1 Samuel 25:1-22 ▼

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

2 Now there was a man in Maon whose work was in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep and one thousand goats. And it happened, while he was shearing his sheep in Carmel

3 (now the man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. And the woman was good in insight and beautiful in appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his dealings, and he was a Calebite),

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

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

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

7 So now I have heard that you have shearers; now your shepherds have been with us; and we have not dishonored them, nor 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 a festive day. Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants and to your son, to David.’”

9 Then David’s young men came and spoke to Nabal according to all these words in David’s name. Then they waited.

10 But Nabal answered David’s servants and said, “Who 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 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?”

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

13 Then 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, and two hundred stayed with the baggage.

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 rushed at them angrily.

15 Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not dishonored, nor did we miss anything as long as we went about with them, while we were in the field.

16 They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the time we were with them shepherding the sheep.

17 So now, know and see what you should do, for evil is decided against our master and against all his household; and he is such a vile man that no one can speak to him.”

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

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

20 So it was happening, 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; and she met them.

21 Now David had said, “Surely for a lie 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 returned me evil for good.

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.”