1 Samuel 25
Contemporary English Version
Samuel Dies
25 Samuel died, and people from all over Israel gathered to mourn for him when he was buried at his home[a] in Ramah. Meanwhile, David moved his camp to Paran Desert.[b]
Abigail Keeps David from Killing Innocent People
2-3 Nabal was a very rich man who lived in Maon. He owned 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats, which he kept at Carmel.[c] His wife Abigail was sensible and beautiful, but he was from the Caleb clan[d] and was rough and mean.
4 One day, Nabal was in Carmel where his servants were cutting the wool from his sheep. David was in the desert when he heard about it. 5-6 So he sent ten men to Carmel with this message for Nabal:
I hope that you and your family are healthy and that all is going well for you. 7 I've heard that you are cutting the wool from your sheep.
When your shepherds were with us in Carmel, we didn't harm them, and nothing was ever stolen from them. 8 Ask your shepherds, and they'll tell you the same thing.
My servants are your servants, and you are like a father to me. This is a day for celebrating,[e] so please be kind and share some of your food with us.
9 David's men went to Nabal and gave him David's message, then they waited for Nabal's answer.
10 This is what he said:
Who does this David think he is? That son of Jesse is just one more slave on the run from his master, and there are too many of them these days. 11 What makes you think I would take my bread, my water, and the meat that I've had cooked for my own servants[f] and give it to you? Besides, I'm not sure that David sent you![g]
12 The men returned to their camp and told David everything Nabal had said.
13 “Everybody get your swords!” David ordered.
They all strapped on their swords. Two hundred men stayed behind to guard the camp, but the other 400 followed David.
14-16 Meanwhile, one of Nabal's servants told Abigail:
David's men were often nearby while we were taking care of the sheep in the fields. They were very good to us, they never hurt us, and nothing was ever stolen from us while they were nearby. With them around day or night, we were as safe as we would have been inside a walled city.
David sent some messengers from the desert to wish our master well, but he shouted insults at them. 17 He's a bully who won't listen to anyone.
Isn't there something you can do? Please think of something! Or else our master and his family and everyone who works for him are all doomed.
18 Abigail quickly got together 200 loaves of bread, two large clay jars of wine, the meat from five sheep, a large sack of roasted grain, 100 handfuls of raisins, and 200 handfuls of dried figs. She loaded all the food on donkeys 19 and told her servants, “Take this on ahead, and I'll catch up with you.” She didn't tell her husband Nabal what she was doing.
20 Abigail was riding her donkey on the path that led around the hillside, when suddenly she met David and his men heading straight at her.
21 David had just been saying, “I surely wasted my time guarding Nabal's things in the desert and keeping them from being stolen! I was good to him, and now he pays me back with insults. 22 I swear that by morning, there won't be a man or boy left from his family or his servants' families. I pray that God will punish me[h] if I don't do it!”
23 Abigail quickly got off her donkey and bowed down in front of David. 24 Then she said:
Sir, please let me explain! 25 Don't pay any attention to that good-for-nothing Nabal. His name means “fool,” and it really fits him!
I didn't see the men you sent, 26-27 but please take this gift of food that I've brought and share it with your followers. The Lord has kept you from taking revenge and from killing innocent people. But I hope your enemies and anyone else who wants to harm you will end up like Nabal. I swear this by the living Lord and by your life.
28 Please forgive me if I say a little more. The Lord will always protect you and your family, because you fight for him. I pray that you won't ever do anything evil as long as you live. 29 The Lord your God will keep you safe when your enemies try to kill you. But he will snatch away their lives quicker than you can throw a rock from a sling.
30 The Lord has promised to do many good things for you, even to make you the ruler of Israel. The Lord will keep his promises to you, 31 and now your conscience will be clear, because you won't be guilty of taking revenge and killing innocent people.
When the Lord does all those good things for you, please remember me.
32 David told her:
I praise the Lord God of Israel! He must have sent you to meet me today. 33 And you should also be praised. Your good sense kept me from taking revenge and killing innocent people. 34 If you hadn't come to meet me so quickly, every man and boy in Nabal's family and in his servants' families would have been killed by morning. I swear by the living Lord God of Israel who protected you that this is the truth.
35 David accepted the food Abigail had brought. “Don't worry,” he said. “You can go home now. I'll do what you asked.”
36 Abigail went back home and found Nabal throwing a party fit for a king. He was very drunk and feeling good, so she didn't tell him anything that night. 37 But when he sobered up the next morning, Abigail told him everything that had happened. Nabal had a heart attack, and he lay in bed as still as a stone. 38 Ten days later, the Lord took his life.
39-40 David heard that Nabal had died. “I praise the Lord!” David said. “He has judged Nabal guilty for insulting me. The Lord kept me from doing anything wrong, and he made sure that Nabal hurt only himself with his own evil.”
David and Abigail Are Married
Abigail was still at Carmel. So David sent messengers to ask her if she would marry him.
41 She bowed down and said, “I would willingly be David's slave and wash his servants' feet.”
42 Abigail quickly got ready and went back with David's messengers. She rode on her donkey, while five of her servant women walked alongside. She and David were married as soon as she arrived.
43 David had earlier married Ahinoam from the town of Jezreel, so both she and Abigail were now David's wives.[i] 44 (A) Meanwhile, Saul had arranged for Michal[j] to marry Palti the son of Laish, who came from the town of Gallim.
Footnotes
- 25.1 at his home: Hebrew “in his house.” Family tombs were sometimes underneath the house or in the courtyard of the home.
- 25.1 Paran Desert: Hebrew; some manuscripts of one ancient translation “Maon Desert.”
- 25.2,3 Carmel: About one and a half kilometers north of Maon in the Southern Desert of Judah.
- 25.2,3 from the Caleb clan: Or “behaved like a dog.”
- 25.8 celebrating: Cutting the wool from the sheep was a time for celebrating as well as for working.
- 25.11 servants: Hebrew “shearers,” the servants who cut the wool from the sheep.
- 25.11 I'm not sure … sent you: Or “I don't know where you come from.”
- 25.22 me: One ancient translation; Hebrew “my enemies.”
- 25.43 wives: Having more than one wife was allowed in those times.
- 25.44 Michal: David's first wife (see 18.20—19.17).
1 Samuel 25
New King James Version
Death of Samuel
25 Then (A)Samuel died; and the Israelites gathered together and (B)lamented for him, and buried him at his home in Ramah. And David arose and went down (C)to the Wilderness of [a]Paran.
David and the Wife of Nabal
2 Now there was a man (D)in Maon whose business was in (E)Carmel, and the man was very rich. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3 The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance; but the man was harsh and evil in his doings. He was of the house of (F)Caleb.
4 When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was (G)shearing his sheep, 5 David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. 6 And thus you shall say to him who lives in prosperity: (H)‘Peace be to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that you have! 7 Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds were with us, and we did not hurt them, (I)nor was there anything missing from them all the while they were in Carmel. 8 Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore [b]let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on (J)a feast day. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David.’ ”
9 So when David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David, and waited.
10 Then Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, (K)“Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master. 11 (L)Shall I then take my bread and my water and my [c]meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they are from?”
12 So David’s young men turned on their heels and went back; and they came and told him all these words. 13 Then David said to his men, “Every man gird on his sword.” So every man girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword. And about four hundred men went with David, and two hundred (M)stayed with the supplies.
14 Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master; and he [d]reviled them. 15 But the men were very good to us, and (N)we were not hurt, nor did we miss anything as long as we accompanied them, when we were in the fields. 16 They were (O)a wall to us both by night and day, all the time we were with them keeping the sheep. 17 Now therefore, know and consider what you will do, for (P)harm is determined against our master and against all his household. For he is such a (Q)scoundrel[e] that one cannot speak to him.”
18 Then Abigail made haste and (R)took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already dressed, five seahs of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19 And she said to her servants, (S)“Go on before me; see, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20 So it was, as she rode on the donkey, that she went down under cover of the hill; and there were David and his men, coming down toward her, and she met them. 21 Now David had said, “Surely in vain I have protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belongs to him. And he has (T)repaid me evil for good. 22 (U)May God do so, and more also, to the enemies of David, if I (V)leave (W)one male of all who belong to him by morning light.”
23 Now when Abigail saw David, she (X)dismounted quickly from the donkey, fell on her face before David, and bowed down to the ground. 24 So she fell at his feet and said: “On me, my lord, on me let this iniquity be! And please let your maidservant [f]speak in your ears, and hear the words of your maidservant. 25 Please, let not my lord [g]regard this scoundrel Nabal. For as his name is, so is he: [h]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, (Y)as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, since the Lord has (Z)held you back from coming to bloodshed and from (AA)avenging[i] yourself with your own hand, now then, (AB)let your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be as Nabal. 27 And now (AC)this present which your maidservant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord. 28 Please forgive the trespass of your maidservant. For (AD)the Lord will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord (AE)fights the battles of the Lord, (AF)and evil is not found in you throughout your days. 29 Yet a man has risen to pursue you and seek your life, but the life of my lord shall be (AG)bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; and the lives of your enemies He shall (AH)sling out, as from the pocket of a sling. 30 And it shall come to pass, when the Lord has done for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you (AI)ruler over Israel, 31 that this will be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself. But when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your maidservant.”
32 Then David said to Abigail: (AJ)“Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! 33 And blessed is your advice and blessed are you, because you have (AK)kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand. 34 For indeed, as the Lord God of Israel lives, who has (AL)kept me back from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely (AM)by morning light no males would have been left to Nabal!” 35 So David received from her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, (AN)“Go up in peace to your house. See, I have heeded your voice and (AO)respected your person.”
36 Now Abigail went to Nabal, and there he was, (AP)holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk; therefore she told him nothing, little or much, until morning light. 37 So it was, in the morning, when the wine had gone from Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became like a stone. 38 Then it happened, after about ten days, that the Lord (AQ)struck Nabal, and he died.
39 So when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, (AR)“Blessed be the Lord, who has (AS)pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has (AT)kept His servant from evil! For the Lord has (AU)returned the wickedness of Nabal on his own head.”
And David sent and proposed to Abigail, to take her as his wife. 40 When the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her saying, “David sent us to you, to ask you to become his wife.”
41 Then she arose, bowed her face to the earth, and said, “Here is your maidservant, a servant to (AV)wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” 42 So Abigail rose in haste and rode on a donkey, [j]attended by five of her maidens; and she followed the messengers of David, and became his wife. 43 David also took Ahinoam (AW)of Jezreel, (AX)and so both of them were his wives.
44 But Saul had given (AY)Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to [k]Palti the son of Laish, who was from (AZ)Gallim.
Footnotes
- 1 Samuel 25:1 So with MT, Syr., Tg., Vg.; LXX Maon
- 1 Samuel 25:8 be gracious to the young men
- 1 Samuel 25:11 Lit. slaughter
- 1 Samuel 25:14 scolded or scorned at
- 1 Samuel 25:17 Lit. son of Belial
- 1 Samuel 25:24 speak to you
- 1 Samuel 25:25 pay attention to
- 1 Samuel 25:25 Lit. Fool
- 1 Samuel 25:26 Lit. saving yourself
- 1 Samuel 25:42 Lit. with five of her maidens at her feet
- 1 Samuel 25:44 Paltiel, 2 Sam. 3:15
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Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
