1 Samuel 25

Chapter 25

Samuel’s Death

^1aThen Samuel died; and all Israel gathered together and ^bmourned for him, and ^cburied him at his house in Ramah. And David arose and went down to the ^dwilderness of Paran.

Nabal and Abigail

²Now there was a man in ^aMaon whose business was in ^bCarmel; and the man was very ¹rich, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And it came about while ^che was shearing his sheep in Carmel

³(now the man’s name was Nabal, and his ^awife’s name was Abigail. And the woman was ¹intelligent and beautiful in appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his dealings, and he was ^ba Calebite),

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

⁵So David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, ¹visit Nabal and greet him in my name;

⁶and thus you shall say, ‘¹Have a long life, ^apeace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have.

⁷‘Now I have heard ^athat you have shearers; now your shepherds have been with us and we have not insulted them, ^bnor have they missed anything all the days they were in Carmel.

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 ^aa ¹festive day. Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants and to your son David.’ ”

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

¹⁰But Nabal answered David’s servants and said, “^aWho is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today who are each breaking away from his master.

¹¹“Shall I then ^atake my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men ¹whose origin I do not know?”

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

¹³David 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 ^afour hundred men went up behind David while two hundred ^bstayed with the baggage.

¹⁴But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to ^1agreet our master, and he scorned them.

¹⁵“Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not ^ainsulted, nor did we miss anything ¹as long as we went about with them, while we were in the fields.

¹⁶“^aThey were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the time we were with them tending the sheep.

¹⁷“Now therefore, know and ¹consider what you should do, for evil is plotted against our master and against all his household; and he is such a ²worthless man that no one can speak to him.”

Abigail Intercedes

¹⁸Then Abigail hurried and ^atook 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.

¹⁹She said to her young men, “^aGo on before me; behold, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

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

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

²²“^aMay God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, ^bif by morning I leave as much as one ¹male of any who belong to him.”

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

²⁴She fell at his feet and said, “On me ¹alone, my lord, be the blame. And please let your maidservant speak ²to you, and listen to the words of your maidservant.

²⁵“Please do not let my lord ¹pay attention to this ²worthless man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. ³Nabal is his name and folly is with him; but I your maidservant did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.

²⁶“Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, since the Lord has restrained you from ¹shedding blood, and ^afrom ²avenging yourself by your own hand, now then ^blet your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord, be as Nabal.

²⁷“Now let ^athis ¹gift which your maidservant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who ²accompany my lord.

²⁸“Please forgive ^athe transgression of your maidservant; for ^bthe Lord will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord is ^cfighting the battles of the Lord, and ^devil will not be found in you all your days.

²⁹“Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your ¹life, then the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; but the lives of your enemies ^aHe will sling out ²as from the hollow of a sling.

³⁰“And when the Lord does for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and ^aappoints you ruler over Israel,

³¹this will not ¹cause grief or a troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord having ²avenged himself. ^aWhen the Lord deals well with my lord, then remember your maidservant.”

³²Then David said to Abigail, “^aBlessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me,

³³and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you, ^awho have kept me this day from ¹bloodshed and from ²avenging myself by my own hand.

³⁴“Nevertheless, as the Lord God of Israel lives, ^awho has restrained me from harming you, unless you had come quickly to meet me, surely there would not have been left to Nabal until the morning light as much as one ¹male.”

³⁵So David received from her hand what she had brought him and said to her, “^aGo up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to ¹you and ^2bgranted your request.”

³⁶Then Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding ^aa feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, ^bfor he was very drunk; so ^cshe did not tell him anything ¹at all until the morning light.

³⁷But 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.

³⁸About ten days later, ^athe Lord struck Nabal and he died.

David Marries Abigail

³⁹When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has ^apleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal and ^bhas kept back His servant from evil. The Lord has also returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent ^1ca proposal to Abigail, to take her as his wife.

⁴⁰When 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.”

⁴¹She arose ^aand bowed with her face to the ground and said, “Behold, your maidservant is a maid ^bto wash the feet of my lord’s servants.”

⁴²Then ^aAbigail quickly arose, and rode on a donkey, with her five maidens who ¹attended her; and she followed the messengers of David and became his wife.

⁴³David had also taken Ahinoam of ^aJezreel, and ^bthey both became his wives.

⁴⁴Now Saul had given ^aMichal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was from ^bGallim.