| New International Version | King James Bible |
| 1Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David moved down into the Desert of Paran. | 1And Samuel died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran. |
| 2A certain man in Maon, who had property there at Carmel, was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel. | 2And there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. |
| 3His name was Nabal and his wife's name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband was surly and mean in his dealings--he was a Calebite. | 3Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb. |
| 4While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep. | 4And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep. |
| 5So he sent ten young men and said to them, "Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name. | 5And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name: |
| 6Say to him: 'Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours! | 6And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be both to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast. |
| 7"'Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing. | 7And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel. |
| 8Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.'" | 8Ask thy young men, and they will shew thee. Wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David. |
| 9When David's men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David's name. Then they waited. | 9And when David's young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased. |
| 10Nabal answered David's servants, "Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days. | 10And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master. |
| 11Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?" | 11Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be? |
| 12David's men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word. | 12So David's young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings. |
| 13David said to his men, "Each of you strap on your sword!" So they did, and David strapped his on as well. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies. | 13And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff. |
| 14One of the servants told Abigail, Nabal's wife, "David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them. | 14But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them. |
| 15Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing. | 15But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields: |
| 16Night and day they were a wall around us the whole time we were herding our sheep near them. | 16They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. |
| 17Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him." | 17Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household: for he is such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him. |
| 18Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. | 18Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses. |
| 19Then she told her servants, "Go on ahead; I'll follow you." But she did not tell her husband Nabal. | 19And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal. |
| 20As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them. | 20And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the covert of the hill, and, behold, David and his men came down against her; and she met them. |
| 21David had just said, "It's been useless--all my watching over this fellow's property in the wilderness so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. | 21Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he hath requited me evil for good. |
| 22May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!" | 22So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall. |
| 23When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground. | 23And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, |
| 24She fell at his feet and said: "Pardon your servant, my lord, and let me speak to you; hear what your servant has to say. | 24And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid. |
| 25Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name--his name means Fool, and folly goes with him. And as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my lord sent. | 25Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send. |
| 26And now, my lord, as surely as the LORD your God lives and as you live, since the LORD has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, may your enemies and all who are intent on harming my lord be like Nabal. | 26Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal. |
| 27And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you. | 27And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord. |
| 28"Please forgive your servant's presumption. The LORD your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because you fight the LORD's battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live. | 28I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the LORD, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days. |
| 29Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the LORD your God, but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling. | 29Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling. |
| 30When the LORD has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel, | 30And it shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel; |
| 31my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the LORD your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant." | 31That this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself: but when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid. |
| 32David said to Abigail, "Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. | 32And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me: |
| 33May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. | 33And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand. |
| 34Otherwise, as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak." | 34For in very deed, as the LORD God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall. |
| 35Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said, "Go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request." | 35So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person. |
| 36When Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until daybreak. | 36And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light. |
| 37Then in the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone. | 37But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. |
| 38About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal and he died. | 38And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died. |
| 39When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Praise be to the LORD, who has upheld my cause against Nabal for treating me with contempt. He has kept his servant from doing wrong and has brought Nabal's wrongdoing down on his own head." Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife. | 39And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil: for the LORD hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him to wife. |
| 40His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail, "David has sent us to you to take you to become his wife." | 40And when the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spake unto her, saying, David sent us unto thee, to take thee to him to wife. |
| 41She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, "I am your servant and am ready to serve you and wash the feet of my lord's servants." | 41And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord. |
| 42Abigail quickly got on a donkey and, attended by her five female servants, went with David's messengers and became his wife. | 42And Abigail hasted, and arose, and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of hers that went after her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife. |
| 43David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both were his wives. | 43David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they were also both of them his wives. |
| 44But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Paltiel son of Laish, who was from Gallim. | 44But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Phalti the son of Laish, which was of Gallim. |
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