9. When David’s young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David, and then they waited.
10. And Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters.
11. Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?”
12. So David’s young men turned away and came back and told him all this.
13. And David said to his men, “Every man strap on his sword!” And every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. And about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage.
14. But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them.
15. Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with them.
16. They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
17. Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.”
18. Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys.
19. And she said to her young men, “Go on before me; behold, I come after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20. And as she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her, and she met them.
21. Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil for good.
22. God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.”
23. When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground.
24. She fell at his feet and said, “On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your servant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your servant.