| Chapter
25 |
| 1 | And
Samuel died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him,
and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose, and went down to the
wilderness of Paran. |
| 2 |
And there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was
very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was
shearing his sheep in Carmel. |
| 3
| Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail:
and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but
the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of
Caleb. |
| 4 | And David heard
in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep. |
|
5 | And David sent out ten young men, and David said
unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my
name: |
| 6 | And thus shall ye
say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be both to thee, and peace be to
thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast. |
|
7 | And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now
thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought
missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel. |
| 8 | Ask thy young men, and they will show
thee. Wherefore let the young men find favor in thine eyes: for we come in a
good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants,
and to thy son David. |
| 9 |
And when David's young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those
words in the name of David, and ceased. |
| 10 | And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is
David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that
break away every man from his master. |
| 11 | Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh
that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not
whence they be? |
| 12 | So
David's young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all
those sayings. |
| 13 | And
David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on
every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up
after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff. |
| 14 | But one of the young men
told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the
wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them. |
| 15 | But the men were very good unto us,
and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were
conversant with them, when we were in the fields: |
|
16 | They were a wall unto us both by night and day,
all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. |
|
17 | Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt
do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household:
for he is such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him. |
| 18 | Then Abigail made haste, and took
two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and
five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two
hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses. |
|
19 | And she said unto her servants, Go on before me;
behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal. |
| 20 | And it was so, as she rode on the ass,
that she came down by the covert on the hill, and, behold, David and his men
came down against her; and she met them. |
| 21 | Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that
this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that
pertained unto him: and he hath requited me evil for good. |
| 22 | So and more also do God unto the
enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light
any that pisseth against the wall. |
|
23 | And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass,
and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, |
| 24 | And fell at his feet, and
said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I
pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid. |
| 25 | Let not my lord, I pray
thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he;
Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the
young men of my lord, whom thou didst send. |
| 26 | Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy
soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood,
and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they
that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal. |
| 27 | And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought
unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord. |
| 28 | I pray thee, forgive the
trespass of thine handmaid: for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure
house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the LORD, and evil hath not been
found in thee all thy days. |
| 29
| Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul
of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the
souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a
sling. |
| 30 | And it shall
come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my lord according to all the
good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler
over Israel; |
| 31 | That
this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offense of heart unto my lord, either
that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself: but
when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine
handmaid. |
| 32 | And David
said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which sent thee this day to
meet me: |
| 33 | And blessed
be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to
shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand. |
| 34 | For in very deed, as the LORD God of
Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst
hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the
morning light any that pisseth against the wall. |
|
35 | So David received of her hand that which she had
brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house; see, I have
hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person. |
| 36 | And Abigail came to Nabal; and,
behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal's
heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him
nothing, less or more, until the morning light. |
|
37 | But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine
was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart
died within him, and he became as a stone. |
| 38 | And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD
smote Nabal, that he died. |
| 39
| And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the
LORD, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and
hath kept his servant from evil: for the LORD hath returned the wickedness of
Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her
to him to wife. |
| 40 | And
when the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spake unto her,
saying, David sent us unto thee, to take thee to him to wife. |
| 41 | And she arose, and bowed herself on
her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to
wash the feet of the servants of my lord. |
| 42 | And Abigail hasted, and arose and rode upon an ass,
with five damsels of hers that went after her; and she went after the
messengers of David, and became his wife. |
| 43 | David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they were also
both of them his wives. |
| 44 |
But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Phalti the son of
Laish, which was of Gallim. |
