1 Samuel 25

2Now there was a man at Maon whose flocks were at Carmel. He was a very wealthy man. He had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats, and he was sheering his sheep at Carmel.

3The man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigaia. His wife was a woman of good understanding, and very beautiful; but the man was morose, and ill-natured, and of a surly disposition.

5David sent ten young men, and said to the young men, Go up to Carmel and when you come to Nabal, salute him in my name and say thus—

6Health and prosperity to thee, and thy house, and to all that thou hast.

7Now behold I have heard, that thy shepherds who were with us in the wilderness are now shearing. We did not molest them, nor exact anything of them all the time they were at Carmel. Inquire of thy servants, and they will tell thee.

8Let thy servants therefore find favour in thy sight, for we are come in a good time. Give, we pray thee, whatever thou canst conveniently to thy son David.

9So the young men went and delivered the message, in David’s name, to Nabal; in these very words.

10Upon which Nabal started up, and in reply said to David’s young men, Who is David? and who is the son of Jessai? There are nowadays many slaves who run away every one from his master;

11and shall I take my bread, and my wine, and the flesh I have killed for my sheep shearers, and give them to men whom I know not whence they be?

13whereupon David said to his men, Gird on every man his sword. So there went up with David about four hundred men, and two hundred staid with the baggage.

14Now one of his servants had told Abigaia, the wife of Nabal, saying, Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to salute our master; but he turned away from them.

15Now those men were very kind to us. They never molested us, nor exacted anything from us, all the time we were with them.

16And when we were in the fields, they were like a wall around us night and day, all the time we were near them, tending the flock.

17Now therefore consider, and see what thou canst do: for there is mischief determined on against our master, and his household; but he is so perverse that there is no speaking to him.

19and said to her servants, Go on before me, and behold I will come after you: but she did not tell her husband.

20And it happened, that as she, mounted on her ass, was going down under the covert of the mountain, behold David and his men were coming down over against her; so she met them.

21Now David had said, Surely for an unrighteous fellow have I guarded all that he had in the wilderness, and we have not ordered the taking of any thing belonging to him: but he hath rewarded me evil for good.

22God do so to David, and more also, if by to-morrow morning I leave of all that belong to Nabal one man.

24at his feet, and said, On me, my lord, be my iniquity. Let thy servant, I beseech thee, speak in thine audience and hear the words of thy servant.

25Let not my lord, I pray thee, set his heart against this perverse man. For as is his name so is he. His name is Nabal, and with him is folly. But I thy servant did not see my lord’s servants whom thou didst send.

26Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord liveth, and thy soul liveth, as the Lord hath withheld thee from coming to shed innocent blood, it was to save thy hand for thyself. Now therefore let all thine enemies and those who seek to hurt my lord be like Nabal.

27And now accept this present, which thy servant hath brought for my lord, and give it to the young men who attend my lord.

28Forgive, I beseech thee, what is amiss in thy servant. Because the Lord will assuredly make for my lord a faithful house—because the Lord will fight the battle of my lord, therefore there must never be iniquity found in thee.

29Though a man may rise to pursue thee, and seek thy life, yet will the life of my lord be bound up in the bundle of life by the Lord God; but the life of thy enemies thou shalt sling out with a sling.

30And when the Lord shall do for my lord all the good things which He hath spoken concerning thee, and hath made thee ruler over Israel,

31thou my lord must not have the stain or guilt of having causelessly shed innocent blood. May the Lord therefore save the hand of my lord for himself, and kindly dispose my lord, that thou mayst remember thy servant, to deal kindly by her.

33And blessed be thy conduct, and blessed thou who hast kept me back from coming to blood, that I might save my hand for myself.

34For as the Lord God of Israel liveth, who hath this day withheld me from doing thee an injury, if thou hadst not hastened, and come to meet me, I had determined that by the morning light there should not be left to Nabal one man.

36Then Abigaia went to Nabal, and behold he had an entertainment at his house like that of a king, and Nabal’s heart was elated for he was very drunk, so she told him nothing less or more till the next morning.

37But in the morning when Nabal had recovered from his wine, his wife told him all these things, and his heart was confounded, and he became like a stone.

38And in about ten days the Lord smote Nabal, and he died.

39And when David heard it, he said, Blessed be the Lord Who hath judged the cause of my reproach, out of the hand of Nabal, and hath preserved his servant from the hand of wicked men. The Lord hath turned the wickedness of Nabal on his own head. Then David sent and spoke of Abigaia to take her for a wife;

40and when David’s servants came to Abigaia to Carmel, and spoke to her, saying, David hath sent us to thee to take thee to himself for a wife,

41she arose, and bowed down to the ground on her face, and said, Behold thy servant is ready to be a house maid to wash the feet of thy servants.

42Then Abigaia arose, and mounted her ass, and five maids accompanied her, and she went with David’s servants, and became his wife.

43Now David had taken Achinaam of Jezrael, and they were both his wives.

44And Saul gave his daughter Melchol, David’s wife, to Phalti, son of Amis, of Romma.