I Samuel 25 · The Lantern

The Death of Samuel

And Samuel died; and all Israel gathered and lamented for him, and they buried him at his house in Ramah. And David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

David, Nabal, and Abigail

Now there was a man in Maon whose work was in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

And the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. And the woman was good in understanding and beautiful in form; but the man was hard and evil in his dealings — and he was a Calebite.

And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep.

And David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, and come to Nabal, and greet him in my name with peace.

And thus you shall say: ‘To life! Peace to you, and peace to your house, and peace to all that is yours.

And now, I have heard that you have shearers. Now, your shepherds have been with us; we did not humiliate them, and nothing of theirs was missing all the days they were in Carmel.

Ask your young men, and they will tell you. So let the young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a good day. Give, please, whatever your hand finds, to your servants and to your son, to David.’”

And David’s young men came and spoke to Nabal according to all these words, in the name of David — and they waited.

And Nabal answered the servants of David and said: “Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? These days there are many servants breaking away, each from before his master.

Shall I take my bread and my water, and my slaughtered meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men who come from I do not know where?”

And David’s young men turned back on their way; and they returned and came and told him according to all these words.

And David said to his men, “Each man strap on his sword!” And each man strapped on his sword, and David also strapped on his sword. And about four hundred men went up after David, and two hundred stayed with the baggage.

But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying: “Look — David sent messengers from the wilderness to bless our master, and he screamed at them.

And the men were very good to us; we were not humiliated, and we missed nothing all the days we went about with them, when we were in the field.

They were a wall around us, both night and day, all the days we were with them, shepherding the flock.

Now then, know and see what you should do — for the evil is determined against our master and against all his house; and he is such a son of worthlessness that no one can speak to him.”

Abigail Intercedes for Nabal

And Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread, and two skins of wine, and five sheep prepared, and five measures of roasted grain, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on the donkeys.

And she said to her young men, “Pass on before me — look, I am coming after you.” But her husband Nabal she did not tell.

And it was, as she was riding on the donkey and coming down under the cover of the mountain — look, David and his men coming down toward her; and she met them.

Now David had said: “Surely for nothing I guarded all that belongs to this fellow in the wilderness, so that nothing of all that is his was missing — and he has returned me evil for good.

Thus may God do to the enemies of David, and thus may he add, if I leave of all that is his, by morning, one who urinates against a wall.”

And Abigail saw David, and she hurried and got down from the donkey; and she fell before David on her face, and bowed down to the ground.

And she fell at his feet and said: “On me, my lord — on me be the iniquity. And let your servant speak, please, in your ears; and hear the words of your servant.

Let my lord not set his heart, please, on this man of worthlessness, on Nabal — for as his name is, so is he: Fool is his name, and folly is with him. But I, your servant, did not see my lord’s young men, whom you sent.

And now, my lord, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives — the LORD who has held you back from coming into bloodshed, and from saving yourself with your own hand — now let your enemies, and those who seek evil against my lord, be like Nabal.

And now, this blessing that your servant has brought to my lord — let it be given to the young men who walk at the feet of my lord.

Forgive, please, the rebellion of your servant — for the LORD will surely make for my lord a faithful house, because my lord fights the battles of the LORD, and evil shall not be found in you all your days.

Should a man rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, the life of my lord will be bound in the bundle of the living with the LORD your God — but the life of your enemies he will sling away, from the hollow of the sling.

And it shall be, when the LORD does for my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and appoints you as leader over Israel,

that this will not be for you a stumbling, or an obstacle of heart for my lord — to have shed blood without cause, or that my lord saved himself. And when the LORD does good to my lord, then remember your servant.”

And David said to Abigail: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me.

And blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you — who have kept me this day from coming into bloodshed, and from saving myself with my own hand.

But truly, as the LORD lives, the God of Israel, who has held me back from harming you — unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely there would not have been left to Nabal, by the light of morning, one who urinates against a wall.”

And David took from her hand what she had brought him; and to her he said, “Go up in peace to your house. See — I have listened to your voice, and I have lifted up your face.”

And Abigail came to Nabal — and look, he was holding a feast in his house like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, and he was very drunk. So she told him nothing, small or great, until the light of morning.

And it was in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, that his wife told him these things; and his heart died within him, and he became like a stone.

And it was about ten days later that the LORD struck Nabal, and he died.

David Marries Abigail

And David heard that Nabal had died, and he said: “Blessed be the LORD, who has pleaded the case of my disgrace from the hand of Nabal, and has held back his servant from evil; and the evil of Nabal the LORD has returned on his own head.” And David sent and spoke for Abigail, to take her to himself as a wife.

And the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, and spoke to her, saying, “David has sent us to you, to take you to himself as a wife.”

And she rose and bowed down with her face to the ground, and said, “Look — your servant is a slave, to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.”

And Abigail hurried and rose, and rode on the donkey, with five of her young women walking at her feet; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.

And David had taken Ahinoam from Jezreel; and both of them became his wives.