Abigails Sensible Advice

Then David went away into the Wilderness of Maon. Now there was a man in

Maon, whose property was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three

thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep at

Carmel. His name was Nabal, and his wife's name was Abigail. The woman

was sensible and beautiful, but the man was rough and ill-mannered; and

he was a Calebite.



When David heard in the wildern ss that Nabal was shearing his sheep, he

sent ten young men with the command, "Go up to Carmel and enter Nabal's

house and greet him in my name. You shall say to him and to his family,

'Peace and prosperity be to you and your family and to all that you

have. Now I have heard that you have sheep-shearers. Your shepherds were

with us, and we did not insult them, and nothing of theirs was missing

all the while they were in Carmel. Ask your young men and they will tell

you. Therefore receive my young men favorably, for we have come on a

feast-day. Give also whatever you have at hand to your servants and to

your son David.'"



When David's young men came, they spoke to Nabal for David as they were

told, and then waited. But Nabal answered David's servants, "Who is

David? And who is the son of Jesse? Many are the slaves these days who

break away from their masters! Should I then take my bread and my water

and my meat that I have prepared for my shearers and give it to men of

whom I know nothing?" So when David's young men returned and told him,

he said to them, "Let every man put on his sword." So they all put on

their swords. David also put on his sword; and about four hundred men

followed David, and two hundred stayed with the baggage.



But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, "David has just

sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he insulted

them. The men have been very good to us and we have not been harmed nor

have we missed anything, as long as we were with them in the open

country. They were as a wall about us both night and day all the time we

were near them guarding the sheep. Now therefore decide what you will

do, for evil is planned against our master and against all his

household, for he is such an ill-tempered man that no one can say a word

to him."



Then Abigail quickly took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of

wine, five roasted sheep, five baskets of parched grain, a hundred

bunches of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on

asses. She said to her young men, "Go on ahead of me; see, I am coming

after you." But she said nothing about it to her husband Nabal. As she

was riding on the ass and coming down under cover of a hill, David and

his men were coming down toward her, so that she met them. David had

just said, "It was in vain that I guarded all that belongs to this

fellow in the wilderness, so that nothing of his was missing, for he has

returned me evil for good. May God bring a similar judgment upon David

and more too, if by daybreak I leave a single man of all those who

belong to him."



When Abigail saw David, she dismounted quickly from her ass and bowed

down before him with her face to the ground. As she fell at his feet she

said, "Upon me, my lord, upon me be the blame. Only let your servant

speak to you, and listen to her words. Let not my lord pay any attention

to that mean man Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. 'Fool' is his name

and folly rules him. But your servant did not see the young men of my

lord, whom you sent. Now, my lord, as surely as Jehovah lives and as you

live, since Jehovah has kept you from murder and from avenging yourself

by your own hand, may your enemies and those who seek to harm my lord be

like Nabal. Let this present which your servant has brought to my lord

be given to the young men who follow him. I beg of you, forgive the

wrong done by your servant, for Jehovah will certainly make my lord's

family strong, for my lord is fighting for Jehovah, and you shall not be

guilty of any evil deed as long as you live. Should a man rise up to

pursue you and seek your life, Jehovah your God will care for you, but

he will cast away the lives of your enemies as from a sling. When

Jehovah has done for you all the good that he has promised and has made

you ruler over Israel, you will not have to be sorry that you shed blood

without cause or that you were revenged by your own hand. When Jehovah

gives prosperity to my lord, then too remember your servant."



David said to Abigail, "Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, who sent

you this day to meet me, and blessed be your good sense. A blessing on

you, who have kept me this day from murder and from avenging myself by

my own hand. For as surely as Jehovah the God of Israel lives, who has

kept me from doing you harm, unless you had quickly come to meet me,

truly by daybreak not one man would have been left to Nabal."



So David received from her all which she had brought him. And he said to

her, "Go back in peace to your house. See, I have listened to your

advice and granted your request."



When Abigail returned to Nabal, he was holding a feast in his house like

a king. He was feeling merry, for he was very drunk; so she told him

nothing whatever until daybreak. But in the morning, when the effects of

the wine were gone, his wife told him what she had done. Then his heart

stopped beating and he became like a stone. About ten days later he had

a stroke from which he died.



When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Thanks be to Jehovah who

has punished Nabal's insult to me and has kept me from doing wrong, for

Jehovah has visited Nabal's crime upon his own head."



Then David sent to ask Abigail to become his wife. When his servants

came to her at Carmel and said, "David has sent us to you to take you to

him to be his wife," she rose and bowed her face to the earth and said,

"See, your slave is willing to be even a servant to wash the feet of my

lord's servants." Then Abigail quickly rose and mounted an ass; and five

of her maids followed as servants. So she went with the messengers of

David, and became his wife.