¹Samuel died, and all Israel gathered together and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house in Ramah. And David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

²A man was in Maon, and his work was in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had a flock of three thousand, and a thousand she-goats; and it happened, as he was shearing his flock in Carmel.

³The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife was Abigail; and the woman was good of insight and beautiful of form, but the man was harsh and evil of deeds; and he was a Calebite.

⁴David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his flock.

⁵David sent ten boys, and David said to the boys, "Go up to Carmel, and come to Nabal, and ask him in my name about his wholeness.

⁶And you shall say like this: 'To life! And you, wholeness, and your house, wholeness, and all that is yours, wholeness!

⁷And now, I have heard that you have shearers. Now your shepherds were with us, and we did not shame them, and not a thing went missing for them, all the days they were in Carmel.

⁸Ask your boys, and they will tell you; and let the boys find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a good day. Please give what your hand finds to your slaves and to your son, to David.'"

⁹David's boys came and spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David, and they rested.

¹⁰Nabal answered the slaves of David and said, "Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? This day the slaves who break away, each man from the face of his lord, have multiplied.

¹¹Shall I take my food and my water and my meat that I slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men whom I do not know where they are from?"

¹²David's boys turned about on their way and returned, and came and told him all these words.

¹³David said to his men, "Each man gird his sword!" And each man girded his sword, and David also girded his sword; and they came up after David, about four hundred men, and two hundred dwelled with the baggage.

¹⁴But one of the boys told Abigail, the wife of Nabal, saying, "Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to bless our lord, but he pounced on them.

¹⁵But the men were exceedingly good to us, and we were not shamed, and we did not miss a thing, all the days we walked about with them while we were in the field.

¹⁶They were a wall around us both night and by day, all the days we were with them, shepherding the flock.

¹⁷And now know and see what you will do, for evil has been determined against our lord and against all his household; and he is a son of worthlessness, so that no one can speak to him."

¹⁸Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves of bread, and two skins of wine, and five sheep, prepared, and five seahs of roasted grain, and a hundred bunches of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and put them on the donkeys.

¹⁹She said to her boys, "Pass on before me; look, I am coming after you." But to her husband Nabal she did not tell.

²⁰And it happened, as she was riding on the donkey and coming down under cover of the mountain, that look, David and his men were coming down to meet her, and she met them.

²¹And David had said, "Surely it was for falsehood that I have guarded all that belongs to this man in the wilderness, and nothing of all that is his went missing; and he has returned me evil in place of good.

²²May God do like this to the enemies of David, and like this may he add, if I leave, of all that is his, until the morning, one who urinates against a wall."

²³Abigail saw David, and made haste, and came down from the donkey, and fell on her face before David, and bowed down to the land.

²⁴She fell at his feet and said, "On me, my lord, be the guilt! And please let your maidservant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your maidservant.

²⁵Please, let not my lord set his heart to this man of worthlessness, to Nabal; for as his name, so he is: Nabal is his name, and senselessness is with him. But I, your maidservant, did not see the boys of my lord whom you sent.

²⁶And now, my lord, as Yahweh lives and as your being lives, since Yahweh has held you back from coming into bloodshed, and from your own hand saving you, now may your enemies, and those who seek evil against my lord, be like Nabal.

²⁷And now, let this blessing that your female slave has brought to my lord be given to the boys who walk at the feet of my lord.

²⁸Take away, please, the transgression of your maidservant; for Yahweh will surely make my lord a sure house, for my lord is fighting the battles of Yahweh, and evil will not be found in you throughout your days.

²⁹And should a man rise up to pursue you and to seek your being, the being of my lord will be bound up in the bundle of the living with Yahweh your God; but the being of your enemies he will sling out in the middle of the hollow of the sling.

³⁰And it will happen, when Yahweh has done for my lord all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and charges you to be ruler over Israel,

³¹then this will not be for you a staggering and a stumbling of the heart for my lord, to pour out blood for nothing, and for my lord to deliver himself. And when Yahweh does good to my lord, you will remember your maidservant."

³²David said to Abigail, "Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who has sent you this day to meet me.

³³And blessed be your judgment, and blessed are you, who have restrained me this day from coming into bloodshed, and from my own hand saving me.

³⁴But as Yahweh lives, the God of Israel, who has held me back from doing harm to you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, then there would not have been left to Nabal, by the light of the morning, anyone who urinates against a wall."

³⁵David took from her hand what she had brought to him, and to her he said, "Go up in wholeness to your house; see, I have listened to your voice and have lifted up your face."

³⁶Abigail came to Nabal, and look, he had a feast in his house, like a feast of the king, and the heart of Nabal was glad within him, for he was drunk exceedingly; and she did not tell him a word, small or great, until the light of the morning.

³⁷It was in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, that his wife told him these words, and his heart died within him, and he became a stone.

³⁸It was about ten days later that Yahweh struck Nabal, and he died.

³⁹David heard that Nabal had died, and he said, "Blessed be Yahweh, who has contended the case of my reproach at the hand of Nabal, and has restrained his slave from evil; and Yahweh has turned back the evil of Nabal upon his head." Then David sent and spoke for Abigail, to take her to himself as a wife.

⁴⁰David's slaves came to Abigail at Carmel and spoke to her, saying, "David has sent us to you, to take you to himself as a wife."

⁴¹She rose and bowed down, face to the land, and she said, "Look, your maidservant is a female slave to wash the feet of the slaves of my lord."

⁴²Abigail hurried and rose and rode on the donkey, and five of her girls went on foot with her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.

⁴³David had taken Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them also became his wives.

⁴⁴Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, the wife of David, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.