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¹ And 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.

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 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.⁴ And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep.⁵ And 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:⁶ and thus you shall say to him: To life! Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have.⁷ And now I have heard that you have shearers: your shepherds have now been with us, and we did not hurt them, neither was there anything missing to them, all the while they were in Carmel.⁸ Ask your young men, and they will tell you: therefore let the young men find favor in your eyes; for we come in a good day: give, I pray you, whatever comes to your hand, to your slaves, and to your son David.⁹ And when David's young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased.¹⁰ And Nabal answered David's slaves, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there are many slaves 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 to men of whom I don't know from where they are?

¹² So David's young men turned on their way, and went back, and came and told him according to all these words.¹³ And David said to his men, Gird 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 baggage.¹⁴ But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Look, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed at them.¹⁵ But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, neither did we miss anything, as long as we went with them, when we were in the fields:¹⁶ they were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.¹⁷ Now 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 can't speak to him.

¹⁸ Then Abigail hurried, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five seahs of parched grain, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys.¹⁹ And she said to her young men, Go on before me; look, I come after you. But she didn't tell her husband Nabal.²⁰ And it was so, as she rode on her donkey, and came down by the covert of the mountain, that, look, David and his men came down toward her; and she met them.²¹ Now 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.²² God do so to David, and more also, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light so much as one urinating against a wall.²³ And when Abigail saw David, she hurried, and dismounted from her donkey, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground.²⁴ And she fell at his feet, and said, On me, my lord, on me be the iniquity; and let your slave, I pray you, speak in your ears, and you hear the words of your slave.²⁵ Don't let my lord, I pray you, 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 slave didn't see the young men of my lord, whom you sent.²⁶ Now therefore, my lord, as Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, seeing Yahweh has withheld you from bloodguiltiness, and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now therefore let your enemies, and those that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.²⁷ And now this present which your slave has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men that follow my lord.²⁸ Forgive, I pray you, the trespass of your slave: for Yahweh will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights the battles of Yahweh; and evil shall not be found in you all your days.²⁹ And though man rises up to pursue you, and to seek your soul, yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with Yahweh your God; and the souls of your enemies, he shall sling them out, as from the hollow of a sling.³⁰ And it shall come to pass, when Yahweh shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and shall have appointed you leader over Israel,³¹ that 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 Yahweh shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember your slave.

³² And David said to Abigail, Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me:³³ and blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, that have kept me this day from bloodguiltiness, and from avenging myself with my own hand.³⁴ For in very deed, as Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, who has withheld me from hurting you, except 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 urinating against a wall.³⁵ So David received of 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.

³⁶ And Abigail came to Nabal; and, look, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal's heart was merry inside him, for he was very drunk: therefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.³⁷ And it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, that his wife told him these things, and his heart died inside him, and he became as a stone.³⁸ And it came to pass about ten days after, that Yahweh smote Nabal, so that he died.³⁹ And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be Yahweh, that has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his slave from evil: and the evil-doing of Nabal Yahweh has returned on his own head. And David sent and spoke concerning Abigail, to take her to him as wife.⁴⁰ And when the slaves of David had come to Abigail to Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, David has sent us to you, to take you to him as wife.⁴¹ And she arose, and bowed herself with her face to the earth, and said, Look, your slave is a slave to wash the feet of my lord's slaves.⁴² And Abigail hurried, and arose, and rode on a donkey, with five damsels of hers that followed her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.⁴³ David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they became both of them his wives.⁴⁴ Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.