1 Samuel 25:18–35

Abigail Intercedes

18 Then 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.

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

20 It 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.

21 Now 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.”

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

24 She 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 1life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; but the 1lives 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,

31 this 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.”

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

33 and 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.”

35 So 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.”