1 Samuel 25:13-44

25:13 Then David instructed his men, “Each of you strap on your sword!” So each one strapped on his sword, and David also strapped on his sword. About four hundred men followed David up, while two hundred stayed behind with the equipment.

25:14 But one of the servants told Nabal’s wife Abigail, “David sent messengers from the desert to greet ¹  our lord, but he screamed at them. 25:15 These men were very good to us. They did not insult us, nor did we sustain any loss during the entire time we were together ²  in the field. 25:16 Both night and day they were a protective wall for us the entire time we were with them, while we were tending our flocks. 25:17 Now be aware of this, and see what you can do. For disaster has been planned for our lord and his entire household. ³  He is such a wicked person ⁴  that no one tells him anything!”

25:18 So Abigail quickly took two hundred loaves of bread, two containers ⁵  of wine, five prepared sheep, five seahs ⁶  of roasted grain, a hundred bunches of raisins, and two hundred lumps of pressed figs. She loaded them on donkeys 25:19 and said to her servants, “Go on ahead of me. I will come after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

25:20 Riding on her donkey, she went down under cover of the mountain. David and his men were coming down to meet her, and she encountered them. 25:21 Now David had been thinking, ⁷  “In vain I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the desert. I didn’t take anything from him. But he has repaid my good with evil. 25:22 God will severely punish David, ⁸  if I leave alive until morning even one male ⁹  from all those who belong to him!”

25:23 When Abigail saw David, she got down quickly from the donkey, threw herself down before David, and bowed to the ground. 25:24 Falling at his feet, she said, “My lord, I accept all the guilt! But please let your female servant speak with my lord! Please listen to the words of your servant! 25:25 My lord should not pay attention to this wicked man Nabal. He simply lives up to his name! His name means ‘fool,’ and he is indeed foolish! ¹⁰  But I, your servant, did not see the servants my lord sent. ¹¹ 

25:26 “Now, my lord, as surely as the Lord lives and as surely as you live, it is the Lord who has kept you from shedding blood and taking matters into your own hands. Now may your enemies and those who seek to harm my lord be like Nabal. 25:27 Now let this present ¹²  that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the servants who follow ¹³  my lord. 25:28 Please forgive the sin of your servant, for the Lord will certainly establish the house of my lord, because my lord fights the battles of the Lord. May no evil be found in you all your days! 25:29 When someone sets out to chase you and to take your life, the life of my lord will be wrapped securely in the bag ¹⁴  of the living by the Lord your God. But he will sling away the lives of your enemies from the sling’s pocket! 25:30 The Lord will do for my lord everything that he promised you, ¹⁵  and he will make ¹⁶  you a leader over Israel. 25:31 Your conscience will not be overwhelmed with guilt ¹⁷  for having poured out innocent blood and for having taken matters into your own hands. When the Lord has granted my lord success, ¹⁸  please remember your servant.”

25:32 Then David said to Abigail, “Praised ¹⁹  be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you this day to meet me! 25:33 Praised be your good judgment! May you yourself be rewarded ²⁰  for having prevented me this day from shedding blood and taking matters into my own hands! 25:34 Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives – he who has prevented me from harming you – if you had not come so quickly to meet me, by morning’s light not even one male belonging to Nabal would have remained alive!” 25:35 Then David took from her hand what she had brought to him. He said to her, “Go back ²¹  to your home in peace. Be assured that I have listened to you ²²  and responded favorably.” ²³ 

25:36 When Abigail went back to Nabal, he was holding a banquet in his house like that of the king. Nabal was having a good time ²⁴  and was very intoxicated. She told him absolutely nothing ²⁵  until morning’s light. 25:37 In the morning, when Nabal was sober, ²⁶  his wife told him about these matters. He had a stroke and was paralyzed. ²⁷  25:38 After about ten days the Lord struck Nabal down and he died.

25:39 When David heard that Nabal had died, he said, “Praised be the Lord who has vindicated me and avenged the insult that I suffered from Nabal! ²⁸  The Lord has kept his servant from doing evil, and he has repaid Nabal for his evil deeds.” ²⁹  Then David sent word to Abigail and asked her to become his wife.

25:40 So the servants of David went to Abigail at Carmel and said to her, “David has sent us to you to bring you back to be his wife.” 25:41 She arose, bowed her face toward the ground, and said, “Your female servant, like a lowly servant, will wash ³⁰  the feet of the servants of my lord.” 25:42 Then Abigail quickly went and mounted her donkey, with five of her female servants accompanying her. ³¹  She followed David’s messengers and became his wife.

25:43 David had also married ³²  Ahinoam from Jezreel; the two of them became his wives. 25:44 (Now Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Paltiel son of Laish, who was from Gallim.)

[25:14]  ¹ tn Heb “bless.”

[25:15]  ² tn Heb “all the days we walked about with them when we were.”

[25:17]  ³ tn Heb “all his house” (so ASV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “his whole family.”

[25:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “he is a son of worthlessness.”

[25:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “skins.”

[25:18]  ⁶ sn The seah was a dry measure equal to one-third of an ephah, or not quite eleven quarts.

[25:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “said.”

[25:22]  ⁸ tc Heb “Thus God will do to the enemies of David and thus he will add.” Most of the Old Greek ms tradition has simply “David,” with no reference to his enemies. In OT imprecations such as the one found in v. 22 it is common for the speaker to direct malediction toward himself as an indication of the seriousness with which he regards the matter at hand. In other words, the speaker invites on himself dire consequences if he fails to fulfill the matter expressed in the oath. However, in the situation alluded to in v. 22 the threat actually does not come to fruition due to the effectiveness of Abigail’s appeal to David in behalf of her husband Nabal. Instead, David is placated through Abigail’s intervention. It therefore seems likely that the reference to “the enemies of David” in the MT of v. 22 is the result of a scribal attempt to deliver David from the implied consequences of this oath. The present translation follows the LXX rather than the MT here.

[25:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “one who urinates against a wall” (also in v. 34); KJV “any that pisseth against the wall.”

[25:25]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and foolishness is with him.”

[25:25]  ¹¹ tn Heb “my lord’s servants, whom you sent.”

[25:27]  ¹² tn Heb “blessing.”

[25:27]  ¹³ tn Heb “are walking at the feet of.”

[25:29]  ¹⁴ tn Cf. KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “bundle”; NLT “treasure pouch.”

[25:30]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “according to all which he spoke, the good concerning you.”

[25:30]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “appoint.”

[25:31]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and this will not be for you for staggering and for stumbling of the heart of my lord.”

[25:31]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and the Lord will do well for my lord.”

[25:32]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “blessed” (also in vv. 33, 39).

[25:33]  ²⁰ tn Heb “blessed.”

[25:35]  ²¹ tn Heb “up.”

[25:35]  ²² tn Heb “your voice.”

[25:35]  ²³ tn Heb “I have lifted up your face.”

[25:36]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and the heart of Nabal was good upon him”; NASB, NRSV “Nabal’s heart was merry within him”; NIV “he was in high spirits”; NCV, TEV “was in a good mood”; CEV “was very drunk and feeling good.”

[25:36]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and she did not tell him a thing, small or large.”

[25:37]  ²⁶ tn Heb “when the wine had gone out from Nabal.”

[25:37]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and his heart died within him and he became a stone.” Cf. TEV, NLT “stroke”; CEV “heart attack.” For an alternative interpretation than that presented above, see Marjorie O’Rourke Boyle, “The Law of the Heart: The Death of a Fool (1 Samuel 25),” JBL 120 (2001): 401-27, who argues that a medical diagnosis is not necessary here. Instead, the passage makes a connection between the heart and the law; Nabal dies for his lawlessness.

[25:39]  ²⁸ tn Heb “who has argued the case of my insult from the hand of Nabal.”

[25:39]  ²⁹ tn Heb “his servant he has held back from evil, and the evil of Nabal the Lord has turned back on his head.”

[25:41]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Here is your maidservant, for a lowly servant to wash.”

[25:42]  ³¹ tn Heb “going at her feet.”

[25:43]  ³² tn Heb “taken.”