Abigail Makes Peace

There was a wealthy man in Maon whose flocks and herds were in Carmel. His name was Nabal. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. His wife Abigail was intelligent and beautiful, but Nabal was harsh and acted badly. While Nabal was shearing sheep in Carmel, David sent ten young men with a greeting of peace and a request for whatever Nabal was willing to give.

David reminded Nabal that his men had not harmed the shepherds and that nothing had gone missing while they were nearby. But Nabal answered with contempt. He spoke as though David were just another runaway servant and refused to share his bread, water, and meat. When the messengers returned and reported this, David told his men to put on their swords. About four hundred went with him, and two hundred stayed with the baggage.

One of Nabal's young men warned Abigail. He said David's men had been very good to them, like a wall around them by night and day, but Nabal had insulted them and danger was coming. Abigail hurried. She gathered two hundred loaves, wine, prepared sheep, parched grain, raisins, and fig cakes, loaded them on donkeys, and sent them ahead without telling Nabal.

As Abigail rode down under cover of the mountain, she met David and his men. David had been saying that Nabal had paid back evil for good, and he was on his way to destroy the males in Nabal's household. Abigail quickly got down from her donkey and bowed before David. She asked him to listen, took the blame on herself, and pleaded with him not to shed blood without cause or take revenge with his own hand. She offered her gift for David's young men.

David blessed the Lord for sending Abigail and praised her good judgement. He said she had kept him from bloodguilt and from avenging himself. He accepted her gift and sent her home in peace. When Abigail returned, Nabal was holding a feast like a king and was very drunk, so she told him nothing until morning. Then she told him, and he became like stone. About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.

When David heard that Nabal had died, he blessed the Lord for taking up his cause and keeping him from doing evil himself. Then he sent messengers to ask Abigail to become his wife. Abigail went with them and became David's wife. The passage also notes that David took Ahinoam of Jezreel as a wife, and that Saul had given David's wife Michal to Palti son of Laish from Gallim.