1
Samuel Chapter 25: 1-35
David, Nabal and Abigail
1 Now
Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him; and they buried him at his home
in Ramah.
Then David moved down into the Desert of Maon. 2 A certain man in Maon, who had property there at Carmel, was very
wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in
Carmel. 3 His name was Nabal and his wife's name was Abigail.
She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband, a Calebite, was surly and
mean in his dealings.
4 While
David was in the desert, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep. 5
So he sent ten young men and said to them, "Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in
my name. 6 Say to him: 'Long life to you! Good health to you
and your household! And good health to all that is yours!
7 "
'Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not
mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing. 8 Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be
favorable toward my young men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants
and your son David whatever you can find for them.' "
9 When
David's men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David's name. Then they waited.
10 Nabal
answered David's servants, "Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many
servants are breaking away from their masters these days. 11
Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and
give it to men coming from who knows where?"
12 David's
men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word. 13 David said to his men, "Put on your swords!" So they
put on their swords, and David put on his. About four hundred men went up with David,
while two hundred stayed with the supplies.
14 One of
the servants told Nabal's wife Abigail: "David sent messengers from the desert to
give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them. 15
Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were
out in the fields near them nothing was missing. 16 Night and
day they were a wall around us all the time we were herding our sheep near them. 17 Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is
hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can
talk to him."
18 Abigail
lost no time. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep,
five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed
figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19 Then she told her
servants, "Go on ahead; I'll follow you." But she did not tell her husband
Nabal.
20 As she
came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending
toward her, and she met them. 21 David had just said,
"It's been useless—all my watching over this fellow's property in the desert so
that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. 22
May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of
all who belong to him!"
23 When
Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her
face to the ground. 24 She fell at his feet and said: "My
lord, let the blame be on me alone. Please let your servant speak to you; hear what your
servant has to say. 25 May my lord pay no attention to that
wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name—his name is Fool, and folly goes with him.
But as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my master sent.
26
"Now since the LORD has kept you, my master, from bloodshed and from avenging
yourself with your own hands, as surely as the LORD lives and as you live, may your
enemies and all who intend to harm my master be like Nabal. 27
And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my master, be given to the men who
follow you. 28 Please forgive your servant's offense, for the
LORD will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my master, because he fights the LORD's
battles. Let no wrongdoing be found in you as long as you live. 29
Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my master will be bound
securely in the bundle of the living by the LORD your God. But the lives of your enemies
he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling. 30 When the
LORD has done for my master every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed
him leader over Israel, 31 my master will not have on his
conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And
when the LORD has brought my master success, remember your servant."
32 David
said to Abigail, "Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to
meet me. 33 May you be blessed for your good judgment and for
keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. 34 Otherwise, as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who
has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male
belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak."
35 Then
David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said, "Go home in peace. I
have heard your words and granted your request."
