1 Samuel 25:1–42
Samuel Dies
Samuel
died, and people from all over Israel gathered to mourn for him when he was
buried at his home in Ramah. Meanwhile, David moved his camp to Paran Desert.
Abigail Keeps David from Killing Innocent People
Nabal was a
very rich man who lived in Maon. He owned three thousand sheep and a thousand
goats, which he kept at Carmel. His wife Abigail was sensible and beautiful,
but he was from the Caleb clan and was rough and mean. One day, Nabal was in
Carmel, having his servants cut the wool from his sheep. David was in the
desert when he heard about it. So he sent ten men to Carmel with this message
for Nabal:
I hope that
you and your family are healthy and that all is going well for you. I’ve heard
that you are cutting the wool from your sheep. When your shepherds were with us
in Carmel, we didn’t harm them, and nothing was ever stolen from them. Ask your
shepherds, and they’ll tell you the
same thing.
My servants
are your servants, and you are like a father to me. This is a day for
celebrating, so please be kind and share some of your food with us. David’s men
went to Nabal and gave him David’s message, then they waited for Nabal’s
answer.
This is what he said:
Who does
this David think he is? That son of Jesse is just one more slave on the run
from his master, and there are too many of them these days. What makes you
think I would take my bread, my water, and the meat that I’ve had cooked for my
own servants and give it to you? Besides, I’m not sure that David sent you! The
men returned to their camp and told David everything Nabal had said.
“Everybody
get your swords!” David ordered.
They all
strapped on their swords. Two hundred men stayed behind to guard the camp, but
the other four hundred followed David.
Meanwhile,
one of Nabal’s servants told Abigail:
David’s men
were often nearby while we were taking care of the sheep in the fields. They
were very good to us, they never hurt us, and nothing was ever stolen from us
while they were nearby. With them around day or night, we were as safe as we
would have been inside a walled city.
David sent
some messengers from the desert to wish our master well, but he shouted insults
at them. He’s a bully who won’t listen to anyone. Isn’t there something you can
do? Please think of something! Or else our master and his family and everyone
who works for him are all doomed. Abigail quickly got together two hundred
loaves of bread, two large clay jars of wine, the meat from five sheep, a large
sack of roasted grain, a hundred handfuls of raisins, and two hundred handfuls
of dried figs. She loaded all the food on donkeys and told her servants, “Take
this on ahead, and I’ll catch up with you.” She didn’t tell her husband Nabal
what she was doing. Abigail was riding her donkey on the path that led around
the hillside, when suddenly she met David and his men heading straight at her.
David had
just been saying, “I surely wasted my time guarding Nabal’s things in the
desert and keeping them from being stolen! I was good to him, and now he pays
me back with insults. I swear that by morning, there won’t be a man or boy left
from his family or his servants’ families. I pray that God will punish me if I
don’t do it!” Abigail quickly got off her donkey and bowed down in front of
David.
Then she said:
Sir, please
let me explain! Don’t pay any attention to that good-for-nothing Nabal. His
name means “fool,” and it really fits him!I didn’t see the men you sent, but
please take this gift of food that I’ve brought and share it with your followers.
The LORD has kept you from taking revenge and from killing innocent people. But
I hope your enemies and anyone else who wants to harm you will end up like
Nabal. I swear this by the living LORD and by your life.
Please
forgive me if I say a little more. The LORD will always protect you and your
family, because you fight for him. I pray that you won’t ever do anything evil
as long as you live. The LORD your God will keep you safe when your enemies try
to kill you. But he will snatch away their lives quicker than you can throw a
rock from a sling.
The LORD
has promised to do many good things for you, even to make you the ruler of
Israel. The LORD will keep his promises to you, and now your conscience will be
clear, because you won’t be guilty of taking revenge and killing innocent
people.
When the
LORD does all those good things for you, please remember me.
David told
her:
I praise
the LORD God of Israel! He must have sent you to meet me today. And you should
also be praised. Your good sense kept me from taking revenge and killing
innocent people. If you hadn’t come to meet me so quickly, every man and boy in
Nabal’s family and in his servants’ families would have been killed by morning.
I swear by the living LORD God of Israel who protected you that this is the
truth.
David
accepted the food Abigail had brought. “Don’t worry,” he said. “You can go home
now. I’ll do what you asked.”
Abigail
went back home and found Nabal throwing a party fit for a king. He was very
drunk and feeling good, so she didn’t tell him anything that night. But when he
sobered up the next morning, Abigail told him everything that had happened.
Nabal had a heart attack, and he lay in bed as still as a stone. Ten days
later, the LORD took his life.
David heard
that Nabal had died. “I praise the LORD!” David said. “He has judged Nabal
guilty for insulting me. The LORD kept me from doing anything wrong, and he
made sure that Nabal hurt only himself with his own evil.”
Abigail was
still at Carmel. So David sent messengers to ask her if she would marry him.
David and Abigail Are Married
She bowed
down and said, “I would willingly be David’s slave and wash his servants’
feet.” Abigail quickly got ready and went back with David’s messengers. She
rode on her donkey, while five of her servant women walked alongside. She and
David were married as soon as she arrived. (CEV)
This reading is taken from 30
Scripture Readings on Great Women from the Bible. The complete book can be
found here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003ZK5H96/ref=nosim?tag=hudsonbcom-20&linkCode=sb1&camp=212353&creative=380549
The HOLY BIBLE, CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH VERSION copyright ©
1997, 1997 by the American Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights
reserved.
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