1 Samuel 25:18-35 ▼

18 And Abigail hurried, and took two hundred loaves of bread, and two skins of wine, and five sheep already dressed, and five seahs of roasted grain, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and she put them on the donkeys.

19 And she said to her servants, “Go on before me. Behold, after you? I am coming.” And her husband Nabal she did not tell.

20 And it came to pass as she rode on the donkey, that she went down under cover of the mountain, and behold, David and his men were coming down toward her, and she met them.

21 And David had said, “Surely in vain I have kept all that was unto this one in the wilderness, and not anything was missed of all that was unto him. And he has repaid me evil for good.

22 And may God do to David, and thus may he add, if I leave of all who are unto him by the morning light one who urinates against the wall.”

23 And Abigail saw David, and she hurried and dismounted from the donkey, and she fell before the face of David on her face and she bowed herself to the earth,

24 and she fell at his feet and said, “On me, my lord, let this iniquity be. And please let your maidservant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your maidservant.

25 Let not, please, my lord set his heart to this man of worthlessness, upon Nabal; for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. And I your maidservant did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.

26 And now my lord, as YHWH lives, and as your soul lives, since YHWH has held you back from coming to bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, let now your enemies be as Nabal and those seeking harm against my lord.

27 And this blessing that your maidservant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow at the feet of my lord.

28 Forgive, please, the trespass of your maidservant, for YHWH will surely make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord fights the battles of YHWH, and evil is not found in you throughout your days.

29 And a man has risen to pursue you and seek your life, and the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with YHWH your God. And the souls of your enemies He shall sling out in the midst of the hollow of the sling.

30 And it shall come to pass, when YHWH has done for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you ruler over Israel,

31 that this to you will not be grief and offense of heart—to my lord—that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself, and YHWH shall have dealt well with my lord, and remember your maidservant.”

32 And David said to Abigail, “Blessed is YHWH, God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me.

33 And blessed is your discernment, and blessed are you, because you have kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand.

34 Yet as lives YHWH, God of Israel, who has kept me back from hurting you, surely unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely would not have been left to Nabal by the morning light one who urinates against the wall.”

35 And David received from her hand what she had brought to him, and he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. Behold, I have listened to your voice and I have lifted up your face.”