³ And David and his men were living with Achish at Gath; every man had his family with him, and David had his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail of Carmel, who had been the wife of Nabal.

⁴² Then Abigail got up quickly and went on her ass, with five of her young women, after the men whom David had sent; and she became David's wife.

⁴³ And David had taken Ahinoam of Jezreel, to be his wife; these two were his wives.

³ Now this man was named Nabal, and his wife's name was Abigail: she was a woman of good sense and pleasing looks: but the man was cruel and evil in his ways; he was of the family of Caleb.

¹⁸ Then Abigail quickly took two hundred cakes of bread and two skins full of wine and five sheep ready for cooking and five measures of dry grain and a hundred parcels of dry grapes and two hundred cakes of figs, and put them on asses.

¹⁹ And she said to her young men, Go on in front of me and I will come after you. But she said nothing to her husband Nabal.

²⁰ Now while she was going down under cover of the mountain on her ass, David and his men came down against her, and suddenly she came face to face with them.

²¹ Now David had said, What was the use of my taking care of this man's goods in the waste land, so that there was no loss of anything which was his? he has only given me back evil for good.

²² May God's punishment be on David, if when morning comes there is so much as one male of his people still living.

²³ And when Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her ass, falling down on her face before him.

²⁴ And falling at his feet she said, May the wrong be on me, my lord, on me: let your servant say a word to you, and give ear to the words of your servant.

²⁵ Let my lord give no attention to Nabal, that good-for-nothing: for as his name is, so is he, a man without sense: but I, your servant, did not see the young men whom my lord sent.

²⁶ So now, my lord, by the living God and by your living soul, seeing that the Lord has kept you from the crime of blood and from taking into your hands the punishment for your wrongs, may all your haters, and those who would do evil to my lord, be like Nabal.

²⁷ And let this offering, which your servant gives to my lord, be given to the young men who are with my lord.

²⁸ And may the sin of your servant have forgiveness: for the Lord will certainly make your family strong, because my lord is fighting in the Lord's war; and no evil will be seen in you all your days.

²⁹ And though a man has taken up arms against you, putting your life in danger, still the soul of my lord will be kept safe among the band of the living with the Lord your God; and the souls of those who are against you he will send violently away from him, like stones from a bag.

³⁰ And when the Lord has done for my lord all those good things which he has said he will do for you, and has made you a ruler over Israel;

³¹ Then you will have no cause for grief, and my lord's heart will not be troubled because you have taken life without cause and have yourself given punishment for your wrongs: and when the Lord has been good to you, then give a thought to your servant.

³² And David said to Abigail, May the Lord, the God of Israel, be praised, who sent you to me today:

³³ A blessing on your good sense and on you, who have kept me today from the crime of blood and from taking into my hands the punishment for my wrongs.

³⁴ For truly, by the living Lord, the God of Israel, who has kept me from doing you evil, if you had not been so quick in coming to me and meeting me, by dawn there would not have been in Nabal's house so much as one male living.

³⁵ Then David took from her hands her offering: and he said to her, Go back to your house in peace; see, I have given ear to your voice, and taken your offering with respect.

³ And when David and his men came to the town, they saw that it had been burned down, and their wives and their sons and daughters had been made prisoners.

⁵ And David's two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the wife of Nabal of Carmel, had been made prisoners.