Gen 32:4-21, 1Sa 25:14, 24-44, Pro 15:1, 16:14, Ecc 10:4 | ESV | STEP | instructing them, Thus you shall say to my lord Esau : Thus says your servant Jacob , I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now .

4 instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. 5 I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that ^aI may find favor in your sight.’”

6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and ^bhe is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” 7 Then Jacob was ^cgreatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, 8 thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.”

9 And Jacob said, ^d“O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who ^esaid to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ 10 ^fI am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 11 Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for ^gI fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. 12 But ^hyou said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”

13 So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him he took ⁱa present for his brother Esau, 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty milking camels and their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove.” 17 He instructed the first, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’ 18 then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau. And moreover, he is behind us.’” 19 He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, “You shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him, 20 and you shall say, ‘Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he thought, “I may appease him ^{▼▼Hebrew appease his face} with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.” ^{▼▼Hebrew he will lift my face} 21 So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.

1 Samuel 25:14

14 But 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.

1 Samuel 25:24-44

24 She 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. 25 Let 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. 26 Now 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. 27 And now let this ^spresent that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord. 28 Please 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. 29 If 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. 30 And 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, 31 my 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.”

32 And David said to Abigail, ^y“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! 33 Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, ^zwho have kept me this day from bloodguilt ^aaand from working salvation with my own hand! 34 For 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.” 35 Then 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.”

36 And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, ^aehe was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart ^afwas merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she told him nothing ^agat all until the morning light. 37 In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. 38 And about ten days later ^ahthe Lord struck Nabal, and he died.

39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, ^ai“Blessed be the Lord who has ^ajavenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, ^akand has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. ^alThe Lord has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent and ^amspoke to Abigail, to take her as his wife. 40 When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.” 41 And she rose ^anand bowed with her face to the ground and said, “Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” 42 And Abigail hurried and rose and mounted a donkey, and her five young women attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife.

43 David also took Ahinoam of ^aoJezreel, ^apand both of them became his wives. 44 Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.

Proverbs 15:1

1 ^aqA soft answer turns away wrath,
but ^ara harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 16:14

14 ^asA king’s wrath is a messenger of death,
and a wise man will ^atappease it.

Ecclesiastes 10:4

4 If the anger of the ruler rises against you, ^audo not leave your place,
^avfor calmness ^{▼▼Hebrew healing} will lay great offenses to rest.