CHAPTER 25
1 Forsooth Samuel was dead; and all Israel was gathered together, and they bewailed him greatly, and buried him in his house in Ramah. And David rose up, and went down into the desert of Paran.
2 And in Maon there was a man, and his possession was in Carmel; and that man was full great, and there were to him three thousand sheep, and a thousand of goats; and it befelled that his flock was shorn in Carmel.
3 And the name of that man was Nabal, and the name of his wife was Abigail; and that woman was most prudent and fair; but her husband was hard and full wicked and malicious; and he was of the kin of Caleb.
4 Therefore when David had heard in desert, that Nabal clipped his flock,
5 he sent ten young men, and said to them, Go ye up into Carmel, and ye shall come to Nabal, and ye shall greet him of [or in] my name peaceably;
6 and ye shall say thus, Peace be to my brethren and to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be to all things, whatever thou hast.
7 I have heard that thy shepherds, that were with us in desert, have shorn thy flocks; we were never dis-easeful to them, neither any time anything of the flock failed to them, in all the time in which they were with us in Carmel;
8 ask thy children, and they shall show to thee. Now therefore thy children find grace in thine eyes; for in a good day we come to thee; whatever thing thine hand findeth, give it to thy servants, and to thy son David.
9 And when the children of David had come, they spake to Nabal all these words in the name of David, and held [their] peace.
10 Forsooth Nabal answered to the children of David, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? Today servants [have] increased that flee their lords.
11 Therefore shall I take my loaves, and my waters, and the flesh of beasts, which I have slain to my shearers, and shall I give to men, that I know not of whence they be?
12 Therefore the children of David went again by their way; and they turned again, and came, and told to him all words which Nabal had said.
13 Then David said to his children, Each man be gird with his sword. And all men were girded with their swords, and David also was girded with his sword; and as four hundred men pursued [or followed] David, for two hundred were left at the fardels.
14 And one of the children told to Abigail, the wife of Nabal, and said, Lo! David sent messengers from desert, that they should bless our lord, and he turned them away;
15 these men were good enough, and not dis-easeful to us, and nothing of ours perished in all the time in which we were with them in desert;
16 they were to us for a wall, both in night and day, in all the days in which we pastured flocks with them.
17 Wherefore behold thou, and think, what thou shalt do; for malice is full-filled against thine husband, and against thine house; and he is the son of Belial, so that no man may speak sense to him.
18 Therefore Abigail hasted, and took two hundred loaves, and two vessels of wine, and five wethers sodden, and seven bushels and an half of flour, and an hundred bundles of dried grapes, or raisins, and two hundred pieces of dried figs; and she put all this upon asses,
19 and said to her children, Go ye before me; lo! I shall pursue [or follow] you behind your back. And she showed not this to her husband Nabal.
20 Therefore when she had gone upon an ass, and came down to the foot of the hill, David and his men came down into her coming; the which she met.
21 And David had just said, Verily in vain I have kept all these things that were of this Nabal in the desert, and nothing perished of all things that pertained to him, and he hath yielded to me evil for good.
22 The Lord do these things, and add he these things to the enemies of David, if I shall leave undestroyed of all things that pertain to him till tomorrow, yea, even a pisser to a wall.
23 And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and went down off the ass; and she fell down before David on her face, and worshipped him on the earth.
24 And she felled down to his feet, and said, My lord the king, this wicked-ness be in me; I beseech thee, speak thine handmaid in thine ears, and hear thou the words of thy servantess;
25 I pray, my lord the king, set not his heart on this wicked man Nabal, for by his name he is a fool, and folly is with him; but, my lord, I thine handmaid saw not thy children, which thou sentest.
26 Now therefore, my lord, the Lord liveth, and thy soul liveth, the which Lord hath forbidden thee, that thou shouldest come into blood, and the Lord saved thy life to thee; and now thine enemies, and they that seek evil to thee my lord, be they made as Nabal.
27 Wherefore receive thou this bless-ing, or gift, which thine handmaid [hath] brought to thee, my lord, and give it to the children that pursue [or follow] thee, my lord.
28 Do thou away the wickedness of thy servantess; for the Lord making shall make a faithful house to thee, my lord, for thou, my lord, fightest the battles of the Lord; therefore malice be not found in thee in all the days of thy life.
29 For if a man riseth any time, and pursueth thee, and seeketh thy life, the life of my lord shall be kept as in a bundle of living trees, at thy Lord God; but the soul of thine enemies shall be hurled round about as in [the] fierceness, and [the] circle of a sling.
30 Therefore when the Lord hath done to thee, my lord, all these good things, which he hath spoken of thee, and hath ordained thee duke upon Israel,
31 this shall not be into sighing, that is, into mourning of soul, and into remorse of conscience, and into doubt of heart to thee, my lord, that thou hast shed out guiltless blood, either that thou hast avenged thyself. And when the Lord hath done well to thee, my lord, thou shalt have mind on thine handmaid, and thou shalt do well to her.
32 And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, that sent thee today into my coming,
33 and blessed be thy speech; and blessed be thou, that hast forbade me, lest I went today to shed blood, and had avenged me with mine hand;
34 else the Lord God of Israel liveth, which forbade me, lest I did evil to thee, if thou haddest not soon come into meeting to me, a pisser to the wall should not have been left to Nabal till to the morrow light.
35 Therefore David received of her hand all things which she had brought to him; and he said to her, Go thou in peace into thine house; lo! I have heard thy voice, and I honoured thy face.
36 Forsooth Abigail came to Nabal; and lo! a feast was to him in his house, as the feast of a king; and the heart of Nabal was merry, certainly he was full drunken; and she showed not to him a word, little or great, till the morrow.
37 But in the morrowtide, when Nabal had voided the wine, his wife showed to him all these words; and his heart was almost dead within, and he was made as a stone.
38 And when ten days had passed, the Lord smote Nabal, and he was dead.
39 The which thing when David had heard, Nabal to be dead, he said, Blessed be the Lord God, that hath avenged the cause of my shame of the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil, and the Lord hath yielded the malice of Nabal into the head of him. Therefore David sent, and spake to Abigail, that he would take her as a wife to him.
40 And the children of David came to Abigail into Carmel, and spake to her, and said, David sent us to thee, that he take thee into wife to him.
41 And she rose up, and worshipped low to the earth, and said, Lo! thy servantess be into an handmaid, that she wash the feet of the servants of my lord.
42 And Abigail hasted, and rose, and ascended or went upon an ass; and five damsels, pursuers [or followers] of her feet, went with her, and she followed the messengers of David, and was made [a] wife to him.
43 But also David took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and ever either was wife to him;
44 and Saul gave Michal his daughter, [the] wife of David, to Phalti, the son of Laish, that was of Gallim.