Parallel Bible results for "1 samuel 25"

1 Samuel 25

New Living Translation NLT

1 Now Samuel died, and all Israel gathered for his funeral. They buried him at his house in Ramah. Nabal Angers David Then David moved down to the wilderness of Maon.

2 There was a wealthy man from Maon who owned property near the town of Carmel. He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats, and it was sheep-shearing time.

3 This man’s name was Nabal, and his wife, Abigail, was a sensible and beautiful woman. But Nabal, a descendant of Caleb, was crude and mean in all his dealings.

4 When David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep,

5 he sent ten of his young men to Carmel with this message for Nabal:

6 “Peace and prosperity to you, your family, and everything you own!

7 I am told that it is sheep-shearing time. While your shepherds stayed among us near Carmel, we never harmed them, and nothing was ever stolen from them.

8 Ask your own men, and they will tell you this is true. So would you be kind to us, since we have come at a time of celebration? Please share any provisions you might have on hand with us and with your friend David.”

9 David’s young men gave this message to Nabal in David’s name, and they waited for a reply.

10 “Who is this fellow David?” Nabal sneered to the young men. “Who does this son of Jesse think he is? There are lots of servants these days who run away from their masters.

11 Should I take my bread and my water and my meat that I’ve slaughtered for my shearers and give it to a band of outlaws who come from who knows where?”

12 So David’s young men returned and told him what Nabal had said.

13 “Get your swords!” was David’s reply as he strapped on his own. Then 400 men started off with David, and 200 remained behind to guard their equipment.

14 Meanwhile, one of Nabal’s servants went to Abigail and told her, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he screamed insults at them.

15 These men have been very good to us, and we never suffered any harm from them. Nothing was stolen from us the whole time they were with us.

16 In fact, day and night they were like a wall of protection to us and the sheep.

17 You need to know this and figure out what to do, for there is going to be trouble for our master and his whole family. He’s so ill-tempered that no one can even talk to him!”

18 Abigail wasted no time. She quickly gathered 200 loaves of bread, two wineskins full of wine, five sheep that had been slaughtered, nearly a bushel of roasted grain, 100 clusters of raisins, and 200 fig cakes. She packed them on donkeys

19 and said to her servants, “Go on ahead. I will follow you shortly.” But she didn’t tell her husband Nabal what she was doing.

20 As she was riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, she saw David and his men coming toward her.

21 David had just been saying, “A lot of good it did to help this fellow. We protected his flocks in the wilderness, and nothing he owned was lost or stolen. But he has repaid me evil for good.

22 May God strike me and kill me if even one man of his household is still alive tomorrow morning!”

23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed low before him.

24 She fell at his feet and said, “I accept all blame in this matter, my lord. Please listen to what I have to say.

25 I know Nabal is a wicked and ill-tempered man; please don’t pay any attention to him. He is a fool, just as his name suggests. But I never even saw the young men you sent.

26 “Now, my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, since the LORD has kept you from murdering and taking vengeance into your own hands, let all your enemies and those who try to harm you be as cursed as Nabal is.

27 And here is a present that I, your servant, have brought to you and your young men.

28 Please forgive me if I have offended you in any way. The LORD will surely reward you with a lasting dynasty, for you are fighting the LORD ’s battles. And you have not done wrong throughout your entire life.

29 “Even when you are chased by those who seek to kill you, your life is safe in the care of the LORD your God, secure in his treasure pouch! But the lives of your enemies will disappear like stones shot from a sling!

30 When the LORD has done all he promised and has made you leader of Israel,

31 don’t let this be a blemish on your record. Then your conscience won’t have to bear the staggering burden of needless bloodshed and vengeance. And when the LORD has done these great things for you, please remember me, your servant!”

32 David replied to Abigail, “Praise the LORD, the God of Israel, who has sent you to meet me today!

33 Thank God for your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and from carrying out vengeance with my own hands.

34 For I swear by the LORD, the God of Israel, who has kept me from hurting you, that if you had not hurried out to meet me, not one of Nabal’s men would still be alive tomorrow morning.”

35 Then David accepted her present and told her, “Return home in peace. I have heard what you said. We will not kill your husband.”

36 When Abigail arrived home, she found that Nabal was throwing a big party and was celebrating like a king. He was very drunk, so she didn’t tell him anything about her meeting with David until dawn the next day.

37 In the morning when Nabal was sober, his wife told him what had happened. As a result he had a stroke, and he lay paralyzed on his bed like a stone.

38 About ten days later, the LORD struck him, and he died.

39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Praise the LORD, who has avenged the insult I received from Nabal and has kept me from doing it myself. Nabal has received the punishment for his sin.” Then David sent messengers to Abigail to ask her to become his wife.

40 When the messengers arrived at Carmel, they told Abigail, “David has sent us to take you back to marry him.”

41 She bowed low to the ground and responded, “I, your servant, would be happy to marry David. I would even be willing to become a slave, washing the feet of his servants!”

42 Quickly getting ready, she took along five of her servant girls as attendants, mounted her donkey, and went with David’s messengers. And so she became his wife.

43 David also married Ahinoam from Jezreel, making both of them his wives.

44 Saul, meanwhile, had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to a man from Gallim named Palti son of Laish.

The Message Bible MSG

1 Samuel died. The whole country came to his funeral. Everyone grieved over his death, and he was buried in his hometown of Ramah. Meanwhile, David moved again, this time to the wilderness of Maon.

2 There was a certain man in Maon who carried on his business in the region of Carmel. He was very prosperous - three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and it was sheep-shearing time in Carmel.

3 The man's name was Nabal (Fool), a Calebite, and his wife's name was Abigail. The woman was intelligent and good-looking, the man brutish and mean.

4 David, out in the backcountry, heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep

5 and sent ten of his young men off with these instructions: "Go to Carmel and approach Nabal. Greet him in my name, 'Peace!

6 Life and peace to you. Peace to your household, peace to everyone here!

7 I heard that it's sheep-shearing time. Here's the point: When your shepherds were camped near us we didn't take advantage of them. They didn't lose a thing all the time they were with us in Carmel.

8 Ask your young men - they'll tell you. What I'm asking is that you be generous with my men - share the feast! Give whatever your heart tells you to your servants and to me, David your son.'"

9 David's young men went and delivered his message word for word to Nabal. Nabal tore into them,

10 "Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? The country is full of runaway servants these days.

11 Do you think I'm going to take good bread and wine and meat freshly butchered for my sheepshearers and give it to men I've never laid eyes on? Who knows where they've come from?"

12 David's men got out of there and went back and told David what he had said.

13 David said, "Strap on your swords!" They all strapped on their swords, David and his men, and set out, four hundred of them. Two hundred stayed behind to guard the camp.

14 Meanwhile, one of the young shepherds told Abigail, Nabal's wife, what had happened: "David sent messengers from the backcountry to salute our master, but he tore into them with insults.

15 Yet these men treated us very well. They took nothing from us and didn't take advantage of us all the time we were in the fields.

16 They formed a wall around us, protecting us day and night all the time we were out tending the sheep.

17 Do something quickly because big trouble is ahead for our master and all of us. Nobody can talk to him. He's impossible - a real brute!"

18 Abigail flew into action. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep dressed out and ready for cooking, a bushel of roasted grain, a hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes, and she had it all loaded on some donkeys.

19 Then she said to her young servants, "Go ahead and pave the way for me. I'm right behind you." But she said nothing to her husband Nabal.

20 As she was riding her donkey, descending into a ravine, David and his men were descending from the other end, so they met there on the road.

21 David had just said, "That sure was a waste, guarding everything this man had out in the wild so that nothing he had was lost - and now he rewards me with insults. A real slap in the face!

22 May God do his worst to me if Nabal and every cur in his misbegotten brood isn't dead meat by morning!"

23 As soon as Abigail saw David, she got off her donkey and fell on her knees at his feet, her face to the ground in homage,

24 saying, "My master, let me take the blame! Let me speak to you. Listen to what I have to say.

25 Don't dwell on what that brute Nabal did. He acts out the meaning of his name: Nabal, Fool. Foolishness oozes from him.

26 And now, my master, as God lives and as you live, God has kept you from this avenging murder - and may your enemies, all who seek my master's harm, end up like Nabal!

27 Now take this gift that I, your servant girl, have brought to my master, and give it to the young men who follow in the steps of my master.

28 "Forgive my presumption! But God is at work in my master, developing a rule solid and dependable. My master fights God's battles! As long as you live no evil will stick to you.

29 If anyone stands in your way, if anyone tries to get you out of the way, Know this: Your God-honored life is tightly bound in the bundle of God-protected life; But the lives of your enemies will be hurled aside as a stone is thrown from a sling.

30 "When God completes all the goodness he has promised my master and sets you up as prince over Israel,

31 my master will not have this dead weight in his heart, the guilt of an avenging murder. And when God has worked things for good for my master, remember me."

32 And David said, "Blessed be God, the God of Israel. He sent you to meet me!

33 And blessed be your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and taking charge of looking out for me.

34 A close call! As God lives, the God of Israel who kept me from hurting you, if you had not come as quickly as you did, stopping me in my tracks, by morning there would have been nothing left of Nabal but dead meat."

35 Then David accepted the gift she brought him and said, "Return home in peace. I've heard what you've said and I'll do what you've asked."

36 When Abigail got home she found Nabal presiding over a huge banquet. He was in high spirits - and very, very drunk. So she didn't tell him anything of what she'd done until morning.

37 But in the morning, after Nabal had sobered up, she told him the whole story. Right then and there he had a heart attack and fell into a coma.

38 About ten days later God finished him off and he died.

39 When David heard that Nabal was dead he said, "Blessed be God who has stood up for me against Nabal's insults, kept me from an evil act, and let Nabal's evil boomerang back on him."

40 David's servants went to Abigail at Carmel with the message, "David sent us to bring you to marry him."

41 She got up, and then bowed down, face to the ground, saying, "I'm your servant, ready to do anything you want. I'll even wash the feet of my master's servants!"

42 Abigail didn't linger. She got on her donkey and, with her five maids in attendance, went with the messengers to David and became his wife.

43 David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel. Both women were his wives.

44 Saul had married off David's wife Michal to Palti (Paltiel) son of Laish, who was from Gallim.