1Samuel died, and all Israel gathered and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house at Ramah. Then David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.2And there was a man in Maon, and his business was in Carmel, and the man was very wealthy. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his flock in Carmel.3The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife was Abigail. The woman had good understanding and beautiful form, and the man was harsh and evil in his deeds. He was a Calebite.4And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal had sheared his sheep.5David sent ten young men, and he said to them, "Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal and ask him for peace in my name."6And you shall say thus to the living one: "And you, peace, and your house, peace, and all that you have, peace."7And now I have heard that shearers are with you now; the shepherds who were yours with us—we did not shame them, and nothing was missed for them all the days of their being in Carmel.8Ask your young men, and they will tell you. The young men have found favor in your eyes, for we have come on a good day. Please give whatever your hand finds to your servants and to your son David.9And David's servants came and spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David, and they rested.10And Nabal answered David's servants, "Who is David? Who is this son of Jesse? Nowadays there are many servants who are breaking away from their masters."11Shall I take my bread and my water and my slaughtered animals that I have slaughtered for my shearers and give them to men whom I do not know where they are from?12And David's men turned and went on their way. They returned and came and told him all these words.13And David said to his men, "Gird on your swords." And they girded on their swords, and David also girded on his sword. And they went up after David—four hundred men—while two hundred stayed with the supplies.14One of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, "Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to bless our master, and he hurled insults at them."15The men were very good to us, and we were not shamed. We missed nothing all the days we walked with them when we were in the field.16They were a wall over us both by night and by day, all the days we were with them, as we tended the flock.17And now know and see what you will do, for evil is finished against our master and on all his house, and he is a son of Belial. There is no speaking to him.18And Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread and two skins of wine and five sheep made ready and five seahs of roasted grain and one hundred raisin cakes and two hundred cakes of figs, and she put them on the donkeys.19And she said to her lads, "Go on ahead; here I am, coming after you." And she did not tell the woman of Nabal.20And it was she riding on the donkey, and you descended into the hiding place of the mountain. And behold, David and his men were descending to meet her, and she met them.21David said, "I protected everything that belonged to him in the wilderness, and nothing was missing from all that belonged to him, but he has returned evil for good."22In this way may God punish my enemy David, and even more, if I leave alive until morning anything that belongs to him—any male.23And Abigail saw David and hurried and came down from the donkey and fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground.24And she fell at his feet and said, "On me, my lord—on me the iniquity! And please let your maidservant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your maidservant."25No please let not my lord put his heart to this man of Belial on account of Nabal, for as his name is, so he is; Nabal is his name and disgracefulness is with him. And I, your Hebrew slave girl, did not see the lads of my lord whom you sent.26And now, my lord, as the LORD lives and as your life lives, the LORD has restrained you from bloodshed and has kept your hand from harm. And now may your enemies be like Nabal and those who seek evil against my lord.27And now this blessing which your maidservant has brought to my lord, and given to the young men who walk at the feet of my lord.28Please forgive your servant's wrongdoing, for the LORD will certainly make a faithful house for my master, because my master is fighting the LORD's battles. And you will not find any evil in you all your days.29And a man rises to pursue you and to seek your life, and the life of my lord will be bound up in the bundle of the living with the LORD your God, and the life of your enemies he will sling away within the palm of the slinger.30And it will be that when the LORD does for my lord according to all that he spoke—the good concerning you—and commands you to be a ruler over Israel.31May this not be a cause of stumbling or a stumbling block to the heart of my lord, to shed blood for nothing and to save my lord. And the LORD will deal well with my lord, and you will remember your maidservant.32And David said to Abigail, "Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who has sent you this day to meet me."33And blessed be your discretion and blessed be you who restrained me this day from coming in blood and from restraining my hand to me.34But as the LORD God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from harming you—if you had not hurried and come to meet me, surely there would not have been left to the fool until the light of morning a pisser against the wall.35David took from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, "Peace be to me and your house. See, I have heard your voice and have lifted up your face."36And Abigail came to Nabal, and there was a feast in his house like the feast of a king. And Nabal's heart was merry within him, and he was very drunk. She did not tell him anything, small or great, until the light of morning.37And in the morning, when the wine had left Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became like a stone.38And about ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal, and he died.39David heard that Nabal was dead, and he said, "Blessed be the LORD, who has contended against the insult of my reproach from the hand of Nabal and kept his servant from evil. And the LORD has returned the evil of Nabal upon his own head." And David sent and spoke to Abigail, to take her to him as a wife.40And David's servants came to Abigail in Carmel and spoke to her, saying, "David has sent us to you to take you to him as a wife."41And she arose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, "Here is your maidservant as a slave to wash the feet of my lord's servants."42Abigail hurried and arose. She rode on the donkey, with five of her maidens who were walking at her feet, and she went after the messengers of David, and she became his wife.43David took Ahinoam from Jezreel, and they were both wives to him.44And Saul gave Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.