1 Samuel 25
25
David and Nabal the Fool
1Samuel died. All the Israelites met together and mourned his death. They buried him at his home in Ramah.
Then David moved to the desert of Maon.#25:1 Maon This is from the ancient Greek version. The standard Hebrew text has “Paran.” 2There was a very rich man living in Maon. He had 3000 sheep and 1000 goats. That man was in Carmel taking care of some business. He went there to cut the wool from his sheep. 3This man’s name was Nabal.#25:3 Nabal This name means “foolish.” He was from Caleb’s family. Nabal’s wife was named Abigail. She was a wise and beautiful woman, but Nabal was a mean and cruel man.
4David was in the desert when he heard that Nabal was cutting the wool from his sheep. 5David sent ten young men to talk to Nabal. He told them, “Go to Carmel. Find Nabal and tell him ‘Hello’ for me.” 6David gave them this message for Nabal: “May you and your family be well and all that you own be well. 7I heard that you are cutting wool from your sheep. Your shepherds were with us for a while, and we did nothing wrong to them. We never took anything from your shepherds while they were at Carmel. 8Ask your servants and they will tell you this is true. Please be kind to my young men. We come to you now, at this happy time. Please give these young men anything you can. Please do this for me, your friend#25:8 friend Literally, “son.” David.”
9David’s men went to Nabal. They gave his message to Nabal, 10but Nabal said, “Who is David? Who is this son of Jesse? There are many slaves who have run away from their masters these days. 11I have bread and water, and I have the meat I killed for my servants who cut the wool from my sheep. But I won’t give them to men I don’t even know.”
12David’s men went back and told him everything that Nabal had said. 13David’s response was, “Put on your swords.” So David and his men put on their swords. About 400 men went with David while 200 of them stayed with the supplies.
Abigail Prevents Trouble
14One of Nabal’s servants spoke to Nabal’s wife Abigail. The servant said, “David sent messengers from the desert to meet our master, but Nabal was rude to them. 15These men were very good to us while we were out in the fields with the sheep. David’s men were with us the whole time, and they never did anything wrong to us. They did not take anything from us. 16His men protected us night and day. They were like a wall around us—they protected us while we were with them caring for the sheep. 17Nabal was foolish to say what he did. Terrible trouble is coming to our master and all his family. You need to think of something to do.”
18Abigail quickly gathered up 200 loaves of bread, two full wine bags, five cooked sheep, about a bushel#25:18 about a bushel Literally, “5 seahs” (36.5 l). of cooked grain, about 2 quarts#25:18 about 2 quarts Literally, “1 omer” (2.2 l). of raisins, and 200 cakes of pressed figs. She put them on donkeys. 19Then Abigail told her servants, “Go on. I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband.
20Abigail rode her donkey down to the other side of the mountain. She met David and his men coming from the other direction.
21David was saying, “I protected Nabal’s property in the desert. I made sure not one of his sheep was missing. I did all that for nothing. I was good to him, but he was rude to me. 22I swear,#25:22 I swear Literally, “May God do so and so for David’s enemies if ….” I won’t let even one man in Nabal’s family live until tomorrow morning.”
23Just then Abigail arrived. When she saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down with her face to the ground in front of him. 24Abigail fell at his feet and said, “Sir, please let me talk to you. Listen to what I say. Blame me for what happened. 25I didn’t see the men you sent. Sir, don’t pay any attention to that worthless man, Nabal. His name means ‘Foolish,’ and that is what he is. 26The Lord has kept you from killing innocent people. As surely as the Lord lives and you as well, may your enemies and anyone else who wants to harm you be as cursed as Nabal is. 27Now, I am bringing this gift to you. Please give these things to your men. 28Please forgive me for doing wrong. I know the Lord will make your family strong because you fight his battles. People will never find anything bad about you as long as you live. 29If someone chases you to kill you, the Lord your God will save your life. But he will throw away your enemies like a stone from a sling. 30The Lord promised to do many good things for you, and he will keep his promises. He will make you leader over Israel. 31So don’t do anything that would make you guilty of killing innocent people. Please don’t fall into that trap. Please remember me when the Lord blesses you.”
32David answered Abigail, “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel. Praise God for sending you to meet me. 33God bless you for your good judgment. You kept me from killing innocent people today. 34As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, if you hadn’t come quickly to meet me, not one man in Nabal’s family would have lived until tomorrow morning. But the Lord prevented me from hurting you.”
35Then David accepted Abigail’s gifts. He told her, “Go home in peace. I have listened to your request, and I will do what you asked.”
Nabal’s Death
36Abigail went back to Nabal, who was in the house. He had been eating like a king, and he was drunk and feeling good. So Abigail told Nabal nothing until the next morning. 37The next morning, Nabal was sober, so his wife told him everything. He had a heart attack and became as stiff as a rock. 38About ten days later, the Lord gave him a stroke and Nabal died.
39When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Praise the Lord! He judged Nabal to be wrong for insulting me and kept me from doing something wrong. The Lord made Nabal pay for what he did.”
Then David sent a message to Abigail and asked her to be his wife. 40His servants went to Carmel with this message, “David sent us to get you. He wants you to be his wife.”
41Abigail bowed her face to the ground. She said, “I am willing to be your slave woman, even if it is only to wash the feet of my master’s servants.”
42Abigail quickly got on a donkey and brought five of her maids with her. They followed David’s messengers. So Abigail became David’s wife. 43David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel. Both Ahinoam and Abigail were David’s wives. 44David was also married to Saul’s daughter Michal, but Saul had taken her away from him and had given her to a man named Palti, son of Laish. Palti was from the town named Gallim.
Currently Selected:
1 Samuel 25: ERV
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
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.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.