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Samuel died, and all Israel came together and mourned for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David arose and went down to the Wilderness of Paran.
2 There was a man in Maon whose had property at Carmel. The man was very wealthy; he owned three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3 The man’s name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but the Calebite man was surly and mean in his dealings.
4 While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep. 5 So David sent ten young men, and he said to them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name. 6 This is what you must say to him: ‘Long life to you! Peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have’.
7 “I hear that you are now shearing. When your shearers were with us, we did not mistreat them, and nothing of theirs was missing the whole time they were at Carmel. 8 Ask your young men and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favour in your eyes, for we have come on a feast day. Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants and to your son David’.”
9 When David’s young men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David’s name. Then they waited.
10 But Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today who are breaking away from their masters. 11 Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men who come from I don’t know where?”
12 So David’s men turned around, and they went back. When they arrived, they told him everything. 13 David said to his men, “Strap on your swords, all of you!” So all the men strapped on their swords, and David also strapped on his sword. Then they set out, and about four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.
14 One of the young men in Nabal’s service reported to Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he hurled insults at them. 15 Yet these men were very good to us. We were not mistreated, and the whole time we were in the fields near them nothing went missing. 16 All of the time we were with them keeping the sheep, they were a wall to us both by night and by day. 17 So think it over and consider carefully what you should do, for the threat of disaster now places in danger our master and his whole family. He is such a worthless man that no one can speak to him.”
18 Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves, two skins of wine, five slaughtered and dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19 Then she told her male servants, “Go on ahead of me; I will be following behind you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20 As she was riding on the donkey down a mountain pass, she saw David and his men approaching, and she met them. 21 David had just said, “Surely I have protected all that belonged to this fellow in the wilderness for nothing. He was not missing anything that belonged to him, yet he has repaid me with evil for good. 22 God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if I leave alive any of his men until morning.”
23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off the donkey and fell facedown before David, bowing herself to the ground. 24 She fell at his feet and said, “My lord, let the blame be mine alone. Please let your maidservant speak to you, and listen to her words. 25 Please, my lord, pay no attention to this worthless man Nabal, for he is just like his name. His name is Fool, and foolishness is with him. However, I, your maidservant, did not see the young men whom my lord sent.
26 “Now my lord, as surely as the Lord lives and as yourself live, the Lord has kept you from the guilt of bloodshed and from avenging yourself by your own hand. May your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord be like Nabal. 27 Here is the gift which your maidservant has brought to my lord; please let it be given to the young men who follow my lord. 28 Please forgive your maidservant’s offence, for the Lord will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord because he fights the Lord’s battles. May no evil be found in you all your life. 29 Even if someone should pursue you to seek your life, the life of my lord will be bound safely in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God. However, the lives of your enemies He will fling away, as from the pocket of a sling. 30 When the Lord has done for my lord all the good that He has promised, and has appointed you ruler over Israel, 31 let there be no cause for grief or a troubled conscience for my lord for needless bloodshed or revenge. When the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your maidservant.”
32 Then David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! 33 Blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from the guilt of bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand. 34 For as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, unless you had come quickly to meet me, Nabal wouldn’t have any men left alive by morning light.”
35 Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said, “Go up to your house in peace. See, I have heard what you said and granted your request.”
36 Then Abigail went home to Nabal, he was in his house having a feast, like the feast of a king. Nabal was in high spirits, and he was very drunk. So she told him nothing until the morning light. 37 Then in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed within him so he became like a stone. 38 About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.
39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has upheld my cause against Nabal for his insults and kept His servant from doing evil. The Lord has returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head.”
Then David sent messengers to Abigail, asking her to become his wife. 40 When David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent us to you, to take you to him so you can become his wife.”
41 She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, “Your maidservant is ready to serve you and wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” 42 Then Abigail quickly got up on a donkey, and with five of her maids attending her, she went with David’s messengers and became his wife. 43 David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and the two women became his wives. 44 But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.