1Samuel died, and all Israel gathered and mourned for him and buried him in his house at Ramah. David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.2There was a man in Maon whose work was in Carmel. The man was very great; he had three thousand sheep and one thousand goats. This happened while he was shearing his flock in Carmel.3The man's name was Nabal and the name of his wife was Abigail. The woman was pleasant in understanding and beautiful in appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his deeds; he was like his heart, a Calebite.4David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his flock.5David sent ten young men, and David said to the young men, "Go up to Carmel, come to Nabal, and greet him in my name."6Say this to the living: "May you have peace, your household have peace, and all that belongs to you have peace."7Now I have heard that you are shearing. The shepherds who belong to you were with us; we did not humiliate them, and nothing was missing from them during all the days they were in Carmel.8Ask your young men and let them tell you. May the young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a good day. Please give whatever your hand finds to your servants and to your son David.9The young men of David came and spoke to Nabal according to all these words in David's name, and they waited.10Nabal answered David's servants and said, "Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? Today servants have become many, each man breaking away from his master."11Shall I take my food, my water, and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers and give them to men I do not know?12David's young men turned back on their way, returned, came, and reported to him according to all these words.13David said to his men, "Each of you strap on his sword." So each man strapped on his sword, and David also strapped on his sword. About four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.14One of the young men told Abigail the wife of Nabal, "Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, and he shouted at them."15The men were very good to us; we were not humiliated and we missed nothing during all the days we walked with them while we were in the field.16They were a wall to us both night and day, all the days we were with them pasturing the flock.17Now consider what you will do, for harm has come to our master and to all his house, and he is a worthless man who cannot be spoken to.18Abigail quickly took two hundred loaves, two skins of wine, five prepared sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred fig cakes, and she loaded them on donkeys.19She said to her young men, "Go on ahead of me; I am coming after you." She did not tell her husband Nabal.20As she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men were coming down to meet her, and she met them.21David had said, "Surely in vain I have guarded all that belongs to this man in the wilderness, so that nothing was missing from all that belongs to him, yet he has returned evil for good."22May God do so to the enemies of David and more also if I leave alive by morning even one who urinates against the wall among all who belong to him.23When Abigail saw David she quickly dismounted from the donkey, fell on her face before David, and bowed to the ground.24She fell at his feet and said, "On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your servant speak in your hearing and hear the words of your servant."25Please do not take my lord's heart to this worthless man Nabal, for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name and folly is with him. But I your servant did not see the young men my lord sent.26Now my lord, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, the LORD has kept you from coming in blood and has saved your hand for yourself. Now let your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord become like Nabal.27Now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord.28Please forgive the transgression of your servant, for the LORD will surely make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights the battles of the LORD and no evil has been found in you all your days.29If anyone rises to pursue you and seek your life, the life of my lord will be bound in the bundle of the living with the LORD your God, but the lives of your enemies he will sling out as from the hollow of a sling.30When the LORD has done for my lord according to all the good he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you ruler over Israel,31this will not be a staggering or a stumbling of heart to my lord, nor the pouring out of blood without cause, nor the saving of my lord by his own hand. The LORD will deal well with my lord, and you will remember your servant.32David said to Abigail, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me."33Blessed be your discretion, and blessed are you who have kept me this day from coming in blood and from saving myself by my own hand.34Yet as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from doing you harm, if you had not hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning light not one who urinates against the wall would have been left to Nabal.35David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said to her, "Go up in peace to your house; see, I have listened to your voice and granted your request."36Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house like the feast of a king. Nabal's heart was merry within him, and he was very drunk, so she told him nothing, small or great, until morning light.37In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him and he became like stone.38About ten days later the LORD struck Nabal and he died.39When David heard that Nabal was dead he said, "Blessed be the LORD who has pleaded the cause of my reproach against Nabal and has kept his servant from evil; the LORD has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head." David sent and spoke to Abigail to take her as his wife.40The servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel and spoke to her, saying, "David has sent us to you to take you to him as wife."41She arose, bowed with her face to the ground, and said, "Behold, your servant is a maidservant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord."42Abigail quickly arose and mounted the donkey, with her five maidens attending her, and she went after the messengers of David and became his wife.43David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both women became his wives.44Saul had given his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.