25:1 Samuel died, and all Israel came together and lamented over him. They buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David arose and went down to the desert of Paran.

25:2 There was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. This man was very wealthy,¹ having three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. At that time he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 25:3 The man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was both smart² and beautiful, but the man was demanding and his deeds were evil. He was a Calebite.

25:4 When David heard in the desert that Nabal was shearing his sheep, 25:5 he³ sent ten young men, saying to them,⁴ “Go up to Carmel and go to Nabal and give him greetings in my name. 25:6 Then you will say to my brother,⁵ “Peace to you and your house! Peace to all that is yours! 25:7 Now I hear that they are shearing for you. When your shepherds were with us, we neither humiliated them nor harmed them the whole time they were in Carmel. 25:8 Ask your own servants so that they can tell you! Let the young men find favor in your sight, for we have come⁶ on a holiday. Provide your servants and your son David with whatever you can spare.”⁷

25:9 So David’s young men went and spoke to Nabal in David’s name according to all these words. Then they paused. 25:10 But Nabal responded to David’s servants, “Who is David, and who is this son of Jesse? This is a time when many servants are breaking away from their lords. 25:11 Should I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers and give them to these men? I don’t even know where they came from!”

25:12 So David’s servants went on their way. When they had returned, they came and told him all these things. 25:13 Then David instructed his men, “Each of you gird on your sword!” So each one girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword. About four hundred men followed David up, while two hundred stayed with the equipment.

25:14 But one of the young men told Nabal’s wife Abigail, “David sent messengers from the desert to greet our lord, but he screamed at them. 25:15 These men were very good to us. They did not insult us, nor did we sustain the loss of anything during the entire time that our paths crossed while we were in the field. 25:16 Both night and day they were a protecting wall for us the entire time that we were with them while we were shepherding our flocks. 25:17 Now be aware of this, and see what you can do. For disaster has been determined for our lord and all his house. He is such a worthless individual that no one tell him anything!”

25:18 So Abigail quickly took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs⁸ of roasted grain, a hundred bunches of raisins, and two hundred lumps of pressed figs. She put them on donkeys 25:19 and said to her servants, “Go on ahead of me. I will come after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

25:20 Riding on her donkey, she went down hidden by the cover of the mountain. There were David and his men coming down to meet her, and she encountered them. 25:21 Now David had been thinking,⁹ “I’m disappointed. I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the desert. I didn’t take anything from him. But he has returned evil for my good. 25:22 May God do all this to David,¹⁰ if I leave until the morning even one male¹¹ from all those who belong to him!”

25:23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got down from the donkey, fell prostrate before David, and bowed to the ground. 25:24 Falling at his feet, she said, “My lord, I accept all the guilt. But please let your maidservant speak with my lord. Please listen to the words of your maidservant. 25:25 Let not my lord pay attention to this worthless man Nabal. He simply lives up to his name! His name means ‘fool,’ and foolishness is with him. But I myself¹² did not see the servants of my lord whom you sent.

25:26 “Now my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and as surely as you live, it is the LORD who has kept you from going after blood and taking matters into your own hands. Now may your enemies and those who seek to harm my lord be like Nabal. 25:27 Now let this present¹³ that your maidservant has brought to my lord be given to the servants who follow¹⁴ my lord. 25:28 Please forgive the sin of your maidservant, for the LORD will certainly establish the house of my lord, because my lord fights the battles of the LORD. May no evil be found in you all your days. 25:29 When a man arises to pursue after you and to take your life, the life of my lord will be bundled securely in the bundle of the living by the LORD your God. But he will sling the lives of your enemies as from the midst of the sling’s pocket. 25:30 The LORD will do for my lord everything that he spoke for good concerning you and he will appoint you as leader over Israel. 25:31 This will be for you neither as tottering nor as stumbling so far as your conscience is concerned¹⁵ for having poured out innocent blood and for having taken matters into his own hands. When the LORD has done good to my lord, please remember your maidservant.”

25:32 Then David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD of Israel who has sent you this day to meet me! 25:33 And blessed be your good judgment, and may you yourself be blessed for having prevented me this day from going after blood and taking matters into my own hands. 25:34 Had this not been the case, as surely as God of Israel lives, who has prevented me from inflicting harm on you, if you had not so quickly come to meet me, by morning’s light there would not remain even one male belonging to Nabal.”

25:35 Then David took from her hand what she had brought to him. He said to her, “Go back to your home in peace. Be assured that I have listened to your voice and responded favorably to you.”¹⁶

25:36 When Abigail went back to Nabal, there was a banquet in his house like that of the king. Nabal was having a good time and was very intoxicated. She told him nothing, whether small or big, until morning’s light. 25:37 In the morning, when the effects of the wine had left Nabal, his wife told him about these matters. His heart as it were died within him, and he became like a rock. 25:38 After about ten days, the LORD struck Nabal down and he died.

25:39 When David heard that Nabal had died, he said, “Blessed be the LORD who has vindicated my cause with regard to the reproach that I sustained from the hand of Nabal. He has kept his servant from evil, and the LORD has turned the evil of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent word to Abigail, taking her as his wife.

25:40 So the servants of David went to Abigail at Carmel and said to her, “David has sent us to you to take you as his wife.” 25:41 She arose, bowed her face to the ground, and said, “Here is your maidservant. Let me¹⁷ wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” 25:42 Then Abigail quickly arose and mounted her donkey, with five of her servants accompanying her.¹⁸ She followed David’s messengers and became his wife.

25:43 David had also taken Ahinoam from Jezreel, and the two of them were his wives. 25:44 Now Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Paltiel the son of Laish, who was from Gallim.