16. they were a wall unto us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
17. Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his house: for he is such a son of Belial, that one cannot speak to him.
18. Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.
19. And she said unto her young men, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal.
20. And it was so, as she rode on her ass, and came down by the covert of the mountain, that, behold, David and his men came down against her; and she met them.
21. Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he hath returned me evil for good.
22. God do so unto the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light so much as one man child.
23. And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off her ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground.
24. And she fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me be the iniquity: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine ears, and hear thou the words of thine handmaid.
25. Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: hut I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.
26. Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from bloodguiltiness, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now therefore let thine enemies, and them that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.
27. And now this present which thy servant hath brought unto my lord, let it be given unto the young men that follow my lord.
28. Forgive, I pray thee, the trespass of thine handmaid: for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fighteth the battles of the LORD; and evil shall not be found in thee all thy days.
29. And though man be risen up to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul, yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as from the hollow of a sling.
30. And it shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee prince over Israel;