1 Samuel 25:14-35
14But 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. 15Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, aand we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with them. 16They were ba wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. 17Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, cfor harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is such da worthless man that one cannot speak to him.”18Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs ▼
▼A seah was about 7 quarts or 7.3 liters
of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys. 19And she said to her young men, “Go on before me; behold, I come after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. 20And 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. 21Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, fso that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has greturned me evil for good. 22 hGod do so to the enemies of David ▼▼Septuagint to David
and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.” 23When Abigail saw David, she hurried jand got down from the donkey kand fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground. 24She fell at his feet and said, l“On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your servant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your servant. 25Let not my lord regard mthis worthless fellow, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal ▼
▼ Nabal means fool
is his name, and folly is with him. But I your servant did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent. 26Now then, my lord, oas the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, because pthe Lord has restrained you from bloodguilt and from qsaving with your own hand, now then rlet your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal. 27And now let this spresent that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord. 28Please forgive the trespass of your servant. For the Lord will certainly make my lord ta sure house, because my lord uis fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live. 29If 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 vhe shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling. 30And when the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you prince ▼▼Or leader
over Israel, 31my lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for my lord xworking salvation himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant.” 32And David said to Abigail, y“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! 33Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, zwho have kept me this day from bloodguilt aaand from working salvation with my own hand! 34For as surely abas the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, acwho 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.” 35Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, ad“Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice, and I have granted your petition.”
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