1 Samuel 25:32-42

English Standard Version

³² And David said to Abigail, ^(A)“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! ³³ Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, ^(B)who have kept me this day from bloodguilt ^(C)and from working salvation with my own hand! ³⁴ For as surely ^(D)as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, ^(E)who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.” ³⁵ Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, ^(F)“Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice, and I have granted your petition.”

³⁶ And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, ^(G)he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal's heart ^(H)was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she told him nothing ^(I)at all until the morning light. ³⁷ In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. ³⁸ And about ten days later ^(J)the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.

³⁹ When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, ^(K)“Blessed be the Lord who has ^(L)avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, ^(M)and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. ^(N)The Lord has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent and ^(O)spoke to Abigail, to take her as his wife. ⁴⁰ When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.” ⁴¹ And she rose ^(P)and bowed with her face to the ground and said, “Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” ⁴² And Abigail hurried and rose and mounted a donkey, and her five young women attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife.