Death of Samuel. 1Samuel died, and all Israel gathered to mourn him; they buried him at his home in Ramah.#1 Sm 28:3; Sir 46:13–20. Then David went down to the wilderness of Paran.
Nabal and Abigail. 2There was a man of Maon who had property in Carmel; he was very wealthy, owning three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. At the time, he was present for the shearing of his flock in Carmel.#1 Sm 23:24; Jos 15:55. 3The man’s name was Nabal and his wife was Abigail. The woman was intelligent and attractive, but Nabal, a Calebite, was harsh and bad-mannered.#1 Sm 27:3; Dt 1:35–36; Jos 14:6–15; 1 Chr 2:42, 45. 4While in the wilderness, David heard that Nabal was shearing his flock, 5so he sent ten young men, instructing them: “Go up to Carmel. Pay Nabal a visit and greet him in my name. 6Say to him, ‘Peace be with you, my brother, and with your family, and with all who belong to you. 7I have just heard that shearers are with you. Now, when your shepherds were with us, we did them no injury, neither did they miss anything while they were in Carmel. 8Ask your servants and they will tell you. Look kindly on these young men, since we come at a festival time. Please give your servants and your son David#Your son David: this kinship language may reflect a political or social relationship between Nabal and David. Nabal, however, does not acknowledge it. whatever you can.’”
9When David’s young men arrived, they delivered the entire message to Nabal in David’s name, and then waited. 10But Nabal answered the servants of David: “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? Nowadays there are many servants who run away from their masters. 11Must I take my bread, my wine, my meat that I have slaughtered for my own shearers, and give them to men who come from who knows where?” 12So David’s young men retraced their steps and on their return reported to him all that had been said. 13Thereupon David said to his men, “Let everyone strap on his sword.” And everyone did so, and David put on his own sword. About four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage.
14Abigail, Nabal’s wife, was informed of this by one of the servants, who said: “From the wilderness David sent messengers to greet our master, but he screamed at them. 15Yet these men were very good to us. We were not harmed, neither did we miss anything all the while we were living among them during our stay in the open country. 16Day and night they were a wall of protection for us, the whole time we were pasturing the sheep near them. 17Now, see what you can do, for you must realize that otherwise disaster is in store for our master and for his whole house. He is such a scoundrel that no one can talk to him.” 18Abigail quickly got together two hundred loaves, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of pressed raisins, and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19She then said to her servants, “Go on ahead; I will follow you.” But to her husband Nabal she said nothing.
20Hidden by the mountain, she came down riding on a donkey, as David and his men were coming down from the opposite direction. When she met them, 21David had just been saying: “Indeed, it was in vain that I guarded all this man’s possessions in the wilderness, so that nothing of his was missing. He has repaid good with evil. 22May God do thus to David, and more, if by morning I leave a single male alive among all those who belong to him.”#1 Kgs 16:11; 21:21; 2 Kgs 9:8. 23As soon as Abigail saw David, she dismounted quickly from the donkey and, falling down, bowed low to the ground before David in homage.
24As she fell at his feet she said: “My lord, let the blame be mine. Please let your maidservant speak to you; listen to the words of your maidservant.#2 Sm 14:9. 25My lord, do not pay any attention to that scoundrel Nabal, for he is just like his name. His name means fool,#Hebrew nabal means “fool” (cf. Is 32:5–7). Abigail, on the other hand, acts wisely to save herself and her household by offering prudent counsel to the future king of Israel. and he acts the fool. I, your maidservant, did not see the young men whom my lord sent. 26Now, therefore, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as you live, the Lord has kept you from shedding blood and from avenging yourself by your own hand. May your enemies and those who seek to harm my lord become as Nabal!#Abigail, encouraging David to trust in God’s promise, anticipates that some misfortune will shortly overtake Nabal, as in fact it does (vv. 37–38). #Dt 20:4; Jgs 7:2. 27Accept this gift, then, which your maidservant has brought for my lord, and let it be given to the young men who follow my lord. 28Please forgive the offense of your maidservant, for the Lord shall certainly establish a lasting house for my lord, because my lord fights the battles of the Lord. Let no evil be found in you your whole life long.#1 Kgs 11:38. 29If any adversary pursues you to seek your life, may the life of my lord be bound in the bundle of the living#The bundle of the living: the figure is perhaps taken from the practice of tying up valuables in a kerchief or bag for safekeeping. Abigail desires that David enjoy permanent peace and security, but that his enemies be subject to constant agitation and humiliation like a stone whirled about, cast out of the sling, and thereafter disregarded. in the care of the Lord your God; may God hurl out the lives of your enemies as from the hollow of a sling.#Ps 69:28. 30And when the Lord fulfills for my lord the promise of success he has made concerning you, and appoints you as ruler over Israel,#1 Sm 13:14; 2 Sm 3:10. 31you shall not have any regrets or burdens on your conscience, my lord, for having shed innocent blood or for having rescued yourself. When the Lord bestows good on my lord, remember your maidservant.” 32David said to Abigail: “Blessed is the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today. 33Blessed is your good judgment and blessed are you yourself. Today you have prevented me from shedding blood and rescuing myself with my own hand. 34Otherwise, as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come so promptly to meet me, by dawn Nabal would not have had so much as one male left alive.” 35David then took from her what she had brought him and said to her: “Go to your home in peace! See, I have listened to your appeal and have granted your request.”
Nabal’s Death. 36When Abigail came to Nabal, he was hosting a banquet in his house like that of a king, and Nabal was in a festive mood and very drunk. So she said not a word to him until daybreak the next morning. 37But then, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him what had happened. At this his heart died within him, and he became like a stone. 38About ten days later the Lord struck Nabal and he died. 39Hearing that Nabal was dead, David said: “Blessed be the Lord, who has defended my cause against the insult from Nabal, and who restrained his servant from doing evil, but has repaid Nabal for his evil deeds.”
David Marries Abigail and Ahinoam. David then sent a proposal of marriage to Abigail.#1 Kgs 2:44. 40When David’s servants came to Abigail in Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent us to make his proposal of marriage to you.” 41Rising and bowing to the ground, she answered, “Let your maidservant be the slave who washes the feet of my lord’s servants.” 42She got up immediately, mounted a donkey, and followed David’s messengers, with her five maids attending her. She became his wife. 43#1 Sm 27:3. David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel. Thus both of them were his wives. 44But Saul gave David’s wife Michal, Saul’s own daughter, to Palti, son of Laish, who was from Gallim.#1 Sm 18:20; 27:3; 30:5; 2 Sm 2:2, 13–16; 1 Chr 3:1.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc