1Now Samuel died. And all Israel assembled and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house at Ramah. Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

2And there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

3Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved; he was a Calebite.

4David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep.

5So David sent ten young men. And David said to the young men, "Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal and greet him in my name.

6And thus you shall greet him: 'Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have.

7I hear that you have shearers. Now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time they were in Carmel.

8Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.'"

9When David's young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David, and then they waited.

10And Nabal answered David's servants, "Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters.

11Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?"

12So David's young men turned away and came back and told him all this.

13And David said to his men, "Every man strap on his sword!" And every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. And about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage.

14But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, "Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them.

15Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with them.

16They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.

17Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him."

18Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys.

19And she said to her young men, "Go on before me; behold, I come after you." But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

20And as she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her, and she met them.

21Now David had said, "Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil for good.

22God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him."