25:1  Then Samuel died; and all Israel gathered together and mourned for him, and buried him at his house in Ramah. And David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

25:2  Now there lived a man in Maon who had a business in Carmel; and the man grew very rich, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And it came about while he sheared his sheep in Carmel

25:3  (now the man had the name of Nabal, and his wife had the name of Abigail. And the woman had intelligence and beauty but the man acted harshly and evil in his dealings, and he came from the line of Caleb),

25:4  that David heard in the wilderness that Nabal sheared his sheep.

25:5  So David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, "Go up to Carmel, visit Nabal and greet him in my name;

25:6  and thus you shall say, 'Have a long life, may you have peace, and may peace come to your house, and may peace come to all that you have.

25:7  'Now I have heard that you have shearers; now your shepherds have lived with us and we have not insulted them, nor have they missed anything all the days they lived in Carmel.

25:8  'Ask your young men and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a festive day. Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants and to your son David.'"

25:9  When David's young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in David's name; then they waited.

25:10  But Nabal answered David's servants and said, "Why should I regard David? And why should I regard the son of Jesse? Many servants today break away from his master.

25:11  "Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men whose origin I do not know?"

25:12  So David's young men retraced their way and went back; and they came and told him according to all these words.

25:13  David said to his men, "Each of you gird on his sword." So each man girded on his sword. And David also girded on his sword, and about four hundred men went up behind David while two hundred stayed with the baggage.

25:14  But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, "Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, and he scorned them.

25:15  "Yet the men behaved very good to us, and we did not feel insulted, nor did we miss anything as long as we went about with them, while we walked in the fields.

25:16  "They became a wall to us both by night and by day, all the time we walked with them tending the sheep.

25:17  "Now therefore, know and consider what you should do, for they plot evil against our master and against all his household; and he has become such a worthless man that no one can speak to him."

25:18  Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread and two jugs of wine and five sheep already prepared and five measures of roasted grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys.

25:19  She said to her young men, "Go on before me; behold, I will come after you." But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

25:20  It came about as she rode on her donkey and coming down by the hidden part of the mountain, that behold, David and his men came down toward her; so she met them.

25:21  Now David had said, "Surely in vain I have guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that he missed nothing of all that belonged to him; and he has returned me evil for good.

25:22  "May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if by morning I leave as much as one male of any who belong to him."

25:23  When Abigail saw David, she hurried and dismounted from her donkey, and fell on her face before David and bowed herself to the ground.

25:24  She fell at his feet and said, "On me alone, my lord, fall the blame. And please let your maidservant speak to you, and listen to the words of your maidservant.

25:25  "Please do not let my lord pay attention to this worthless man, Nabal, for as he received the name, so he has become. Nabal we call him and folly resides with him; but I your maidservant did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.

25:26  "Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, since the LORD has restrained you from shedding blood, and from avenging yourself by your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord, become as Nabal.

25:27  "Now let me give this gift which your maidservant has brought to the young men who accompany my lord.

25:28  "Please forgive the transgression of your maidservant; for the LORD will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord fights the battles of the LORD, and we will not find evil in you all your days.

25:29  "Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, then the life of you shall bind in the bundle of the living with the LORD your God; but the lives of your enemies He will sling out as from the hollow of a sling.

25:30  "And when the LORD does for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and appoints you ruler over Israel,

25:31  this will not cause grief or a troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord having avenged himself. When the LORD deals well with my lord, then remember your maidservant."

25:32  Then David said to Abigail, "May the LORD of Israel bless you, who sent you this day to meet me,

25:33  and may God bless your discernment, and bless you, who have kept me this day from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand.

25:34  "Nevertheless, as the LORD God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from harming you, unless you had come quickly to meet me, surely there would not have remained to Nabal until the morning light as much as one male."

25:35  So David received from her hand what she had brought him and said to her, "Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to you and granted your request."

25:36  Then Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he had held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal's heart became merry within him, for he became very drunk; so she did not tell him anything at all until the morning light.

25:37  But in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him so that he became as a stone.

25:38  About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal and he died.

25:39  When David heard that Nabal had died, he said, "We bless the LORD, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal and has kept back His servant from evil. The LORD has also returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head." Then David sent a proposal to Abigail, to take her as his wife.

25:40  When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, "David has sent us to you to take you as his wife."

25:41  She arose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, "Behold, your maidservant considers herself a maid to wash the feet of my lord's servants."

25:42  Then Abigail quickly arose, and rode on a donkey, with her five maidens who attended her; and she followed the messengers of David and became his wife.

25:43  David had also taken Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both became his wives.

25:44  Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who had come from Gallim.