The chat will start when you send the first message.
1Samuel 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.[#25.1 Hebrew “in his house.” Family tombs were sometimes underneath the house or in the courtyard of the home.; #25.1 Hebrew; some manuscripts of one ancient translation “Maon Desert.”]
2-3Nabal was a very rich man who lived in Maon. He owned 3,000 sheep and 1,000 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.[#25.2,3 About one and a half kilometers north of Maon in the Southern Desert of Judah.; #25.2,3 Or “behaved like a dog.”]
4One day, Nabal was in Carmel where his servants were cutting the wool from his sheep. David was in the desert when he heard about it.
5-6So he sent ten men to Carmel with this message for Nabal:
9David's men went to Nabal and gave him David's message, then they waited for Nabal's answer.
10This is what he said:
12The men returned to their camp and told David everything Nabal had said.
13“Everybody get your swords!” David ordered.
They all strapped on their swords. Two hundred men stayed behind to guard the camp, but the other 400 followed David.
14-15-16Meanwhile, one of Nabal's servants told Abigail:
18Abigail quickly got together 200 loaves of bread, two large clay jars of wine, the meat from five sheep, a large sack of roasted grain, 100 handfuls of raisins, and 200 handfuls of dried figs. She loaded all the food on donkeys
19and 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.
20Abigail was riding her donkey on the path that led around the hillside, when suddenly she met David and his men heading straight at her.
21David 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.
22I 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!”[#25.22 One ancient translation; Hebrew “my enemies.”]
23Abigail quickly got off her donkey and bowed down in front of David.
24Then she said:
32David told her:
35David accepted the food Abigail had brought. “Don't worry,” he said. “You can go home now. I'll do what you asked.”
36Abigail 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.
37But 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.
38Ten days later, the Lord took his life.
39-40David 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.
41She bowed down and said, “I would willingly be David's slave and wash his servants' feet.”
42Abigail 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.
43David had earlier married Ahinoam from the town of Jezreel, so both she and Abigail were now David's wives.[#25.43 Having more than one wife was allowed in those times.]
44Meanwhile, Saul had arranged for Michal to marry Palti the son of Laish, who came from the town of Gallim.[#2 S 3.14-16.; #25.44 David's first wife (see 18.20—19.17).]