25 ¶ And Samuel died, and all Israel gathered together and lamented him and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

² ¶ And there was a man in Maon whose possessions were in Carmel, and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

³ Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and of a beautiful countenance, but the man was hard and evil in his doings, and he was of the lineage of Caleb.

⁴ And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep.

⁵ And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Climb up to Carmel and go to Nabal and greet him in my name.

⁶ And thus shall ye say to him, May thou live and peace be unto thee and peace be unto thy house and peace be unto all that thou hast.

⁷ I have recently heard that thou hast shearers. Now thy shepherds who were with us, we did not hurt them, neither was there anything missing unto them all the while they were in Carmel.

⁸ Ask thy slaves, and they will tell thee. Therefore, let the young men find grace in thine eyes, for we come in a good day; give, I pray thee, whatever is in thy hand unto thy slaves and to thy son David.

⁹ And when David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David and ceased.

¹⁰ And Nabal answered David’s slaves and said, Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many slaves nowadays that break from their masters.

¹¹ Shall I then take my bread and my water and my slaughtered meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it unto men that I do not know where they are from?

¹² ¶ So David’s young men left and returned and came and told him all those words.

¹³ Then David said unto his men, Gird ye on each man his sword. And each one girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword; and about four hundred men went up after David, and they left two hundred with the stuff.

¹⁴ And one of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to bless our master, and he railed on them.

¹⁵ But the men were very good unto us and never hurt us, neither did we miss anything all the time that we have been conversant with them when we were in the fields.

¹⁶ They were a wall unto us both by night and day all the time that we were feeding the sheep with them.

¹⁷ Now, therefore, know and consider what thou must do, for evil is determined against our master and against all his household, for he is such a son of Belial that no one can speak to him.

¹⁸ ¶ Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two bottles of wine and five sheep ready dressed and five measures of parched flour and one hundred bunches of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs and laid them on asses.

¹⁹ And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told nothing to her husband Nabal.

²⁰ And it was so as she rode on the ass that she came down a secret part of the mountain, and, behold, David and his men came down against her, and she met them.

²¹ Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow has in the wilderness so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him, and he has returned unto me evil for good.

²² Let God do so and more also unto the enemies of David if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that piss against the wall.

²³ And when Abigail saw David, she hastened and lighted off the ass and fell before David on her face and bowed herself to the ground

²⁴ and fell at his feet and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be, and let thy handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thy audience; and hear the words of thy handmaid.

²⁵ Let not my lord, I pray thee, take to heart this man of Belial, even Nabal, for as his name is, so is he; Nabal {Heb. fool} is his name, and folly is with him; but I, thy handmaid, did not see the servants of my lord whom thou didst send.

²⁶ Now, therefore, my lord, as the LORD lives and as thy soul lives, seeing the LORD has withheld thee from coming to shed blood and from avenging thyself with thy own hand, now let thy enemies and those that seek evil to my lord be as Nabal.

²⁷ And now this blessing which thy handmaid has brought unto my lord, let it be given unto the servants that follow my lord.

²⁸ I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thy handmaid, for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house because my lord fights the battles of the LORD, and evil has not been found in thee all thy days.

²⁹ Yet a man is risen to pursue thee and to seek thy soul, but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God, and he shall hurl forth the souls of thine enemies as out of the middle of a sling.

³⁰ And it shall come to pass when the LORD shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning thee and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel,

³¹ that this shall be no stumblingblock unto thee nor grief of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless or that my lord has avenged himself; but when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thy handmaid.

³² ¶ Then David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel who sent thee this day to meet me;

³³ and blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou who hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood and from avenging myself with my own hand.

³⁴ For in very deed as the LORD God of Israel lives, who has kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hastened and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that piss against the wall.

³⁵ So David received of her hand that which she had brought him and said unto her, Go up in peace to thy house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice and have accepted thy person.

³⁶ ¶ And Abigail came to Nabal, and, behold, he held a banquet in his house like the banquet of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken; therefore, she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.

³⁷ But it came to pass in the morning when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.

³⁸ And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, and he died.

³⁹ And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD that judged the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal and has kept his slave from evil, for the LORD has returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent word unto Abigail to take her to him to wife.

⁴⁰ And when the slaves of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spoke with her, saying, David sent us unto thee to take thee to him to wife.

⁴¹ And she arose and bowed herself on her face to the earth and said, Behold, let thy handmaid be a slave to wash the feet of the slaves of my lord.

⁴² And Abigail hastened and arose and rode upon an ass with five damsels of hers that went after her, and she went after the messengers of David and became his wife.

⁴³ David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they were also both of them his wives.

⁴⁴ For Saul had given Michal, his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti, the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.