First
Samual
Chapter 25
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25:1 And Samuel died; and all the Israelites
were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David
arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.
25:2 And there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very
great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his
sheep in Carmel.
25:3 Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a
woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and
evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.
25:4 And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep.
25:5 And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to
Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name:
25:6 And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be both to thee, and
peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast.
25:7 And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which were with us,
we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in
Carmel.
25:8 Ask thy young men, and they will shew thee. Wherefore let the young men find favour
in thine eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine
hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David.
25:9 And when David's young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in
the name of David, and ceased.
25:10 And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of
Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master.
25:11 Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my
shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?
25:12 So David's young men turned their way,
and went again, and came and told him all those sayings.
25:13 And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on
every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David
about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff.
25:14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Behold, David sent
messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them.
25:15 But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any
thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields:
25:16 They were a wall unto us both by night
and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
25:17 Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against
our master, and against all his household: for he is such a son of Belial, that a man
cannot speak to him.
25:18 Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and
five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of
raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.
25:19 And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she
told not her husband Nabal.
25:20 And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the covert on the hill,
and, behold, David and his men came down against her; and she met them.
25:21 Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the
wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he hath
requited me evil for good.
25:22 So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to
him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.
25:23 And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before
David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground,
25:24 And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and
let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine
handmaid.
25:25 Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name
is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the
young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.
25:26 Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD
hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own
hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.
25:27 And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be
given unto the young men that follow my lord.
25:28 I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the LORD will certainly
make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the LORD, and evil hath
not been found in thee all thy days.
25:29 Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord
shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine
enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.
25:30 And it shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my lord according to all
the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over
Israel;
25:31 That this shall be no grief unto thee,
nor offence of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my
lord hath avenged himself: but when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then
remember thine handmaid.
25:32 And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which sent thee this
day to meet me:
25:33 And blessed be thy advice, and blessed
be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself
with mine own hand.
25:34 For in very deed, as the LORD God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from
hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left
unto Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.
25:35 So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go
up in peace to thine house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy
person.
25:36 And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast
of a king; and Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she
told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.
25:37 But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his
wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.
25:38 And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died.
25:39 And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD, that hath
pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from
evil: for the LORD hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent
and communed with Abigail, to take her to him to wife.
25:40 And when the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spake unto her,
saying, David sent us unto thee, to take thee to him to wife.
25:41 And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let
thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.
25:42 And Abigail hasted, and arose and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of hers that
went after her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.
25:43 David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they were also both of them his wives.
25:44 But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Phalti the son of Laish,
which was of Gallim.
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