1 Samuel 25

1Samuel died, and all Israel gathered, mourned for him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

2A certain man in Maon had property in Carmel; this man was exceedingly wealthy, owning three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

3The man's name was Nabal, and his wife's name was Abigail; she was a woman of sound judgment and beautiful form, but the man was harsh and his actions were evil—he was a Calebite.

4David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his flock.

5David sent ten young men, and David said to the young men, "Go up to Carmel, go to Nabal, and inquire of his peace in my name."

6Say this to the living one: Peace to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that you have.

7Now I have heard that you have shearers; now your shepherds who were with us—we did them no wrong, nor did anything at all go missing from them the whole time they stayed in Carmel.

8Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Let the young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a good day. Please give whatever your hand finds to your servants and to your son David.

9David's young men came and spoke all these words to Nabal in the name of David, and waited.

10Nabal answered David's servants and said, "Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? Servants who break loose have multiplied today, each man from his master."

11Should I take my bread and my water and the meat I've slaughtered for my shearers and give it to men whom I do not know where they come from?

12David's young men turned back on their path, returned, came to him, and reported all these matters.

13David said to his men, "Strap on your sword, every one of you!" Every one of them strapped on his sword, and David strapped on his sword too. About four hundred men followed David, while two hundred stayed by the baggage.

14But one of the young men informed Abigail, Nabal's wife, "See, David sent messengers from the wilderness to bless our master, and he lashed out at them."

15The men treated us very well, and we were neither shamed nor lacked anything all the days we walked with them when we were in the fields.

16They were a wall to us both night and day, all the days we were with them tending the flock.

17Now know and see what you will do, for disaster has been determined against our master and against his entire household; he is a son of Belial whom no one can speak to.

18Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread, two bottles of wine, five prepared sheep, five measures of parched grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys.

19She said to her young men, "Go on before me. Here I am, coming after you." But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

20As she rode on the donkey, coming down by the covert of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down to meet her, and she met them.

21David said, "Surely I guarded everything belonging to this man in the wilderness for nothing, so that nothing at all of all he had went missing, and he repaid me evil for good."

22So may God do to David's enemies, and more also, if I leave until morning even one who urinates against a wall from all that belongs to him.

23When Abigail saw David, she hurried down from the donkey, fell before him on her face, and bowed to the ground.

24She fell at his feet and said, "My lord, let this guilt fall on me; please let your servant speak in your hearing, and hear the words of your servant."

25Please, my lord, do not set your heart toward this worthless man Nabal, for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly accompanies him, but I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.

26Now therefore, my lord, as Yahweh lives and as your soul lives, since Yahweh has restrained you from coming into bloodshed and has delivered your hand to you, now let your enemies and those seeking evil against my lord be like Nabal.

27Now this blessing that your servant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who walk after my lord.

28Please accept the transgression of your servant, for Yahweh will surely make my lord a faithful house, because my lord fights the battles of Yahweh, and no evil will be found in you all your days.

29Even if a man rises to pursue you and seek your life, my lord's life will be bound in the bundle of the living with Yahweh your God, and he will sling the lives of your enemies from the hollow of a sling.

30And it will be, when Yahweh does for my lord all the good he has spoken concerning you, and appoints you ruler over Israel,

31This will not become a regret to you, my lord, or a stumbling block in your heart from shedding blood without cause or from my lord avenging himself; when Yahweh does good for my lord, you will remember your handmaid.

32David said to Abigail, “Blessed is Yahweh, God of Israel, who sent you today to meet me.”

33Blessed be your good judgment, and blessed are you, who restrained me this day from bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand.

34But as Yahweh God of Israel lives, who restrained me from harming you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely by morning light nothing would remain to Nabal—not even one who urinates against a wall.

35David took from her hand what she had brought him and said to her, "Go up in peace to your house; see, I have heeded your voice and granted your request."

36Abigail came to Nabal, and there he was feasting in his house like a royal banquet, with Nabal's heart merry within him, for he was very drunk; so she told him nothing, small or great, until morning light.

37In the morning, when the wine had departed from Nabal, his wife told him these matters, and his heart died within him, and he became like a stone.

38About ten days later, Yahweh struck Nabal, and he died.

39David heard that Nabal was dead and said, "Blessed is Yahweh, who has defended the cause of my shame at Nabal's hands and restrained his servant from evil—Yahweh has returned Nabal's evil upon his own head." David sent and spoke with Abigail to take her to him as a wife.

40David's servants came to Abigail at Carmel and spoke to her, saying, "David has sent us to you to take you to him as a wife."

41She arose and bowed facedown to the ground, and said, "Here is your handmaid, a servant to wash the feet of my lord's servants."

42Abigail hurried and arose, then rode a donkey with five of her maids following her on foot; she went after David's messengers and became his wife.

43David also took Ahinoam from Jezreel, and both became his wives.

44Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Phalti son of Laish from Gallim.