1 Samuel 25
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6 7 8
9 10 11
12 13 14
15 16 17
18 19
20 21 22 23
24 25 26
27 28 29
30 31
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 shew
thee. Wherefore let the young men find favour 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 of 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 offence 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.
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