Nabal and Abigail

² Now there was a man in ^(A)Maon whose business was in ^(B)Carmel; and the man was very ^[a]rich, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And it came about while ^(C)he was shearing his sheep in Carmel ³ (now the man’s name was Nabal, and his ^(D)wife’s name was Abigail. And the woman was ^[b]intelligent and beautiful in appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his dealings, and he was ^(E)a Calebite), ⁴ that David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. ⁵ So David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel and ^[c]visit Nabal, and greet him in my name;

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 cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and she loaded them on donkeys. ¹⁹ Then she said to her young men, “^(B)Go on ahead of me; behold, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. ²⁰ And it happened 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.

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

David’s Victory over the Amalekites

30 Then it happened, when David and his men came to ^(A)Ziklag on the third day, that ^(B)the Amalekites had carried out an attack on the ^[a]Negev and on ^(C)Ziklag, and had ^[b]overthrown Ziklag and burned it with fire; ² and they took captive the women and all who were in it, from the small to the great, ^[c](D)without killing anyone, and drove them off and went their way. ³ When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. ⁴ Then David and the people who were with him ^(E)raised their voices and wept until there was no strength in them to weep. ⁵ Now ^(F)David’s two wives had been taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the ^[d]widow of Nabal the Carmelite. ⁶ Also, David was in great distress because ^(G)the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were ^[e]embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But ^(H)David felt strengthened in the Lord his God.