Now Samuel died. And all Israel assembled and mourned for him,
and they buried him in his house at Ramah.

   Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. And
there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was
very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was
shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now the name of the man was Nabal,
and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was discerning and
beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved; he was a
Calebite. David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his
sheep. So David sent ten young men. And David said to the young
men, “Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal and greet him in my name.
And thus you shall greet him: ‘Peace be to you, and peace be to
your house, and peace be to all that you have. I hear that you have
shearers. Now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no
harm, and they missed nothing all the time they were in Carmel. Ask
your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men
find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give
whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.’”

  When David's young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the
name of David, and then they waited. And Nabal answered David's
servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many
servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. Shall
I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my
shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?” So
David's young men turned away and came back and told him all this.
And David said to his men, “Every man strap on his sword!” And
every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his
sword. And about four hundred men went up after David, while two
hundred remained with the baggage.

  But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, “Behold,
David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master,
and he railed at them. Yet the men were very good to us, and we
suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the
fields, as long as we went with them. They were a wall to us both
by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the
sheep. Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, for
harm is determined against our master and against all his house,
and he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.”

  Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins
of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs of parched
grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of
figs, and laid them on donkeys. And she said to her young men, “Go
on before me; behold, I come after you.” But she did not tell her
husband Nabal. And as she rode on the donkey and came down under
cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward
her, and she met them. Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I
guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing
was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil
for good. God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by
morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.”

  When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey
and fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground. She fell
at his feet and said, “On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please
let your servant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your
servant. Let not my lord regard this worthless fellow, Nabal, for
as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him.
But I your servant did not see the young men of my lord, whom you
sent. Now then, my lord, as the LORD lives, and as your soul lives,
because the LORD has restrained you from bloodguilt and from saving
with your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek to
do evil to my lord be as Nabal. And now let this present that your
servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow
my lord. Please forgive the trespass of your servant. For the LORD
will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is
fighting the battles of the LORD, and evil shall not be found in
you so long as you live. If men rise up to pursue you and to seek
your life, the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the
living in the care of the LORD your God. And the lives of your
enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling. And when
the LORD has done to my lord according to all the good that he has
spoken concerning you and has appointed you prince over Israel, my
lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having
shed blood without cause or for my lord working salvation himself.
And when the LORD has dealt well with my lord, then remember your
servant.”

  And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of
Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! Blessed be your
discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from
bloodguilt and from working salvation with my own hand! For as
surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me
from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly
by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.”
Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he
said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your
voice, and I have granted your petition.”

  And 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 told him nothing at all
until the morning light. In the morning, when the wine had gone out
of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within
him, and he became as a stone. And about ten days later the LORD
struck Nabal, and he died.

  When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the
LORD who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal,
and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The LORD has
returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent and
spoke to Abigail, to take her as his wife. When the servants of
David came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent
us to you to take you to him as his wife.” And she rose and bowed
with her face to the ground and said, “Behold, your handmaid is a
servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” And Abigail
hurried and rose and mounted a donkey, and her five young women
attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his
wife.

  David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his
wives. Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti
the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001
by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
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