1 Samuel 25:17-35

25:17 Now be aware of this, and see what you can do. For disaster has been planned for our lord and his entire household. 1  He is such a wicked person 2  that no one tells him anything!”

25:18 So Abigail quickly took two hundred loaves of bread, two containers 3  of wine, five prepared sheep, five seahs 4  of roasted grain, a hundred bunches of raisins, and two hundred lumps of pressed figs. She loaded them on donkeys 25:19 and said to her servants, “Go on ahead of me. I will come after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

25:20 Riding on her donkey, she went down under cover of the mountain. David and his men were coming down to meet her, and she encountered them. 25:21 Now David had been thinking, 5  “In vain I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the desert. I didn’t take anything from him. But he has repaid my good with evil. 25:22 God will severely punish David, 6  if I leave alive until morning even one male 7  from all those who belong to him!”

25:23 When Abigail saw David, she got down quickly from the donkey, threw herself down before David, and bowed to the ground. 25:24 Falling at his feet, she said, “My lord, I accept all the guilt! But please let your female servant speak with my lord! Please listen to the words of your servant! 25:25 My lord should not pay attention to this wicked man Nabal. He simply lives up to his name! His name means ‘fool,’ and he is indeed foolish! 8  But I, your servant, did not see the servants my lord sent. 9 

25:26 “Now, my lord, as surely as the Lord lives and as surely as you live, it is the Lord who has kept you from shedding blood and taking matters into your own hands. Now may your enemies and those who seek to harm my lord be like Nabal. 25:27 Now let this present 10  that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the servants who follow 11  my lord. 25:28 Please forgive the sin of your servant, for the Lord will certainly establish the house of my lord, because my lord fights the battles of the Lord. May no evil be found in you all your days! 25:29 When someone sets out to chase you and to take your life, the life of my lord will be wrapped securely in the bag 12  of the living by the Lord your God. But he will sling away the lives of your enemies from the sling’s pocket! 25:30 The Lord will do for my lord everything that he promised you, 13  and he will make 14  you a leader over Israel. 25:31 Your conscience will not be overwhelmed with guilt 15  for having poured out innocent blood and for having taken matters into your own hands. When the Lord has granted my lord success, 16  please remember your servant.”

25:32 Then David said to Abigail, “Praised 17  be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you this day to meet me! 25:33 Praised be your good judgment! May you yourself be rewarded 18  for having prevented me this day from shedding blood and taking matters into my own hands! 25:34 Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives – he who has prevented me from harming you – if you had not come so quickly to meet me, by morning’s light not even one male belonging to Nabal would have remained alive!” 25:35 Then David took from her hand what she had brought to him. He said to her, “Go back 19  to your home in peace. Be assured that I have listened to you 20  and responded favorably.” 21 

1 tn Heb “all his house” (so ASV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “his whole family.”

2 tn Heb “he is a son of worthlessness.”

3 tn Heb “skins.”

4 sn The seah was a dry measure equal to one-third of an ephah, or not quite eleven quarts.

5 tn Heb “said.”

6 tc Heb “Thus God will do to the enemies of David and thus he will add.” Most of the Old Greek ms tradition has simply “David,” with no reference to his enemies. In OT imprecations such as the one found in v. 22 it is common for the speaker to direct malediction toward himself as an indication of the seriousness with which he regards the matter at hand. In other words, the speaker invites on himself dire consequences if he fails to fulfill the matter expressed in the oath. However, in the situation alluded to in v. 22 the threat actually does not come to fruition due to the effectiveness of Abigail’s appeal to David in behalf of her husband Nabal. Instead, David is placated through Abigail’s intervention. It therefore seems likely that the reference to “the enemies of David” in the MT of v. 22 is the result of a scribal attempt to deliver David from the implied consequences of this oath. The present translation follows the LXX rather than the MT here.

7 tn Heb “one who urinates against a wall” (also in v. 34); KJV “any that pisseth against the wall.”

8 tn Heb “and foolishness is with him.”

9 tn Heb “my lord’s servants, whom you sent.”

10 tn Heb “blessing.”

11 tn Heb “are walking at the feet of.”

12 tn Cf. KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “bundle”; NLT “treasure pouch.”

13 tn Heb “according to all which he spoke, the good concerning you.”

14 tn Heb “appoint.”

15 tn Heb “and this will not be for you for staggering and for stumbling of the heart of my lord.”

16 tn Heb “and the Lord will do well for my lord.”

17 tn Heb “blessed” (also in vv. 33, 39).

18 tn Heb “blessed.”

19 tn Heb “up.”

20 tn Heb “your voice.”

21 tn Heb “I have lifted up your face.”