- First Book of Samuel (First Book of Kings)
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chapter 25
1
And
Samuel died, and all Israel was gathered together, and they mourned for him,
and buried him in his house in Ramatha. And David rose and went down into the
wilderness of Pharan.
2 Now there was a certain man in the wilderness of
Maon, and his possessions were in Carmel, and the man was very great: and he
had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and it happened that he was
shearing his sheep in Carmel.
3 Now the name of the man was Nabal: and the name of
his wife was Abigail. And she was a prudent and very comely woman, but her
husband was churlish, and very bad and ill natured: and he was of the house of
Caleb.
4 And when David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was
shearing his sheep,
5 He sent ten young men, and said to them: Go up to
Carmel, and go to Nabal, and salute him in my name with peace.
6 And you shall say: Peace be to my brethren, and to
thee, and peace to thy house, and peace to all that thou hast.
7 I heard that thy shepherds that were with us in the
desert were shearing: we never molested them, neither was there ought missing
to them of the flock at any time, all the while they were with us in Carmel.
8 Ask thy servants, and they will tell thee. Now
therefore let thy servants find favour in thy eyes: for we are come in a good
day, whatsoever thy hand shall find give to thy servants, and to thy son David.
9 And when David's servants came, they spoke to Nabal
all these words in David's name: and then held their peace.
10 But Nabal answering the servants of David, said: Who
is David? and what is the son of Isai? servants are multiplied now a days who
flee from their masters.
11 Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and the
flesh of my cattle, which I have killed for my shearers, and give to men whom I
know not whence they are?
12 So the servants of David went back their way, and
returning came and told him all the words that he said.
13 Then David said to his young men: Let every man gird
on his sword. And they girded on every man his sword. And David also girded on
his sword: and there followed David about four hundred men: and two hundred
remained with the baggage.
14 But one of the servants told Abigail the wife of
Nabal, saying: Behold David sent messengers out of the wilderness, to salute
our master: and he rejected them.
15 These men were very good to us, and gave us no
trouble: neither did we ever lose any thing all the time that we conversed with
them in the desert.
16 They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all
the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
17 Wherefore consider, and think what thou hast to do:
for evil is determined against thy husband, and against thy house, and he is a
son of Belial, so that no man can speak to him.
18 Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves,
and two vessels of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of
parched corn, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of dry
figs, and laid them upon asses:
19 And she said to her servants: Go before me: behold I
will follow after you: but she told not her husband Nabal.
20 And when she had gotten upon an ass, and was coming
down to the foot of the mountain, David and his men came down over against her,
and she met them.
21 And David said: Truly in vain have I kept all that
belonged to this man in the wilderness, and nothing was lost of all that
pertained unto him: and he hath returned me evil for good.
22 May God do so and so, and add more to the foes of
David, if I leave of all that belong to him till the morning, any that pisseth
against the wall.
23 And when Abigail saw David she made haste and
lighted off the ass, and fell before David, on her face, and adored upon the
ground.
24 And she fell at his feet, and said: Upon me let this
iniquity be, my lord: let thy handmaid speak, I beseech thee, in thy ears: and
hear the words of thy servant.
25 Let not my lord the king, I pray, regard this
naughty man Nabal: for according to his name, he is a fool, and folly is with
him: but I thy handmaid did not see thy servants, my lord, whom thou sentest.
26 Now therefore, my lord, the Lord liveth, and thy
soul liveth, who hath withholden thee from coming to blood, and hath saved thy
hand to thee: and now let thy enemies be as Nabal, and all they that seek evil
to my lord.
27 Wherefore receive this blessing, which thy handmaid
hath brought to thee, my lord: and give it to the young men that follow thee,
my lord.
28 Forgive the iniquity of thy handmaid: for the Lord
will surely make for my lord a faithful house, because thou, my lord, fightest
the battles of the Lord: let not evil therefore be found in thee all the days
of thy life.
29 For if a man at any time shall rise, and persecute
thee, and seek thy life, the soul of my lord shall be kept, as in the bundle of
the living, with the Lord thy God: but the souls of thy enemies shall be
whirled, as with the violence and whirling of a sling.
30 And when the Lord shall have done to thee, my lord,
all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have made thee
prince over Israel,
31 This shall not be an occasion of grief to thee, and
a scruple of heart to my lord, that thou hast shed innocent blood, or hast
revenged thyself: and when the Lord shall have done well by my lord, thou shalt
remember thy handmaid.
32 And David said to Abigail: Blessed be the Lord the
God of Israel, who sent thee this day to meet me, and blessed be thy speech:
33 And blessed be thou, who hast kept me to day, from
coming to blood, and revenging me with my own hand.
34 Otherwise as the Lord liveth the God of Israel, who
hath withholden me from doing thee any evil: if thou hadst not quickly come to
meet me, there had not been left to Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth
against the wall.
35 And David received at her hand all that she had
brought him, and said to her: Go in peace into thy house, behold I have heard
thy voice, and have honoured thy face.
36 And Abigail came to Nabal: and behold he had a feast
in his house, like the feast of a king, and Nabal's heart was merry: for he was
very drunk: and she told him nothing less or more until morning.
37 But early in the morning when Nabal had digested his
wine, his wife told him these words, and his heart died within him, and he
became as a stone.
38 And after ten days had passed, the Lord struck
Nabal, and he died.
39 And when David had heard that Nabal was dead, he
said: Blessed be the Lord, who hath judged the cause of my reproach at the hand
of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil, and the Lord hath returned the
wickedness of Nabal upon his head. The n David sent and treated with Abigail,
that he might take her to himself for a wife.
40 And David's servants came to Abigail to Carmel, and
spoke to her, saying: David hath sent us to thee, to take thee to himself for a
wife.
41 And she arose and bowed herself down with her face
to the earth, and said: Behold, let thy servant be a handmaid, to wash the feet
of the servants of my lord.
42 And Abigail arose, and made haste, and got upon an
ass, and five damsels went with her, her waiting maids, and she followed the
messengers of David, and became his wife.
43 Moreover David took also Achinoam of Jezrahel: and
they were both of them his wives.
44 But Saul gave Michol his daughter, David's wife, to
Phalti, the son of Lais, who was of Gallium.
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