1 Samuel 25
1 Samuel 25:1 Samuel died, and all Israel assembled to mourn for him, and they buried him by his home in Ramah. David then went down to the Wilderness of Paran.
1 Samuel 25:2 A man in Maon had a business in Carmel; he was a very rich man with three thousand sheep and one thousand goats and was shearing his sheep in Carmel.
1 Samuel 25:3 The man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name, Abigail. The woman was intelligent and beautiful, but the man, a Calebite, was harsh and evil in his dealings.
1 Samuel 25:4 While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep,
1 Samuel 25:5 so David sent ten boys instructing them, “Go up to Carmel, and when you come to Nabal, greet him in my name.
1 Samuel 25:6 Then say this: ‘Long life to you, and peace to you, peace to your family, and peace to all that is yours.
1 Samuel 25:7 I hear that you are shearing. When your shepherds were with us, we did not harass them, and nothing of theirs was missing the whole time they were in Carmel.
1 Samuel 25:8 Ask your boys, and they will tell you. So let my boys find favor with you, for we have come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have on hand to your slaves and to your son David.'”
1 Samuel 25:9 David’s boys went and said all these things to Nabal on David’s behalf, and they waited.
1 Samuel 25:10 Nabal asked them, “Who is David? Who is Jesse’s son? Many slaves these days are running away from their masters.
1 Samuel 25:11 Am I supposed to take my bread, my water, and my meat that I butchered for my shearers and give them to these men? I don’t know where they are from.”
1 Samuel 25:12 David’s boys retraced their steps. When they returned to him, they reported all these words.
1 Samuel 25:13 He said to his men, “All of you, put on your swords!” So each man put on his sword, and David also put on his sword. About four hundred men followed David while two hundred stayed with the supplies.
1 Samuel 25:14 One of Nabal’s boys informed Abigail, Nabal’s wife: “Notice, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he screamed at them.
1 Samuel 25:15 The men treated us very well. When we were in the field, we weren’t harassed and nothing of ours was missing the whole time we were living among them.
1 Samuel 25:16 They were a wall around us, both day and night, the entire time we were with them herding the sheep.
1 Samuel 25:17 Now consider carefully what you should do, because there is certain to be trouble for our master and his entire family. He is such a worthless fool nobody can talk to him!”
1 Samuel 25:18 Abigail hurried, taking two hundred loaves of bread, two clay jars of wine, five butchered sheep, a bushel of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys.
1 Samuel 25:19 Then she said to her boys, “Go ahead of me. Notice I will be right behind you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
1 Samuel 25:20 As she rode the donkey down a mountain pass hidden from view, she noticed David and his men coming toward her and met them.
1 Samuel 25:21 David had just said, “I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the wilderness for nothing. He was not missing anything, yet he paid me back evil for good.
1 Samuel 25:22 May God punish me and do so severely if I let any of his males survive until morning.”
1 Samuel 25:23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off the donkey and knelt down with her face to the ground and paid homage to David.
1 Samuel 25:24 She knelt at his feet and said, “The guilt is mine, my lord, but please let your servant speak to you directly. Listen to the words of your servant.
1 Samuel 25:25 My lord should pay no attention to this worthless fool Nabal, for he lives up to his name: His name means ‘stupid,’ and stupidity is all he knows. I, your female slave, didn’t see my lord’s boys whom you sent.
1 Samuel 25:26 Now my lord, as surely as Yahveh lives and as your throat lives — it is Yahveh who kept you from participating in bloodshed and avenging yourself by your own hand– may your enemies and those who intend to harm my lord be like Nabal.
1 Samuel 25:27 Let this gift your female slave has brought to my lord be given to the boys who follow my lord.
1 Samuel 25:28 Please forgive your servant’s offense, for Yahveh is certain to make a lasting dynasty for my lord because he fights Yahveh’s battles. Throughout your life, may evil not be found in you.
1 Samuel 25:29 “Someone is pursuing you and seeks your throat. My lord’s throat is tucked safely in the place where Yahveh your God protects the living, but he is flinging away your enemies’ throats like stones from a sling.
1 Samuel 25:30 When Yahveh does for my lord all the good he promised you and appoints you ruler over Israel,
1 Samuel 25:31 there will not be remorse or a troubled conscience for my lord because of needless bloodshed or my lord’s revenge. And when Yahveh does good things for my lord, may you remember me your servant.”
1 Samuel 25:32 Then David said to Abigail, “Blessed be Yahveh God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today!
1 Samuel 25:33 May your discernment be blessed, and may you be blessed. Today you kept me from participating in bloodshed and avenging myself by my own hand.
1 Samuel 25:34 Otherwise, as surely as Yahveh God of Israel lives, who prevented me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, Nabal wouldn’t have had any males left by morning light.”
1 Samuel 25:35 Then David accepted what she had brought him and said, “Go home in peace. See, I have heard what you said and have granted your request.”
1 Samuel 25:36 Then Abigail went to Nabal, and noticed him in his house, holding a feast fit for a king. Nabal’s heart was cheerful, and he was very drunk, so she didn’t say anything to him until morning light.
1 Samuel 25:37 In the morning when Nabal sobered up, his wife told him about these events. His heart died and he became a stone.
1 Samuel 25:38 About ten days later, Yahveh struck Nabal dead.
1 Samuel 25:39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be Yahveh who championed my cause against Nabal’s insults and restrained his slave from doing evil. Yahveh brought Nabal’s evil deeds back on his own head.” Then David sent messengers to speak to Abigail about marrying him.
1 Samuel 25:40 When David’s slaves came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David sent us to bring you to him as a wife.”
1 Samuel 25:41 She stood up, paid homage with her face to the ground, and said, “Notice me, your female slave, a maid to wash the feet of my lord’s slaves.”
1 Samuel 25:42 Then Abigail got up quickly, and with her five female slaves accompanying her, rode on the donkey following David’s messengers. And so she became his wife.
1 Samuel 25:43 David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and the two of them became his wives.
1 Samuel 25:44 But Saul gave his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.
links:
a cave conversation
a woman with God’s wisdom
Abigail’s discretion
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Thursday, September 19, 2019
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Wednesday, September 20, 2023
the right man for the job
The route of discretion
jeffersonvann 