⁴ When the woman from Tekoa approached^[a] the king, she bowed with her face to the ground in deep respect and cried out, “O king! Help me!”

²⁶ One day as the king of Israel was walking along the wall of the city, a woman called to him, “Please help me, my lord the king!”

²⁷ He answered, “If the Lord doesn’t help you, what can I do? I have neither food from the threshing floor nor wine from the press to give you.” ²⁸ But then the king asked, “What is the matter?”

She replied, “This woman said to me: ‘Come on, let’s eat your son today, then we will eat my son tomorrow.’

² On the third day a man arrived from Saul’s army camp. He had torn his clothes and put dirt on his head to show that he was in mourning. He fell to the ground before David in deep respect.

Abigail Intercedes for Nabal

²³ When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed low before him.

³ A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ ⁴ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, ⁵ but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”

⁴¹ As soon as the boy was gone, David came out from where he had been hiding near the stone pile.^[a] Then David bowed three times to Jonathan with his face to the ground. Both of them were in tears as they embraced each other and said good-bye, especially David.