Old/New Testament
25 At last, Samuel died, and all of the people of Israel gathered to mourn him. They buried him at his home in Ramah on the border of Benjamin and Ephraim. Once the mourning period was over, David and his men went down to the wilderness of Paran[a] (the desert area far to the south).
2 A certain man in Maon owned property in Carmel, a town south of Hebron near the Dead Sea. This man was very rich: he owned 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats. It was sheepshearing time in Carmel, which was celebrated with feasting and generosity. 3 This rich man’s name was Nabal, which means “foolish,” and his wife was Abigail, which means “my father is joy.” She was smart and beautiful, but he was mean-spirited and bad-tempered, an embarrassment to his Calebite tribe.
4 From his hiding place in the wilderness, David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep, 5 so David gathered 10 young men to send to Nabal asking for gifts.
David (to the young men): Go up to Carmel in Judah, to Nabal, and greet him in my name: 6 “Live long. Peace be to you, your entire household, and all you possess. 7 I hear that it is time to shear the sheep. I want you to know that your shepherds have been among us in the wilderness, and not only did we not harm them, but not an animal was taken during their time among us in Carmel. 8 Ask your young men; they will tell you this is true. Please return our kindness and look on my young men with favor since we come on this feast day. Please give whatever you can spare to them and to your son David.”
9 When David’s young men came to Nabal, they delivered David’s message and waited for Nabal’s response.
Nabal: 10 Who is David? Who is this son of Jesse? I’ve never heard of him, so he must be nothing more than a slave who abandoned his master. 11 Should I take bread and water and meat from my own servants and give it to men who come from who knows where?
12 So David’s young men returned to him by the same road and told him what had happened.
David (ordering his men): 13 Strap on your swords!
All of them put on their swords, including David, and about 400 of his men followed him while 200 remained behind with their supplies.
14 One of Nabal’s servants recognized his master’s insolence and told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, what was happening.
Servant: David sent messengers from the wilderness to salute our master, and Nabal returned their honor with insults. 15 David’s men have been very good to us. Nothing happened to us while we were with his company, and we never lost a single sheep in the fields in the time we were there. 16 They were like a wall protecting us day and night the whole time we were near them keeping the sheep.
17 You should know this and think about what to do next. Evil is coming to my master and his entire household if you don’t do something. Nabal is so worthless that no one can talk to him.
18 Then Abigail, knowing the stakes, rushed about gathering gifts similar to what her husband should have offered: 200 loaves, 2 jugs of wine, 5 sheep (butchered and dressed), more than 50 quarts of roasted grain, 100 clusters of raisins, and 200 fig cakes. She had these loaded on donkeys.
Abigail (to her servants): 19 Go ahead of me with all the gifts. I’ll be right behind you.
But she never stopped to speak to her husband Nabal. She had decided to approach David herself.
20 As she rode down the mountain on a hidden trail, David and his men were approaching, and they met.
21 Earlier David had made an oath.
David: It looks as though we protected everything this guy owns—so that he lost none of the things belonging to him—for nothing. We did him a good turn, and now he rewards us with evil. 22 May the True God do so to my enemies[b]—and more—if tomorrow morning I’ve left alive a single male of Nabal’s household.
23 When Abigail saw David, she dropped quickly from her donkey and fell to the ground in front of him, bowing.
Abigail (at David’s feet): 24 My lord, any guilt here falls on me. Please let me, your servant, speak, and may you hear the words I speak. 25 My lord, you must not take seriously the words of this worthless man, Nabal. His actions have proven that his name and his nature are the same: Nabal is a fool. Unfortunately I, your servant, did not see the young men you sent.
26 Now, my lord, as the Eternal One lives and as you live, since the Eternal has kept you from senseless killing and from seizing vengeance yourself, may your enemies and all who seek to harm you, my lord, be like Nabal.
27 Now, please, accept my gift and distribute it among the young men who are with you. 28 Please forgive your servant’s shortcomings. The Eternal will certainly make my lord’s house into a lasting dynasty because you fight on behalf of Him, and no evil will be found in you as long as you live. 29 If anyone dares to rise up against you and seek your life, then you will be protected by the Eternal One, your True God, who will launch the lives of your enemies like stones from a sling.
30 When the Eternal has done for my lord all the good things He has promised and has installed you as ruler over all Israel, 31 you will never have to be grieved or conscience-stricken for having shed blood needlessly or for taking vengeance into your own hands. When He has dealt generously with my lord, I pray you will remember me, your servant.
David (to Abigail): 32 Blessed is the Eternal God of Israel, who sent you here today to intercept me. 33 And blessed is your wisdom—blessed are you—for keeping me from shedding blood needlessly and from taking vengeance into my own hands. 34 For as surely as the Eternal God of Israel lives and sent you to me, if you had not hurried out to meet me, tomorrow there would not have been a single male left alive in Nabal’s household.
35 Then David accepted her gifts.
David: Arise, and return home in peace. I have listened to your words, and I have granted your request.
36 Abigail returned to Nabal, who was holding a kingly feast in his house. Nabal’s heart was light because he was very drunk, so Abigail chose not to tell him anything until the next morning. 37 The next morning, when he was sober, Abigail told him about her meeting with David and he went cold inside. 38 About 10 days later, the Eternal One struck down Nabal, and he died.
39 When David heard this news, he blessed God.
David: Blessed is the Eternal One, who protected my honor from Nabal’s insults and who kept me, His servant, from executing evil. Instead, the Eternal One turned Nabal’s evil back on him.
40 Then David sent servants to Carmel asking Abigail to be his wife.
Servants: David has sent us to bring you to him so that you can be his wife.
41 She stood, and then bowed to the ground before David’s servants.
Abigail: I am your servant, willing to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.
42 Then Abigail quickly got up, mounted her donkey, and went with the messengers of David attended by her five handmaidens. Not long after, she married him.
43 David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel; she and Abigail were both wives of David. 44 By this time, Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s former wife, to Palti (the son of Laish) from Gallim.
Two women figure prominently in David’s ascension to Israel’s throne: Michal and Abigail. As the daughter of the king, Michal is born into the world of palace intrigue, but Abigail talks her way into it. As a beautiful, articulate woman, she is desirable to any man, but she has special appeal to David. Abigail brings with her Nabal’s wealth and power in the south. By marrying this Calebite widow, David gains political influence with the southern tribes that soon gets him crowned king in Hebron (2 Samuel 2:2–4), a large city within Caleb’s territory.
26 Then the Ziphites went to Saul at Gibeah and told him David was hiding on the heights of Hachilah, which is across from Jeshimon. 2 Saul again gathered 3,000 seasoned Israelite soldiers, and he went down to the wilderness of Ziph to find David. 3 They camped by the road on the hill of Hachilah, across from Jeshimon, but David and his men were hidden in the wilderness. When he learned that Saul was coming after him, 4 David sent out some spies who discovered Saul was certainly at it again.
5 Then David went to Saul’s camp and found where Saul slept, as well as Abner son of Ner, general of the army, surrounded by their men. 6 David looked over the situation and spoke to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Abishai, son of Zeruiah and brother of Joab.
David: Who will follow me into the center of Saul’s camp?
Abishai: I’m right there with you.
7 So David and Abishai snuck into the encampment under the cover of darkness, and at last they found Saul sleeping in the middle of the camp, his spear stuck into the ground near his head, with Abner and the other soldiers lying around him asleep.
Abishai (to David): 8 This is your chance! God has placed your enemy at your mercy. Let me take his spear and pin him to the ground. I only need one try.
David: 9 No. Don’t kill him. Who can legitimately strike the Eternal’s anointed king without consequences? 10 As the Eternal One lives, his time will come. The Eternal will strike him down; either he will die, or he will go into battle one day and be slain. 11 God forbid that I would be the one to harm the Eternal’s anointed king. But please, take his spear next to his head and that water jug, and let’s go.
12 So David took the spear and the water jug from right beside Saul’s head and crept back through the camp. No one saw or knew they were there. No one woke up because the Eternal had caused the entire camp to fall into a deep sleep. 13 David went up a hill, standing a safe distance away. 14 Then he shouted to Abner, son of Ner, and the army.
David: Abner! Can you hear me?
Abner: Who hails the king’s camp?
David: 15 What kind of man are you? Is anyone your equal in all Israel? So why haven’t you done a better job guarding your lord and master, the anointed king? After all, one of the people who crept into your camp tonight could have murdered your lord. 16 This is not a good thing that you have done, because you failed to protect your lord, the anointed of the Eternal. As the Eternal One lives, you deserve to die. Where is his spear? Where is the water jug that was at his head?
17 Saul recognized David’s voice.
Saul: Is that you, David my son?
David: Yes, you are hearing my voice, my lord, my king.
18 Why does my lord continue to chase his servant? What have I done? Am I guilty of something?
19 Now then, may my lord the king hear the words of his servant: If the Eternal has stirred you to try and kill me, may He be appeased by an offering. But if mere mortals have done this, may the Eternal curse them because they have driven me away today from Israel, my heritage in the Eternal One. Exiling me is tantamount to saying “Go and serve other gods.”
20 Now I ask you, don’t kill me here, so far from the Eternal’s presence. The king of Israel and his army have come after a single flea, as one goes to hunt a partridge in the mountains.
Saul: 21 David! I was remiss. Come back, my son. I will never try to hurt you again because today you treated my life as precious and preserved it. I have been a fool and made a big mistake.
David: 22 Here is your spear, O king. Send one of your young soldiers to retrieve it.
23 The Eternal One rewards those who are faithful and righteous, for He gave you into my power today, and I chose not to harm His anointed king. 24 As I treated your life as precious, may He guard my life, rescuing me from all troubles.
Saul: 25 May God bless you, my son David! May you accomplish everything you set out to do, and may you excel.
So David went his way, and Saul returned home.
32 My little flock, don’t be afraid. God is your Father, and your Father’s great joy is to give you His kingdom.
33 That means you can sell your possessions and give generously to the poor. You can have a different kind of savings plan: one that never depreciates, one that never defaults, one that can’t be plundered by crooks or destroyed by natural calamities. 34 Your treasure will be stored in the heavens, and since your treasure is there, your heart will be lodged there as well.
35-36 I’m not just talking theory. There is urgency in all this. If you’re apathetic and complacent, then you’ll miss the moment of opportunity. You should be wide awake and on your toes like servants who are waiting for their master to return from a big wedding reception. They’ll have their shoes on and their lamps lit so they can open the door for him as soon as he arrives home. 37 How fortunate those servants will be when the master knocks and they open the door immediately! You know what the master will do? He’ll put on an apron, sit them down at the kitchen table, and he’ll serve them a midnight snack. 38 The later he comes home—whether it’s at midnight or even later, just before dawn—the more fortunate the alert servants will be.
39 In contrast, imagine a complacent, apathetic household manager whose house gets robbed. If he had been aware that thieves were waiting in the bushes and what hour they were coming, [he would have watched and][a] he never would have left the house! 40 I’m trying to tell you that these are times for alertness, times requiring a sense of urgency and intensity, because like the master in the first story or the thief in the second, the Son of Man shows up by surprise.
Peter: 41 Lord, I’m not sure if this parable is intended only for us disciples or if this is for everyone else too.
Jesus: 42 Imagine the stories of two household managers, and decide for yourself which one is faithful and smart. Each household manager is told by his master to take good care of all his possessions and to oversee the other employees—the butlers, cooks, gardeners, and so on. 43 One servant immediately busies himself in doing just what he was told. His master eventually comes to check on him 44 and rewards him with a major promotion and with more responsibility and trust. 45 The other household manager thinks, “Look, my boss is going to be gone for a long time. I can be complacent; there’s no urgency here.” So he beats the other employees—the women as well as the men. He sits around like a slob, eating and getting drunk. 46 Then the boss comes home unexpectedly and catches him by surprise. One household manager will be fortunate indeed, and the other will be cut into pieces and thrown out.
47 Now if a servant who is given clear instructions by his master doesn’t follow those instructions but instead is complacent and apathetic, then he will be punished severely. 48 But if a servant doesn’t know what his master expects and behaves badly, then he will receive a lighter punishment. If you are given much, much will be required of you. If much is entrusted to you, much will be expected of you.
49 This is serious business we’re involved in. My mission is to send a purging fire on the earth! In fact, I can hardly wait to see the smoke rising. 50 I have a kind of baptism to go through, and I can’t relax until My mission is accomplished! 51 Do you think I’ve come with a nice little message of peace? No way. Believe Me, My message will divide. 52 It will divide a household of five into three against two or two against three. 53 It will divide father against son and son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against mother; mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.[b]
54 (speaking to the crowd) You see a cloud arise from the sea in the west, and you can say, “Here comes a shower!” And you’re right. 55 Or you feel the hot wind blowing in from the desert in the south and you say, “It’s going to be really hot!” And you’re right. 56 Listen, hypocrites! You can predict the weather by paying attention to the sky and the earth, but why can’t you interpret the urgency of this present moment? 57 Why don’t you see it for yourselves?
58 Imagine you’re being sued. You and your accuser are on your way to court. Wouldn’t you do everything in your power to settle out of court before you stand before the magistrate? After all, he might drag you to stand before the judge, and the judge might hand you over to the police, and they might throw you in jail. 59 Once you’re in jail, it’s too late: you’re not going anywhere until you’ve paid in full.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.