1 Samuel 25:14-35 - LSB - Legacy Standard Bible

1 Samuel 25:14-35

14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to ¹^agreet our master, and he rushed at them angrily. 15 Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not ^adishonored, nor did we miss anything ¹as long as we went about with them, while we were in the field. 16 ^aThey were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the time we were with them shepherding the sheep. 17 So now, know and see what you should do, for evil is decided against our master and against all his household; and he is such a ¹vile man that no one can speak to him.”

Abigail’s Discernment

18 Then Abigail hurried and ^atook two hundred loaves of bread and two ¹jugs of wine and five sheep already prepared and ²five seahs of roasted grain and one hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19 Then she said to her young men, “^aGo on before me; behold, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. 20 So it was happening, as she was riding on her donkey and coming down by the hidden part of the mountain, that behold, David and his men were coming down toward her; and she met them. 21 Now David had said, “Surely for a lie I have guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; and he has ^areturned me evil for good. 22 ^aMay God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, ^bif by morning I leave as much as one ¹male of any who belong to him.”
23 Then Abigail saw David; so she hurried and dismounted from her donkey and fell on her face ¹before David ^aand bowed herself to the ground. 24 And she fell at his feet and said, “On me ¹alone, my lord, be the blame. And please let your maidservant speak in your ears, and listen to the words of your maidservant. 25 Please do not let my lord ¹pay attention to this ²vile man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. ³Nabal is his name, and wicked foolishness is with him; but I your maidservant did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.
26 “So now, my lord, as Yahweh lives and as your soul lives, since Yahweh has restrained you from ¹shedding blood, and ^afrom saving yourself by your own hand, so now, ^blet your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord, be as Nabal. 27 So now let ^athis ¹gift which your servant-woman has brought to my lord be given to the young men who ²went about with my lord. 28 Please forgive ^athe transgression of your maidservant; for ^bYahweh will certainly make for my lord an enduring house because my lord is ^cfighting the battles of Yahweh, and ^devil will not be found in you all your days. 29 And should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your ¹life, then the ¹life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with Yahweh your God; but the ¹lives of your enemies ^aHe will sling out ²as from the hollow of a sling. 30 And it will be that when Yahweh does for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and ^aappoints you ruler over Israel, 31 then this will not ¹cause stumbling or a troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord having saved himself. ^aWhen Yahweh deals well with my lord, then remember your maidservant.”
32 Then David said to Abigail, “^aBlessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, 33 and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you, ^awho have kept me this day from ¹bloodshed and from saving myself by my own hand. 34 Nevertheless, as Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, ^awho has restrained me from harming you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely there would not have been left to Nabal until the morning light as much as one ¹male.” 35 So David received from her hand what she had brought him and said to her, “^aGo up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to your voice and ¹^bgranted your request.”