1 Samuel 25
David and
Abigail |
1 |
And 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.
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2 |
And there was a man in
Ma'on, 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.
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3 |
Now the name of the man was Nabal,
and the name of his wife Ab'igail; 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.
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4 |
And David heard in the wilderness that
Nabal did shear his sheep.
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5 |
And 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:
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6 |
and 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.
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7 |
And now I have heard that thou hast
shearers: now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not,
neither was there aught missing unto them, all the while they were
in Carmel.
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8 |
Ask thy young men, and they will show
thee. Wherefore let the young men find favor 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.
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9 |
And when David's young men came, they
spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David,
and ceased.
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10 |
And Nabal answered David's servants, and
said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there
be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his
master.
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11 |
Shall 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?
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12 |
So David's young men turned their way,
and went again, and came and told him all those sayings.
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13 |
And 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.
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14 |
But one of the young men told Ab'igail,
Nabal's wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the
wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them.
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15 |
But 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.
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16 |
They were a wall unto us both by night
and day, all the while we were with them keeping the
sheep.
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17 |
Now 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 Be'li-al, that a
man cannot speak to him.
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18 |
Then Ab'igail made haste, and took two
hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready
dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and a hundred
clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.
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19 |
And she said unto her servants, Go on
before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband
Nabal.
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20 |
And 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.
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21 |
Now 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.
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22 |
So 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.
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23 |
And when Ab'igail saw David, she
hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face,
and bowed herself to the ground,
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24 |
and 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.
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25 |
Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this
man of Be'li-al, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal 4 is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine
handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst
send.
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26 |
Now 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.
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27 |
And now this blessing which thine
handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the
young men that follow my lord.
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28 |
I 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.
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29 |
Yet 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.
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30 |
And 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;
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31 |
that this shall be no grief unto thee,
nor offense 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.
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32 |
And David said to Ab'igail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which sent
thee this day to meet me:
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33 |
and 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.
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34 |
For 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.
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35 |
So 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.
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36 |
And Ab'igail 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.
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37 |
But 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.
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38 |
And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, that
he died.
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39 |
And 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 Ab'igail, to take her to him to
wife.
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40 |
And when the servants of David were come
to Ab'igail to Carmel, they spake unto her, saying, David sent us
unto thee, to take thee to him to wife.
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41 |
And 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.
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42 |
And Ab'igail 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.
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43 |
David also took Ahin'o-am of Jezreel;
and they were also both of them his wives.
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44 |
But Saul had given Michal his daughter,
David's wife, to Phalti the son of La'ish, which was of
Gallim.
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