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1 Samuel - ch 25 v 1 - 20
- And death came to Samuel; and all Israel came together, weeping for him, and put his body in its resting-place in his house at Ramah. Then David went down to the waste land of Maon.
- Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel; he was a great man and had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats: and he was cutting the wool of his sheep in Carmel.
- 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.
- And David had word in the waste land that Nabal was cutting the wool of his sheep.
- And David sent ten young men, and said to them, Go up to Carmel and go to Nabal, and say kind words to him in my name;
- And say this to my brother, May all be well for you: peace be to you and your house and all you have.
- I have had word that you have wool-cutters: now the keepers of your sheep have been with us, and we have done them no evil, and taken nothing of theirs while they were in Carmel.
- If your young men are questioned they will say the same thing. So now, let my young men have grace in your eyes, for we are come at a good time; please give anything you may have by you to your servants and to your son David.
- And when David's young men came, they said all this to Nabal, in David's name, and said nothing more.
- And Nabal gave them his answer and said, Who is David? who is the son of Jesse? there are a number of servants in these days running away from their masters.
- Am I to take my bread and my wine and the meat I have got ready for my wool-cutters and give it to men coming from I have no idea where?
- So David's young men, turning away, went back and gave him an account of everything he had said.
- And David said to his men, Put on your swords, every one of you. And every man put on his sword; and David did the same; and about four hundred men went up with David, and two hundred kept watch over their goods.
- But one of the young men said to Nabal's wife Abigail, David sent men from the waste land to say kind words to our master, and he gave them a rough answer.
- But these men have been very good to us; they did us no wrong and nothing of ours was touched while we were with them in the fields:
- But day and night they were like a wall round us while we were with them, looking after the sheep.
- So now, give thought to what you are going to do; for evil is in store for our master and all his house: for he is such a good-for-nothing person that it is not possible to say anything to him.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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