1And Shemueil died and all Israel was assembled and they mourned for him, and they buried him in his tomb in Ramtha. And David arose and came down to the wilderness of Paran

2And there was a man in Meun and his work was in Karmela, and the man was very great and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and it happened that he sheared his flock in Karmela 3And the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife was Abigal, and the woman was beautiful in her form and in her face, and the man Nabal was hard and evil in his deeds and behaved like a dog 4And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal sheared his sheep 5And David sent ten young men, and David said to the young men: “Go up to Karmela and go to Nabal and invoke his peace in my name 6And speak to him thus: “Whoever will live here and you, peace, and your household!" 7Your Shepherds were with us and we did not harm them, and they lost nothing all the days that they were in the wilderness 8Ask your Servants and they shall show you, and now, let the young men find favor in your eyes, because we come upon a good day. Give what you please to your Servants and to your son David!”

9And the young men of David came and they spoke to Nabal all these words in the name of David 10And Nabal answered and said to the Servants of David: “Who is David and who is the son of Iyshay? Today there are many Servants who rebel, each man from before his Master 11My bread and water and the meat are for my Shearers, and shall I give to men of whom I do not know from where they are?” 12And the young men of David returned on their way and revealed to David all these words 13And David said to the men who were with him: “Bind each man his sword!” And they bound their swords; also David bound his sword and about four hundred men went up after David, and two hundred stayed with the cargo

14And a young man, one of the young men, told Abigal the wife of Nabal, and he said: “David sent Messengers from the wilderness for his blessing to our Lord, and he himself was careless toward them! 15And the men were very good to us and did not harm us, and they had not deprived us of anything all the days we traveled with them when we were in the wilderness 16And they were a wall for us also in the night, also by day, all the days that we were with them and we were grazing the sheep 17Now know and see what you do, because evil is determined against our Master and against all his household!” And Nabal was with the Shepherds

18And Abigal hurried and she took two hundred bread loaves, and two skins of wine, and five prepared sheep, and five threegallon measures of parched corn, and a hundred cheeses and two hundred fig cakes, and she set them on the donkey 19And she said to the young Man Servants: “Pass before me. Behold I am coming after you!” And she did not tell her husband 20And she sat on the donkey and she went down in the shelter of the mountain, and David and his men went up to meet her and she met with them 21And David said: “For nothing we protected everything that he had in the wilderness, and we did not allow a thing to be lost of all that he had, and he paid us evil for the sake of good 22Thus may LORD JEHOVAH do to his Servant David, and thus he will add to him if anything he has that forms a wall will be left until the morning!”

23And Abigal saw David and she hurried and she came down from the donkey and she fell before David on her face and she bowed down on the ground 24And she fell at his feet and she said: “I beg of you, my Lord, let the foolishness be upon me my Lord! Your MaidServant will speak before you about this man, Nabal, because according to his name, so is Nabal. His name and his deeds are with him, and I, your MaidServant, had not seen the young men whom my Lord sent 25

26Now, my Lord, living is LORD JEHOVAH and living is your own soul, my Lord, that you should not come near for blood, and LORD JEHOVAH has saved you! Now, my Lord, your enemies shall be as Nabal, and those who seek evil against you! 27Now your MaidServant brought this blessing to my Lord. Give a blessing to the youths who walk at the foot of my Lord 28And forgive the fault to your Maid Servant, because LORD JEHOVAH has surely made my Lord a trustworthy house, because my Lord fights the battles of LORD JEHOVAH, and evil is not found in you from your days 29And a son of man is set to chase you and to seek your life, and the soul of my Lord was bound in a bundle of life with LORD JEHOVAH your God. LORD JEHOVAH shall cast out the soul of your enemies within the pouch of a sling 30And it will be that when LORD JEHOVAH shall do good to my Lord concerning you, and shall command you the Ruler over Israel 31This will not be terror for you and for a stumbling block of your heart to shed blood without cause, and when LORD JEHOVAH will do good for you, remember your Maid Servant!”

32And David said to Abigal: “Blessed is LORD JEHOVAH, God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me! 33Blessed is your discernment! Blessed are you because you restrained me today to enter into blood and you saved my hands today from blood! 34However living is LORD JEHOVAH, God of Israel, who restrained me that I would not do harm to you. If you had not hurried and come to meet me, surely I would not have left to Nabal until the light of dawn that which forms a wall” 35And David took from her hands the thing that she brought and to her he said: “Go up to your house in peace. See that I have listened to your voice and I have accepted your person”

36And Abigal came to Nabal, and behold, there was a feast for him in his house like the feast of a King, and the heart of Nabal was happy upon him, and he was very drunk, and she did not tell him the matter until it was dawn 37And it was that when day had dawned, and he shook off his wine, his wife told him these matters, and his heart died within him and it was like a stone 38And there were about ten days and LORD JEHOVAH struck Nabal and he died

39And David heard that Nabal was dead and said: “Blessed is LORD JEHOVAH who has judged the judgment of him who insulted me by the hands of Nabal, and his Servant he restrained from evil, and LORD JEHOVAH returned the evil of Nabal on his head!” And David sent and he spoke with Abigal that he would take her to him as a wife 40And the Servants of David came to Abigal in a fruitful field, and they said to her: “David sent us for you that we would bring you to him as a wife!” 41And she arose and she bowed down on her face on the ground and she said: “Now your MaidServant is a MaidServant to wash the feet of the Servants of my Lord!” 42And she hurried and Abigal got up and she sat on a donkey, and five Maidens went on at her feet, and she went with the Messengers of David and she was a wife to him

43And David had taken Akhinam from Yizrael, and the two of them were wives to him

44And Shaul gave Malkil, his daughter, the wife of David, to Palti, son of Lish, who was from Galim