1 Samuel 25:18-35

New American Standard Bible 1995

Abigail Intercedes

¹⁸ Then Abigail hurried and ^(A)took two hundred loaves of bread and two jugs of wine and five sheep already prepared and five measures of roasted grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys. ¹⁹ She said to her young men, “^(B)Go on before me; behold, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. ²⁰ It came about as she was riding on her donkey and coming down by the hidden part of the mountain, that behold, David and his men were coming down toward her; so she met them. ²¹ Now David had said, “Surely in vain I have guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; and he has ^(C)returned me evil for good. ^22 (D)May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, ^(E)if by morning I leave as much as one ^[a]male of any who belong to him.”

²³ When Abigail saw David, she hurried and dismounted from her donkey, and fell on her face before David ^(F)and bowed herself to the ground. ²⁴ She fell at his feet and said, “On me ^[b]alone, my lord, be the blame. And please let your maidservant speak ^[c]to you, and listen to the words of your maidservant. ²⁵ Please do not let my lord ^[d]pay attention to this ^[e]worthless man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. ^[f]Nabal is his name and folly is with him; but I your maidservant did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.

²⁶ “Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, since the Lord has restrained you from ^[g]shedding blood, and ^(G)from ^[h]avenging yourself by your own hand, now then ^(H)let your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord, be as Nabal. ²⁷ Now let ^(I)this ^[i]gift which your maidservant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who ^[j]accompany my lord. ²⁸ Please forgive ^(J)the transgression of your maidservant; for ^(K)the Lord will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord is ^(L)fighting the battles of the Lord, and ^(M)evil will not be found in you all your days. ²⁹ Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your ^[k]life, then the ^[l]life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; but the ^[m]lives of your enemies ^(N)He will sling out ^[n]as from the hollow of a sling. ³⁰ And when the Lord does for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and ^(O)appoints you ruler over Israel, ³¹ this will not ^[o]cause grief or a troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord having ^[p]avenged himself. ^(P)When the Lord deals well with my lord, then remember your maidservant.”

³² Then David said to Abigail, “^(Q)Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, ³³ and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you, ^(R)who have kept me this day from ^[q]bloodshed and from ^[r]avenging myself by my own hand. ³⁴ Nevertheless, as the Lord God of Israel lives, ^(S)who has restrained me from harming you, unless you had come quickly to meet me, surely there would not have been left to Nabal until the morning light as much as one ^[s]male.” ³⁵ So David received from her hand what she had brought him and said to her, “^(T)Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to ^[t]you and ^[u](U)granted your request.”