Dual Panel1SAMUEL died, and all Israel gathered to mourn for him, and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Afterwards David went down to the wilderness of Paran.
2There was a man in Maon who had property at Carmel and owned three thousand sheep and a thousand goats; and he was shearing his flocks in Carmel.
3His name was Nabal and his wife's name Abigail; she was a beautiful and intelligent woman, but her husband, a Calebite, was surly and mean.
4David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his flocks,
5and sent ten of his young men, saying to them, “Go up to Carmel, find Nabal, and give him my greetings.
6You are to say, ‘All good wishes for the year ahead! Prosperity to yourself, your household, and all that is yours!
7I hear that you are shearing. Your shepherds have been with us lately and we did not molest them; nothing of theirs was missing all the time they were in Carmel.
8Ask your own men and they will tell you. Receive my men kindly, for this is an auspicious day with us, and give what you can to David your son and your servant.’”
9David's servants came and delivered this message to Nabal in David's name. When they paused,
10Nabal answered, “Who is David? Who is this son of Jesse? In these days there are many slaves who break away from their masters.
11Am I to take my food and my wine and the meat I have provided for my shearers, and give it to men who come from I know not where?”
12David's servants turned and made their way back to him and told him all this.
13He said to his followers, “Buckle on your swords, all of you.” So they buckled on their swords, as did David, and they followed him, four hundred of them, while two hundred stayed behind with the baggage.
14One of Nabal's servants said to Abigail, Nabal's wife, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to ask our master politely for a present, and he flared up at them.
15The men have been very good to us and have not molested us, nor did we miss anything all the time we were going about with them in the open country.
16They were as good as a wall round us, night and day, while we were minding the flocks.
17Consider carefully what you had better do, for it is certain ruin for our master and his whole house; he is such a wretched fellow that it is no good talking to him.”
18Abigail hastily collected two hundred loaves and two skins of wine, five sheep ready dressed, five measures of roasted grain, a hundred bunches of raisins, and two hundred cakes of dried figs, and loaded them on donkeys,
19but told her husband nothing about it. She said to her servants, “Go on ahead, I shall follow you.”
20As she made her way on her donkey, hidden by the hill, there were David and his men coming down towards her, and she met them.
21David had said, “It was a waste of time to protect this fellow's property in the wilderness so well that nothing of his was missing. He has repaid me evil for good.”
22David swore a solemn oath: “God do the same to me and more if I leave him a single mother's son alive by morning!”
23When Abigail saw David she dismounted in haste and prostrated herself before him, bowing low to the ground
24at his feet, and said, “Let me take the blame, my lord, but allow your humble servant to speak out, and let my lord give me a hearing.
25How can you take any notice of this wretched fellow? He is just what his name Nabal means: ‘Churl’ is his name, and churlish his behaviour. Sir, I did not myself see the men you sent.
26And now, sir, the LORD has restrained you from starting a blood feud and from striking a blow for yourself. As the LORD lives, your life upon it, your enemies and all who want to see you ruined will be like Nabal.
27Here is the present which I, your humble servant, have brought; give it to the young men under your command.
28Forgive me, my lord, if I am presuming; for the LORD will establish your family for ever, because you have fought his battles. No calamity will overtake you as long as you live.
29If anyone tries to pursue you and take your life, the LORD your God will wrap your life up and put it with his own treasure, but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away like stones from a sling.
30When the LORD has made good all his promises to you, and has made you ruler of Israel,
31there will be no reason why you should stumble or your courage should falter because you have shed innocent blood or struck a blow for yourself. Then when the LORD makes all you do prosper, remember me, your servant.”
32David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD the God of Israel who today has sent you to meet me.
33A blessing on your good sense, a blessing on you because you have saved me today from the guilt of bloodshed and from striking a blow for myself.
34For I swear by the life of the LORD the God of Israel who has kept me from doing you wrong: if you had not come at once to meet me, not a man of Nabal's household, not a single mother's son, would have been left alive by morning.”
35Then David accepted from her what she had brought him and said, “Go home in peace; I have listened to you and I grant your request.”
36On her return she found Nabal holding a right royal banquet in his house. He grew merry and became very drunk, so drunk that his wife said nothing at all to him till daybreak.
37In the morning, when the wine had worn off, she told him everything, and he had a seizure and lay there like a log.
38Some ten days later the LORD struck him and he died.
39When David heard that Nabal was dead he said, “Blessed be the LORD, who has himself punished Nabal for his insult, and has kept me his servant from doing wrong. The LORD has made Nabal's wrongdoing recoil on his own head.” David then sent a message to Abigail proposing that she should become his wife.
40His servants came to her at Carmel and said, “David has sent us to fetch you to be his wife.”
41She rose and prostrated herself with her face to the ground, and said, “I am his slave to command; I would wash the feet of my lord's servants.”
42Abigail made her preparations with all speed and, with her five maids in attendance and accompanied by David's messengers, she set out on a donkey; and she became David's wife.
43David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel; both these women became his wives.
44Saul meanwhile had given his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Palti son of Laish from Gallim.