1 Samuel 25
25
Abigail saves David
1Now Samuel died, and all Israel gathered to mourn for him. They buried him at his home in Ramah. David then left and went down to the Maon wilderness.#25.1 LXX; MT Paran
2There was a man in Maon who did business in Carmel. He was a very important man and owned three thousand sheep and one thousand goats. At that time, he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3The man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and attractive woman, but her husband was a hard man who did evil things. He was a Calebite.
4While in the wilderness, David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep. 5So David sent ten servants, telling them, “Go up to Carmel. When you get to Nabal, greet him for me. 6Say this to him: ‘Peace to you,#25.6 Heb uncertain your household, and all that is yours! 7I’ve heard that you are now shearing sheep. As you know, your shepherds were with us in the wilderness.#25.7 LXX, Syr; MT lacks in the wilderness. We didn’t mistreat them. Moreover, the whole time they were at Carmel, nothing of theirs went missing. 8Ask your servants; they will tell you the same. So please receive these young men favorably, because we’ve come on a special day. Please give whatever you have on hand to your servants and to your son David.’”
9When David’s young men arrived, they said all this to Nabal on David’s behalf. Then they waited. 10But Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is Jesse’s son? There are all sorts of slaves running away from their masters these days. 11Why should I take my bread, my water, and the meat I’ve butchered for my shearers and give it to people who came here from who knows where?” 12So David’s young servants turned around and went back the way they came. When they arrived, they reported every word of this to David.
13Then David said to his soldiers, “All of you, strap on your swords!” So each of them strapped on their swords, and David did the same. Nearly four hundred men went up with David. Two hundred men remained back with the supplies.
14One of Nabal’s servants told his wife Abigail, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he just yelled at them. 15But the men were very good to us and didn’t mistreat us. Nothing of ours went missing the whole time we were out with them in the fields. 16In fact, the whole time we were with them, watching our sheep, they were a protective wall around us both night and day. 17Think about that and see what you can do, because trouble is coming for our master and his whole household. But he’s such a despicable person no one can speak to him.”
18Abigail quickly took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep ready for cooking, five seahs#25.18 One seah is approximately seven and a half quarts. of roasted grain, one hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes. She loaded all this on donkeys 19and told her servants, “Go on ahead of me. I’ll be right behind you.” But she didn’t tell her husband Nabal.
20As she was riding her donkey, going down a trail on the hillside, David and his soldiers appeared, descending toward her, and she met up with them. 21David had just been saying, “What a waste of time—guarding all this man’s stuff in the wilderness so that nothing of his went missing! He has repaid me evil instead of good! 22May God deal harshly with me, David,#25.22 LXX; MT with David’s enemies and worse still if I leave alive even one single one who urinates on a wall#25.22 Descriptive phrase meaning "a male"; also in 25:34 belonging to him come morning!”
23When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and fell facedown before him, bowing low to the ground. 24She fell at his feet and said, “Put the blame on me, my master! But please let me, your servant, speak to you directly. Please listen to what your servant has to say. 25Please, my master, pay no attention to this despicable man Nabal. He’s exactly what his name says he is! His name means fool,#25.25 Heb nabal and he is foolish!#25.25 Heb nebalah But I myself, your servant, didn’t see the young men that you, my master, sent. 26I pledge, my master, as surely as the LORD lives and as you live, that the LORD has held you back from bloodshed and taking vengeance into your own hands! But now let your enemies and those who seek to harm my master be exactly like Nabal! 27Here is a gift, which your servant has brought to my master. Please let it be given to the young men who follow you, my master. 28Please forgive any offense by your servant. The LORD will definitely make an enduring dynasty for my master because my master fights the LORD’s battles, and nothing evil will be found in you throughout your lifetime. 29If someone chases after you and tries to kill you, my master, then your life will be bound up securely in the bundle of life#25.29 Or bundle of the living; Heb uncertain; perhaps a tied-up scroll (cf Exod 32:32-33; Ps 69:28; Isa 8:16) by the LORD your God, but he will fling away your enemies’ lives as from the pouch of a sling. 30When the LORD has done for my master all the good things he has promised you, and has installed you as Israel’s leader, 31don’t let this be a blot or burden on my master’s conscience, that you shed blood needlessly or that my master took vengeance into his own hands. When the LORD has done good things for my master, please remember your servant.”
32David said to Abigail, “Bless the LORD God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today! 33And bless you and your good judgment for preventing me from shedding blood and taking vengeance into my own hands today! 34Otherwise, as surely as the LORD God of Israel lives—the one who kept me from hurting you—if you hadn’t come quickly and met up with me, there wouldn’t be one single one who urinates on a wall left come morning.” 35Then David accepted everything she had brought for him. “Return home in peace,” he told her. “Be assured that I’ve heard your request and have agreed to it.”
36When Abigail got back home to Nabal, he was throwing a party fit for a king in his house. Nabal was in a great mood and very drunk, so Abigail didn’t tell him anything until daybreak. 37In the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him everything. Nabal’s heart failed inside him, and he became like a stone. 38About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal, and he died.
39When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Bless the LORD, who has rendered a verdict regarding Nabal’s insult to me and who kept me, his servant, from doing something evil! The LORD has brought Nabal’s evil down on his own head.” Then David sent word to Abigail, saying that he would take her as his wife.
40When David’s servants reached Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent us to you so you can become his wife.”
41She bowed low to the ground and said, “I am your servant, ready to serve and wash the feet of my master’s helpers.” 42Then Abigail got up quickly and rode on her donkey, with five of her young women going with her. She followed David’s messengers and became his wife.
43David also married Ahinoam from Jezreel, so both of them were his wives. 44But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti, Laish’s son, from Gallim.
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1 Samuel 25: CEB
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2011 Common English Bible. All rights reserved.
1 Kings 25
25
1And Samuel died. And all Israel was gathered together; and they mourned for him, and buried him in his house in Ramatha. And David rose and went down into the wilderness of Pharan.
2Now there was a certain man in the wilderness of Maon, and his possessions were in Carmel. And the man was very great: and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats. And it happened that he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.
3Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife was Abigail. And she was a prudent and very comely woman; but her husband was churlish, and very bad and ill-natured. And he was of the house of Caleb.
4And when David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep,
5He sent ten young men, and said to them: Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and salute him in my name with peace.
6And you shall say: Peace be to my brethren, and to thee, and peace to thy house, and peace to all that thou hast.
7I heard that thy shepherds that were with us in the desert were shearing. We never molested them; neither was there aught missing to them of the flock at any time, all the while they were with us in Carmel.
8Ask thy servants, and they will tell thee. Now therefore let thy servants find favour in thy eyes: for we are come in a good day. Whatsoever thy hand shall find give to thy servants, and to thy son David.
9And when David's servants came they spoke to Nabal all these words in David's name: and then held their peace.
10But Nabal answering the servants of David said: Who is David? And what is the son of Isai? Servants are multiplied nowadays who flee from their masters.
11Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and the flesh of my cattle, which I have killed for my shearers, and give to men whom I know not whence they are?
12So the servants of David went back their way: and returning came and told him all the words that he said.
13Then David said to his young men: Let every man gird on his sword. And they girded on every man his sword. And David also girded on his sword: and there followed David about four hundred men. And two hundred remained with the baggage.
14But one of the servants told Abigail the wife of Nabal, saying: Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness, to salute our master; and he rejected them.
15These men were very good to us, and gave us no trouble: neither did we ever lose any thing all the time that we conversed with them in the desert.
16They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
17Wherefore consider, and think what thou hast to do: for evil is determined against thy husband, and against thy house. And he is a son of Belial, so that no man can speak to him.
18Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves, and two vessels of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of dry figs, and laid them upon asses.
19And she said to her servants: Go before me. Behold, I will follow after you. But she told not her husband Nabal.
20And when she had gotten upon an ass, and was coming down to the foot of the mountain, David and his men came down over against her, and she met them.
21And David said: Truly in vain have I kept all that belonged to this man in the wilderness, and nothing was lost of all that pertained unto him: and he hath returned me evil for good.
22May God do so and so, and add more to the foes of David, if I leave of all that belong to him till the morning any that pisseth against the wall.
23And when Abigail saw David she made haste and lighted off the ass, and fell before David, on her face, and adored upon the ground.
24And she fell at his feet, and said: Upon me let this iniquity be, my lord. Let thy handmaid speak, I beseech thee, in thy ears: and hear the words of thy servant.
25Let not my lord the king, I pray, regard this naughty man Nabal: for according to his name, he is a fool, and folly is with him. But I thy handmaid did not see thy servants, my lord, whom thou sentest.
26Now therefore, my lord, the Lord liveth, and thy soul liveth, who hath withholden thee from coming to blood, and hath saved thy hand to thee: and now let thy enemies be as Nabal, and all they that seek evil to my lord.
27Wherefore receive this blessing, which thy handmaid hath brought to thee, my lord: and give it to the young men that follow thee, my lord.
28Forgive the iniquity of thy handmaid: for the Lord will surely make for my lord a faithful house, because thou, my lord, fightest the battles of the Lord. Let not evil therefore be found in thee all the days of thy life.
29For if a man at any time shall rise, and persecute thee, and seek thy life, the soul of my lord shall be kept, as in the bundle of the living, with the Lord thy God. But the souls of thy enemies shall be whirled, as with the violence and whirling of a sling.
30And when the Lord shall have done to thee, my lord, all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have made thee prince over Israel,
31This shall not be an occasion of grief to thee, and a scruple of heart to my lord, that thou hast shed innocent blood, or hast revenged thyself: and when the Lord shall have done well by my lord thou shalt remember thy handmaid.
32And David said to Abigail: Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, who sent thee this day to meet me, and blessed be thy speech.
33And blessed be thou, who hast kept me to-day, from coming to blood, and revenging me with my own hand.
34Otherwise, as the Lord liveth the God of Israel, who hath withholden me from doing thee any evil: if thou hadst not quickly come to meet me, there had not been left to Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.
35And David received at her hand all that she had brought him, and said to her: Go in peace into thy house. Behold, I have heard thy voice, and have honoured thy face.
36And Abigail came to Nabal. And, behold, he had a feast in his house, like the feast of a king, and Nabal's heart was merry: for he was very drunk. And she told him nothing less or more until morning.
37But early in the morning, when Nabal had digested his wine, his wife told him these words: and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.
38And after ten days had passed, the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.
39And when David had heard that Nabal was dead he said: Blessed be the Lord, who hath judged the cause of my reproach at the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil; and the Lord hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his head. Then David sent and treated with Abigail, that he might take her to himself for a wife.
40And David's servants came to Abigail to Carmel, and spoke to her, saying: David hath sent us to thee, to take thee to himself for a wife.
41And she arose and bowed herself down with her face to the earth, and said: Behold, let thy servant be a handmaid, to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.
42And Abigail arose, and made haste, and got upon an ass, and five damsels went with her, her waiting maids; and she followed the messengers of David, and became his wife.
43Moreover David took also Achinoam of Jezrahel. And they were both of them his wives.
44But Saul gave Michol his daughter, David's wife, to Phalti, the son of Lais, who was of Gallium.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.