²⁰ and you shall say, ‘Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he thought, “I may appease him^[a] with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”^[b]

⁸ Now therefore take ^(A)seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and ^(B)offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall ^(C)pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” ^9 (D)So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job's prayer.

²⁵ correcting his opponents ^(A)with gentleness. God ^(B)may perhaps grant them repentance ^(C)leading to a knowledge of the truth,

^9 (A)Who knows? God may turn and relent ^(B)and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

³¹ And his servants said to him, “Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Let us ^(A)put sackcloth around our waists and ropes on our heads and go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will spare your life.”

¹⁷ Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, ^(A)for harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is such ^(B)a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.”

¹⁸ Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs^[a] of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys. ¹⁹ And she said to her young men, “Go on before me; behold, I come after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. ²⁰ And as she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her, and she met them. ²¹ Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, ^(C)so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has ^(D)returned me evil for good. ^22 (E)God do so to the enemies of David^[b] and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.”