Old Testament · History

1 Samuel chapter 25

Samuel died, and all of Israel gathered together and for him. They buried him at his home in . Then David moved on and went down to the .There was a man in whose business was in . He was very wealthy -- he owned three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was in Carmel.The man’s name was , and his wife’s name was . She was intelligent and beautiful, but the man was in how he treated people. He was from the .David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep.So David sent ten young men, and David told them, “Go up to Carmel, find Nabal, and greet him in my name.”“Say to him: ‘Long life to you! to you, peace to your household, and peace to everything you have.”“I hear that you have shearers working right now. When your shepherds were with us, we never mistreated them, and nothing of theirs went missing the whole time they were in Carmel.”“Ask your own servants -- they’ll confirm it. So please show my young men some , since we’ve come at a good time, during a celebration. Please give whatever you can to your servants and to .”When David’s young men arrived, they delivered this entire message to Nabal on David’s behalf, and then waited.But Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is this ? There are all kinds of servants these days running away from their masters.”“Why would I take I’ve butchered for my own shearers and give it to men who come from who knows where?”David’s young men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word of this to him.David told his men, “Strap on your swords!” So every man strapped on his sword, and David strapped on his as well. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed behind with the supplies.Meanwhile, one of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, and he at them.”“But those men were very good to us. We were never mistreated, and we never lost a single thing the whole time we were out in the fields with them.”“They were around us, both night and day, the entire time we were out there tending the sheep near them.”“So think about this and figure out what to do, because against our master and his whole household. He’s such a that nobody can even talk to him.”Abigail acted fast. She gathered two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five butchered sheep, of roasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them onto donkeys.Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead of me. I’ll be right behind you.” But she didn’t tell her husband Nabal.As she was riding her donkey down through a , there were David and his men coming down toward her, and she met them face to face.Now David had been saying, “I protected everything this man had in the wilderness for nothing -- not a single thing went missing from all that belonged to him. And he’s paid me back with .”“ if by morning I leave a single man alive of everyone connected to him.”When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and before David, bowing to the ground.She fell at his feet and said, “Let the blame fall on me, . Please, let speak to you directly, and hear what your servant has to say.”“Please, my lord, don’t pay any attention to that Nabal. His name means , and foolishness follows him everywhere. But I, your servant, didn’t see the young men you sent.”“And now, my lord, as lives and as you yourself live -- since Yahweh has held you back from and from taking revenge with your own hand -- may your enemies and everyone who wants to harm my lord end up like Nabal.”“And now, let this that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord.”“Please forgive your servant’s boldness. Yahweh will certainly establish a for my lord, because my lord fights , and as long as you live.”“Even if someone pursues you and tries to take your life, my lord’s life will be Yahweh your God. But the lives of your enemies -- he will .”“And when Yahweh has done for my lord everything good that he promised, and has appointed you --““-- you won’t have this hanging over you, this -- that you shed innocent blood or that my lord took revenge himself. And when Yahweh has taken care of my lord, .”David said to Abigail, “ Yahweh, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today!”“And your -- may it be honored! And you yourself -- may you be honored for keeping me today from bloodshed and from taking revenge with my own hand.”“Because, as surely as Yahweh the God of Israel lives -- the one who held me back from harming you -- if you hadn’t come so quickly to meet me, by morning light not a single man would have been left alive in Nabal’s household.”Then David accepted from her what she had brought him. He told her, “Go home . See, I’ve listened to you and I’m granting your request.”Abigail came home to Nabal, and there he was -- holding a in his house . Nabal was in high spirits, completely drunk, so she didn’t tell him anything at all until morning.In the morning, when the wine had worn off, his wife told him everything. , and he .About ten days later, , and he died.When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Praise Yahweh, who has against Nabal’s contempt and . Yahweh has turned Nabal’s wickedness back on his own head.” Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife.David’s servants went to Abigail at Carmel and said to her, “David has sent us to you to take you as his wife.”She stood up, bowed with her face to the ground, and said, “Here is your servant, ready to of my lord’s servants.”Abigail got up quickly, mounted her donkey, and with five of her female servants attending her, she followed David’s messengers and became his wife.David had also married from Jezreel. Both of them became his wives.Saul had given his daughter , David’s wife, to , who was from .