 1 When Samuel died, all the Israelites gathered and lamented him and buried him in his house at Ramah. Then David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. 2 A certain man was in Maon and his work was in Carmel. The man was very great and had 3,000 sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3 The man's name was Nabal and his wife's name was Abigail. She was a woman of good understanding and of beautiful form. But the man was cruel and evil in his dealings. He was of Caleb. 4 David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. 5 So David sent ten young men and said to them, Go up to Carmel and go to Nabal and greet him in my name. 6 Say this, Long life and peace to you and peace to your house and peace to all that you have. 7 Now I have heard that you have shearers. We did not hurt your shepherds who were with us nor was there anything missing to them all the while they were in Carmel. 8 Ask your young men and they will tell you. Let the young men find favor in your eyes, for we come in a good day. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David. 9 David's young men came and spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David, and stopped. 10 Nabal answered David's servants and said, Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? The servants who have broken away, each man from his master, have multiplied. 11 Shall I then take my bread and water and meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men about whom I know nothing? 12 So David's young men turned away and returned and and told him all these things. 13 David said to his men, Let each man put on his sword, and they each put on his sword and David also put on his sword. About 400 men followed David and 200 stayed behind. 14 One of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife saying, Behold. David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master and he railed at them. 15 But the men were very good to us and we were not hurt. Nor did we miss anything as long as we were going to and fro among them when we were in the fields. 16 They were a wall to us both by night and day all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. 17 Now consider what you will do. For evil is determined against our master and against all his household. For he is a son of worthlessness so that no one can speak to him. 18 Abigail hurried+ and took 200 loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep ready dressed and five measures of roasted grain and 100 clusters of raisins and laid them on donkeys. 19 She said to her servants, Go before me. Behold, I am coming after you. But she did not tell her husband Nabal. 20 She rode on the donkey and came under cover of the mountain. And behold, David and his men came across from her and she met them. 21 David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that belongs to this fellow in the wilderness so that nothing was missed of all that was his. But he returned to me evil for good. 22 So and more also may God do to the enemies of David if by the morning light I leave behind any males+ of all who belong to him. 23 Abigail saw David and hurried and dismounted from the donkey and fell on her face and bowed to the ground before David. 24 She fell at his feet and said, On me, my lord, on me let this iniquity be. And please let your handmaid speak in your ears, and hear the words of your handmaid. 25 Please do not let my lord regard this man of worthlessness, Nabal. For as his name is, so he is. Nabal is his name, and foolishness is with him. And I, your handmaid, did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent. 26 Now, my lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, since the Lord withheld you from coming to shed blood, and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now let your enemies, and those who seek to do evil to my lord, be as Nabal. 27 Now this blessing which your handmaid has brought to my lord, let it even be given to the young men who follow my lord. 28 Please forgive the trespass of your handmaid. For the Lord will certainly make a sure house for my lord, because my lord fights the battles of the Lord, and evil has not been found in you all your days. 29 Yet a man has risen to pursue you and to seek your soul. But the soul of my lord will be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord your God. He will sling the souls of your enemies from the hollow of a sling. 30 When the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and commanded you to be ruler over Israel, 31 this will be no stumbling to you, nor offense of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood for nothing, or that my lord has delivered himself. And may the Lord deal well with my lord, and you remember your handmaid. 32 David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you today to meet me. 33 Blessed is your advice, and blessed are you who have kept me from coming to shed blood today, and from delivering myself with my own hand. 34 Truly, as the Lord God of Israel lives, who has kept me back from doing evil to you, for unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely there would not have been left to Nabal even one male by the morning light. 35 David received from her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, Go up in peace to your house. See, I have listened to your voice and have accepted your person. 36 Abigail came to Nabal. And behold, he held a feast in his house like the feast of a king. And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. And she did not tell him anything, more or less, until the morning light. 37 In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal and his wife had told him these things, his heart died within him and he became like a stone. 38 About ten days afterward the Lord struck Nabal so that he died. 39 David heard that Nabal had died, and he said, Blessed is the Lord who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept His servant from evil. For the Lord has returned the wickedness of Nabal on his own head. And David spoke with Abigail, to take her to him for a wife. 40 David's servants came to Abigail at Carmel, and spoke to her saying, David sent us to you to take you to him for a wife. 41 She arose and bowed herself on her face to the earth and said, Behold, let your handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord. 42 Abigail hurried and rode on a donkey with five of her maidens who went after her. She followed David's messengers and became his wife. 43 David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel and they both became his wives. 44 Then Saul gave his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Phalti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.
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