I Samuel 25 · שמואל א

Now Shemu᾽el died; and all Yisra᾽el were gathered together to mourn him, and they buried him in his house at Rama. And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

And there was a man in Ma῾on, whose possessions were in the Karmel; and the man was very wealthy, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in the Karmel.

Now the name of the man was Naval; and the name of his wife Avigayil: and she was a woman of good understanding, and fair of form: but the man was hardhearted and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Kalev.

And David heard in the wilderness that Naval was shearing his sheep.

And David sent out ten young men, and David said to the young men, Go up to the Karmel, and go to Naval, and greet him in my name:

and thus shall you say to him, A hearty greeting! Peace be both to thee, and peace to thy house, and peace to all that thou hast.

And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds who were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there anything of theirs missing, all the while they were on the Karmel.

Ask thy young men, and they will tell thee. Therefore, let the young men find favour in thy eyes: for we come on a festive occasion: give, I pray thee, to my servants and to David thy son, whatever thy generosity prompts thee.

And when David’s young men came, they spoke to Naval according to all those words in the name of David, and waited.

And Naval answered David’s servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Yishay? there are many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master.

Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and the fresh meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men from I know not where?

So David’s young men turned their way, and went back, and came and told him according to all those sayings.

And David said to his men, Let every man gird 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 remained with the baggage.

But one of the young men told Avigayil, Naval’s wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master; and he railed at them.

But the men were very good to us, and we were not insulted nor did we miss any thing, all the time we went about with them, when we were in the fields:

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

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 base fellow, that no man can speak to him.

Then Avigayil made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready prepared, and five measures of parched corn, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.

And she said to her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Naval.

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.

Now David was saying, Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing of his possessions was missing: and he has rendered me evil for good.

So and more also do God to the enemies of David, if I leave alive of all his people by the morning light so much as a single man.

And when Avigayil saw David, she hastened, and descended from the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground,

and fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thy handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thy ears, and hear the words of thy handmaid.

Let not my lord, I pray thee, take heed of this worthless fellow, Naval: for as his name is, so is he; Naval is his name, and folly is with him: but I thy handmaid did not see the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.

Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as thy soul lives, seeing the Lord has prevented thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thy own hand, now let thy enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Naval.

And now this blessing which thy handmaid has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men that follow my lord.

I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thy handmaid: for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fights the battles of the Lord, and evil has not been found in thee all thy days.

Though a man rises to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bond of life with the Lord thy God; and the souls of thy enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the hollow of a sling.

And it shall come to pass, when the Lord shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Yisra᾽el;

that this shall not be a cause of stumbling to thee, nor offence of heart to my lord, that thou hast shed blood causelessly, or that my lord has avenged himself: and the Lord shall deal well with my lord, and thou shalt remember thy handmaid.

And David said to Avigayil, Blessed be the Lord God of Yisra᾽el, who sent thee this day to meet me:

and blessed be thy discretion, and blessed be thou who hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with my own hand.

For in very deed, as the Lord God of Yisra᾽el lives, who has kept me back from hurting thee, if thou hadst not hastened and come to meet me, surely there had not been left to Naval by the morning light so much as a single man!

So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said to her, Go up in peace to thy house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have granted thy request.

And Avigayil came to Naval; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Naval’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk: and so she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.

But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Naval, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.

And it came to pass about ten days after, that the Lord smote Naval, and he died.

And when David heard that Naval was dead, he said, Blessed be the Lord, that has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Naval, and has kept his servant from evil: for the Lord has requited the wickedness of Naval upon his own head. And David sent and spoke with Avigayil, to take her to him to wife.

And when the servants of David were come to Avigayil to the Karmel, they spoke to her, saying, David sent us to thee, to take thee to him to wife.

And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thy handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.

And Avigayil hastened, and arose, and rode upon an ass, with five girls of hers that went after her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.

David also took Aĥino῾am of Yizre῾el, and they were also both of them his wives.

But Sha᾽ul had given Mikhal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti, the son of Layish, who was from Gallim.