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1 Samuel 25:1-44 — David, Nabal, and Abigail

1Sam.25.1-44

¹Then Samuel died, and all Israel gathered and mourned for him, and he was buried at his home in Ramah. After that David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. ²Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very wealthy, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. ³The man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. The woman was sensible and beautiful, but the man was harsh and evil in his dealings; he was a Calebite. ⁴While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep. ⁵So David sent ten young men, and David said to the young men, 'Go up to Carmel, go to Nabal, and greet him in my name.' ⁶And say, 'Long life to you, and peace to you, and peace to your house, and peace to all that is yours.' ⁷And now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds were with us, and we did not mistreat them, and nothing of theirs was missing all the time they were in Carmel. ⁸Ask your young men, and they will tell you. So let these young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a festive day. Please give whatever your hand can find to your servants and to your son David.' ⁹When David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in David’s name, and then they waited. ¹⁰But Nabal answered David’s servants, 'Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? These days many servants are breaking away from their masters.' ¹¹Shall I take my bread and my water and the meat I have butchered for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they have come from? ¹²So David’s young men turned back on their way, and when they returned they told him all these words. ¹³Then David said to his men, 'Each man 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 baggage. ¹⁴But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, 'Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, and he shouted at them.' ¹⁵Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not mistreated, and we did not miss anything all the time we went about with them while we were in the fields. ¹⁶They were a wall around us both by night and by day all the time we were with them tending the sheep. ¹⁷Now therefore consider and see what you should do, for disaster has been determined against our master and against all his household. He is such a worthless man that no one can speak to him.' ¹⁸Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five prepared sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and she loaded them on the donkeys. ¹⁹And she said to her young men, 'Go on ahead of me; I am coming after you.' But she did not tell her husband Nabal. ²⁰As she was riding on the donkey and coming down under cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men were coming down toward her, and she met them. ²¹Now David had said, 'Surely I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the wilderness for nothing, so that nothing of all that was his went missing. Yet he has repaid me evil for good.' ²²May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him. ²³When Abigail saw David, she quickly got down 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 let my lord pay attention to this worthless man, Nabal; for as his name is, so is he: Nabal is his name, and folly goes with him . But I, your servant, did not see my lord’s young men whom you sent. ²⁶And now, my lord, as Yahweh lives and as you live, since Yahweh has restrained you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now let your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord be like Nabal. ²⁷And now let this gift 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 Yahweh will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights the battles of Yahweh, and evil will not be found in you all your days. ²⁹Though a man has risen to pursue you and seek your life, yet the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with Yahweh your God. But the lives of your enemies he will sling away from the hollow of a sling. ³⁰And when Yahweh has done for my lord according to all the good he has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you ruler over Israel, ³¹then this will not become for you a cause of grief or a stumbling of heart to my lord, namely, that you have shed blood without cause and that my lord has avenged himself. And when Yahweh has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant. ³²Then David said to Abigail, 'Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me.' ³³And blessed be your discernment, and blessed are you, because you have kept me this day from bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand. ³⁴For indeed, as Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, who restrained me from harming you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely by morning light not one male would have been left to Nabal. ³⁵So David accepted from her hand what she had brought him, and he said to her, 'Go up in peace to your house. See, I have listened to your voice and granted your request.' ³⁶Then Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house like a king’s feast, and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she told him nothing at all, small or great, until morning light. ³⁷But in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart failed within him, and he became like a stone. ³⁸And about ten days later Yahweh struck Nabal, and he died. ³⁹When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, 'Blessed be Yahweh, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal and has kept his servant back from evil. Yahweh has returned Nabal’s evil on his own head.' Then David sent and spoke to Abigail to take her as his wife. ⁴⁰When David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, 'David has sent us to you to take you as his wife.' ⁴¹And she arose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, 'Behold, your servant is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.' ⁴²Then Abigail hurried and arose and rode on the donkey, with five of her young women following her, and she went after David’s messengers and became his wife. ⁴³David had also taken Ahinoam from Jezreel, and both of them became his wives. ⁴⁴But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

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4/11/2026

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