1 Samuel 25:14-35

Christian Standard Bible Anglicised

¹⁴ One of Nabal’s young men informed Abigail, Nabal’s wife, ‘Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master,^(A) but he screamed at them. ¹⁵ The men treated us very well. When we were in the field, we weren’t harassed^(B) and nothing of ours was missing the whole time we were living among them. ¹⁶ They were a wall around us, both day and night,^(C) the entire time we were with them herding the sheep. ¹⁷ Now consider carefully^[a] what you should do, because there is certain to be trouble for our master and his entire family. He is such a worthless fool nobody can talk to him! ’

¹⁸ Abigail hurried, taking two hundred loaves of bread, two clay jars of wine, five butchered sheep, thirty-seven litres^[b] of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys.^{(D) 19} Then she said to her male servants, ‘Go ahead of me. I will be right behind you.’^(E) But she did not tell her husband, Nabal.

²⁰ As she rode the donkey down a mountain pass hidden from view, she saw David and his men coming towards her and met them. ²¹ David had just said, ‘I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the wilderness for nothing. He was not missing anything, yet he paid me back evil for good. ²² May God punish me^[c] and do so severely^(F) if I let any of his males^[d] survive until morning.’^(G)

²³ When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off the donkey and knelt down with her face to the ground and paid homage to David.^{(H) 24} She knelt at his feet and said, ‘The guilt is mine, my lord, but please let your servant speak to you directly. Listen to the words of your servant. ²⁵ My lord should pay no attention to this worthless fool Nabal, for he lives up to his name:^[e] His name means ‘stupid’, and stupidity is all he knows.^[f] I, your servant, didn’t see my lord’s young men whom you sent. ²⁶ Now my lord, as surely as the Lord lives and as you yourself live – it is the Lord who kept you from participating in bloodshed and avenging yourself^(I) by your own hand–may your enemies and those who intend to harm my lord be like Nabal.^{(J) 27} Let this gift^(K) your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord. ²⁸ Please forgive your servant’s offence,^(L) for the Lord is certain to make a lasting dynasty for my lord^(M) because he fights the Lord’s battles.^(N) Throughout your life, may evil^[g] not be found in you.^(O)

²⁹ ‘Someone is pursuing you and intends to take your life. My lord’s life is tucked safely in the place^[h] where the Lord your God protects the living, but he is flinging away your enemies’ lives like stones from a sling.^{(P) 30} When the Lord does for my lord all the good he promised you and appoints you ruler over Israel,^{(Q) 31} there will not be remorse or a troubled conscience for my lord because of needless bloodshed or my lord’s revenge. And when the Lord does good things for my lord, may you remember me your servant.’^(R)

³² Then David said to Abigail, ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,^(S) who sent you to meet me today! ³³ May your discernment be blessed, and may you be blessed. Today you kept me from participating in bloodshed and avenging myself by my own hand.^{(T) 34} Otherwise, as surely as the Lord God of Israel lives, who prevented me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, Nabal wouldn’t have had any males^[i] left by morning light.’ ³⁵ Then David accepted what she had brought him and said, ‘Go home in peace.^(U) See, I have heard what you said and have granted your request.’^(V)