1 Samuel 25 :: New International Version (NIV)

David, Nabal and Abigail

1Sa 25:1Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David moved down into the Desert of Paran.[fn]

1Sa 25:2

1Sa 25:2A certain man in Maon, who had property there at Carmel, was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel.

1Sa 25:3

1Sa 25:3His name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband was surly and mean in his dealings—he was a Calebite.

1Sa 25:4

1Sa 25:4While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep.

1Sa 25:5

1Sa 25:5So he sent ten young men and said to them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name.

1Sa 25:6

1Sa 25:6Say to him: ‘Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!

1Sa 25:7

1Sa 25:7“ ‘Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing.

1Sa 25:8

1Sa 25:8Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.’ ”

1Sa 25:9

1Sa 25:9When David’s men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David’s name. Then they waited.

1Sa 25:10

1Sa 25:10Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days.

1Sa 25:11

1Sa 25:11Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?”

1Sa 25:12

1Sa 25:12David’s men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word.

1Sa 25:13

1Sa 25:13David said to his men, “Each of you strap on your sword!” So they did, and David strapped his on as well. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.

1Sa 25:14

1Sa 25:14One of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them.

1Sa 25:15

1Sa 25:15Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing.

1Sa 25:16

1Sa 25:16Night and day they were a wall around us the whole time we were herding our sheep near them.

1Sa 25:17

1Sa 25:17Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him.”

1Sa 25:18

1Sa 25:18Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs[fn] of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys.

1Sa 25:19

1Sa 25:19Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

1Sa 25:20

1Sa 25:20As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them.

1Sa 25:21

1Sa 25:21David had just said, “It’s been useless—all my watching over this fellow’s property in the wilderness so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good.

1Sa 25:22

1Sa 25:22May God deal with David,[fn] be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!”

1Sa 25:23

1Sa 25:23When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground.

1Sa 25:24

1Sa 25:24She fell at his feet and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord, and let me speak to you; hear what your servant has to say.

1Sa 25:25

1Sa 25:25Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name—his name means Fool, and folly goes with him. And as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my lord sent.

1Sa 25:26

1Sa 25:26And now, my lord, as surely as the LORD your God lives and as you live, since the LORD has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, may your enemies and all who are intent on harming my lord be like Nabal.

1Sa 25:27

1Sa 25:27And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you.

1Sa 25:28

1Sa 25:28“Please forgive your servant’s presumption. The LORD your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because you fight the LORD’s battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live.

1Sa 25:29

1Sa 25:29Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the LORD your God, but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling.

1Sa 25:30

1Sa 25:30When the LORD has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel,

1Sa 25:31

1Sa 25:31my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the LORD your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant.”

1Sa 25:32

1Sa 25:32David said to Abigail, “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me.

1Sa 25:33

1Sa 25:33May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands.

1Sa 25:34

1Sa 25:34Otherwise, as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak.”

1Sa 25:35

1Sa 25:35Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said, “Go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request.”

1Sa 25:36

1Sa 25:36When Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until daybreak.

1Sa 25:37

1Sa 25:37Then in the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone.

1Sa 25:38

1Sa 25:38About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal and he died.

1Sa 25:39

1Sa 25:39When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Praise be to the LORD, who has upheld my cause against Nabal for treating me with contempt. He has kept his servant from doing wrong and has brought Nabal’s wrongdoing down on his own head.” Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife.

1Sa 25:40

1Sa 25:40His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail, “David has sent us to you to take you to become his wife.”

1Sa 25:41

1Sa 25:41She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, “I am your servant and am ready to serve you and wash the feet of my lord’s servants.”

1Sa 25:42

1Sa 25:42Abigail quickly got on a donkey and, attended by her five female servants, went with David’s messengers and became his wife.

1Sa 25:43

1Sa 25:43David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both were his wives.

1Sa 25:44

1Sa 25:44But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Paltiel[fn] son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NIV Footnotes

(25:1)

Hebrew and some Septuagint manuscripts; other Septuagint manuscripts Maon

(25:18)

That is, probably about 60 pounds or about 27 kilograms

(25:22)

Some Septuagint manuscripts; Hebrew with David’s enemies

(25:44)

Hebrew Palti, a variant of Paltiel

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1 Samuel Chapter 25 — Additional Translations:

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1 Samuel 25 :: New International Version (NIV)

David, Nabal and Abigail

NIV Footnotes

1 Samuel Chapter 25 — Additional Translations:

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