1And Samuel died; and all Israel gathered themselves together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran. 2And 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. 3Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail; and the woman was of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was harsh and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb. 4And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. 5And David sent ten young men, and David said to the young men, Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name: 6and thus you shall say to him who lives in prosperity, Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. 7And now I have heard that you have shearers: your shepherds have now been with us, and we did them no harm, neither was there anything missing for them, all the while they were in Carmel. 8Ask your young men, and they will tell you: therefore let the young men find favor in your eyes; for we come on a good day: please give whatever comes to your hand, to your servants, and to your son David. 9And when David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and waited. 10And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there are many servants nowadays who break away every man from his master. 11Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men of whom I do not know where they are from? 12So David’s young men turned on their way, and went back, and came and told him according to all these words. 13And David said to his men, Every man gird on his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and about four hundred men went up after David; and two hundred stayed by the baggage. 14But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master; and he railed at them. 15But the men were very good to us, and we were not harmed, neither did we miss anything, as long as we went with them, when we were in the fields: 16they were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. 17Now therefore know and consider what you will do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his house: for he is such a worthless fellow, that one cannot speak to him. 18Then Abigail hurried, and took two hundred loaves, and two skins of wine, and five sheep ready prepared, and five measures of parched grain, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys. 19And she said to her young men, Go on before me; behold, I am coming after you. But she did not tell her husband Nabal. 20And it was so, as she rode on her donkey, and came down by the cover of the mountain, that, behold, David and his men came down toward her; and she met them. 21Now David had said, Surely in vain I have kept all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained to him: and he has returned me evil for good. 22God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave of all who pertain to him by the morning light so much as one man-child. 23And when Abigail saw David, she hurried, and got down from her donkey, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground. 24And she fell at his feet, and said, On me, my lord, on me be the iniquity; and please let your maidservant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your maidservant. 25Please do not let my lord regard this worthless fellow, even Nabal; for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I your maidservant did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent. 26Now therefore, my lord, as Yehovah lives, and as your soul lives, seeing Yehovah has withheld you from bloodguiltiness, and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now therefore let your enemies, and those who seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal. 27And now this present which your servant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord. 28Please forgive the trespass of your maidservant: for Yehovah will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights the battles of Yehovah; and evil shall not be found in you all your days. 29And though men have risen up to pursue you, and to seek your soul, yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with Yehovah your God; and the souls of your enemies, them he shall sling out, as from the hollow of a sling. 30And it shall happen, when Yehovah shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and shall have appointed you prince over Israel, 31that this shall be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself. And when Yehovah shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember your maidservant. 32And David said to Abigail, Blessed be Yehovah, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me: 33and blessed be your discretion, and blessed are you, who have kept me this day from bloodguiltiness, and from avenging myself with my own hand. 34For in very deed, as Yehovah, the God of Israel, lives, who has withheld me from harming you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely there would not have been left to Nabal by the morning light so much as one man-child. 35So David received from her hand that which she had brought him: and he said to her, Go up in peace to your house; see, I have listened to your voice, and have accepted your person. 36And 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 drunk: therefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light. 37And it happened in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, that his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. 38And it happened about ten days later, that Yehovah struck Nabal, so that he died. 39And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be Yehovah, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil: and the evil-doing of Nabal Yehovah has returned on his own head. And David sent and spoke concerning Abigail, to take her to himself as a wife. 40And when the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, David has sent us to you, to take you to himself as a wife. 41And she arose, and bowed herself with her face to the earth, and said, Behold, your maidservant is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord. 42And Abigail hurried, and arose, and rode on a donkey, with five young women of hers who followed her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife. 43David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they both became his wives. 44Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.