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
flew upon them. But the men were very good unto us, and we were not
hurt, neither missed we anything, as long as we were with them, when we
were in the fields: they were a wall unto us both by night and by day,
all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore know
and consider what thou wilt 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."
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 a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and
laid them on asses. And she said unto her young men, "Go on before me;
behold, I come after you." But she told not her husband Nabal. And it
was so, as she rode on her ass, and came down by the covert of the
mountain, that, behold, David and his men came down against her; and she
met them. 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
belonged unto him: and he hath returned me evil for good. God do so unto
David, and more also, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the
morning light so much as one man child."
And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off her ass, and
fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground. And she
fell at his feet, and said, "Upon me, my lord, upon me be the iniquity:
and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine ears, and hear thou
the words of thine handmaid. Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this
worthless fellow, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal, fool,
is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the
young men of my lord, whom thou didst send. Now therefore, this present
which thy servant hath brought unto my lord, let it be given unto the
young men that follow my lord. Forgive, I pray thee, 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 shall not be
found in thee all thy days. And though man be risen up to pursue thee,
and to seek thy life, yet the life of my lord shall be bound in the
bundle of life with the Lord thy God; and the lives of thine enemies,
them shall he sling out, as from the hollow of a sling. 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 prince over Israel; 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: and when the Lord shall
have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid."
And David said to Abigail, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
which sent thee this day to meet me: and blessed be thy wisdom, and
blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from bloodguiltiness, and
from avenging myself with mine own hand. For in very deed, as the Lord,
the God of Israel, liveth, which hath withholden me from hurting thee,
except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been
left unto Nabal by the morning light so much as one man child."
So David received of her hand that which she had brought him: and he
said unto her, "Go up in peace to thine house; see, I have hearkened to
thy voice, and have accepted thy person."