Now Samuel died and all Israel gathered and mourned over him. And they buried him in his house at Ramah. Then David rose and went down to the Desert of Paran.

And there was a man in Maon, whose herds were in Carmel. The man was very rich, he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And he was engaged in shearing his sheep in Carmel.

Now the name of the man was Nabal and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was wise in knowledge and beautiful of appearance, but the man was harsh and ill behaved. And he was from the House of Caleb.

David heard in the desert that Nabal was shearing his sheep.

So David sent ten young men and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel and go to Nabal and ask him concerning his well being in my name.

And you shall say, ‘Thus to your life: peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have.

And now, I hear that you have shearers. Now your shepherds have been with us and we did them no harm and they missed not anything, all the days that they were in Carmel.

Ask your young men and they will tell you. And let my young men find favour in your sight, for we come on a festive day. Give now what you have at hand to your servants and to your son, to David.’”

When David’s young men came, they spoke according to all these words with Nabal in the name of David. Then they ceased.

And Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who are fleeing and hiding from their master.

And shall I take my food and my drink and my meal that I have prepared for my shearers, and give it to men who come from I do not know where?”

So David’s young men turned away and returned. And when they came, they told David according to all these words.

And David said to his men, “Every man gird on his sword!” And every man girded on his sword and David also girded on his sword. And about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred men remained to guard the baggage.

But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the desert to bless our lord. And he loathed them.

Yet the men were very good to us and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything all the days that we were wandering among them, when we were staying in the field.

They were a surrounding wall to us both by night and by day, all the days we were with them, tending the sheep.

And now, know this and consider what you should do, for it is determined that evil shall come against our lord and against all his house. And he is such a wicked man that one cannot speak with him.”

Then Abigail hurried. She took two hundred loaves of bread and two skins of wine and five sheep with stuffing and five seahs of parched grain and hundred clusters of dried grapes and two hundred mines of dried figs. And she laid them on asses.

And she said to her young man, “Go on before me. Behold, I come after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

And she rode on the ass and came down by the side of the mountain. And behold, David and his men came down toward her. And she met them.

Now David had said, “Surely, in vain have I guarded all that this one has in the desert, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him. And he has returned me evil for good.

Thus do the LORD to David’s haters and more also, if by the morning light I leave any who belongs to him that knows knowledge.”

When Abigail saw David, she hurried and she turned herself from upon the ass and fell before David on her face, and bowed to the ground.

And she fell before his feet and said, ``Please, [mind] me, my lord, mine is the guilt. Your handmaid will speak now before you and listen to the words of your handmaid.

Let not my lord now pay attention to this wicked man, to Nabal, for as his name is, so is he: Nabal is his name and stupidity is with him. But I, your handmaid, did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent.

Now, my lord, as the LORD is the existing One, and by your own life, [seeing] that the LORD has restrained you from shedding innocent blood and your hand from saving yourself, now then let your haters and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal.

And now, this present which your handmaid has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who are serving before my lord.

Forgive the guilt of your handmaid, for the LORD will certainly establish for my lord a lasting kingdom, because my lord is waging the battles of the people of the LORD and evil is not found in you as long as you live.

Should a man arise to pursue you and to seek to kill you, may the soul of my lord be stored in the storehouse of eternal life before the LORD your God. And may he sling out the soul of your enemies as they chase away a stone with a sling.

And when the LORD has established for my lord according to all He has spoken to bring goodness over you and has commanded you to be king over Israel,

this [situation] will not be for you a grief and an offence for the heart, for having shed innocent blood without cause or for my lord saving himself. And when the LORD has dealt well with my lord, then remember your handmaid.”

And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you this day toward me!

Blessed be your knowledge and blessed be you, who have restrained me from shedding innocent blood and my hands from saving myself!

For as the LORD, the God of Israel, is the existing One, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had made haste and come to meet me, truly by the morning light there had not been left to Nabal anyone knowing knowledge.

Then David accepted from her what she had brought him. And he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See that I have accepted from you and that I have restored you to favour.”

And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house like a feast of kings. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him and he was exceedingly drunk. So she did not tell him anything, much or little, until the morning light.

And in the morning, when the wine had evaporated from Nabal, his wife told him these things. And his heart died within him and he became like a stone.

And ten days later the LORD shattered Nabal and he died.

When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the LORD who administered my shameful lawsuit against Nabal and has restrained his servant from evil. And the LORD has returned Nabal’s evil upon his own head.” Then David sent and asked for Abigail to take her for a wife.

And when David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel and said to her, “David has sent us to you to take you for a wife,”

she rose and bowed down with her face to the ground, and said, “Behold, your handmaid will be the handmaid to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.”

And Abigail hurried and rose and mounted on an ass, while her five young women went alongside her. And she went after David’s messengers and she became his wife.

David had also taken Ahinoam of Jezreel. And both of them became his wives.

And Saul had given Michal his daugther, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.