11. I have bread and water. And I have meat that I killed for my servants who cut the wool. But I won’t give it to men I don’t know.”
12. David’s men went back and told him all Nabal had said.
13. Then David said to them, “Put on your swords!” So they put on their swords, and David put on his also. About 400 men went with David. But 200 men stayed with the supplies.
14. One of Nabal’s servants spoke to Abigail, Nabal’s wife. He said, “David sent messengers from the desert to greet our master. But Nabal insulted them.
15. These men were very good to us. They did nothing wrong to us. They stole nothing from us during all the time we were out in the field with them.
16. Night and day they protected us. They were like a wall around us while we were with them caring for the sheep.
17. Now think about it, and decide what you can do. Terrible trouble is coming to our master and all his family. Nabal is such a wicked man that no one can even talk to him.”
18. Abigail hurried. She took 200 loaves of bread, 2 leather bags full of wine and 5 cooked sheep. She took about a bushel of cooked grain, 100 cakes of raisins and 200 cakes of pressed figs. She put all these on donkeys.
19. Then she told her servants, “Go on. I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband.
20. Abigail rode her donkey and came down into the mountain ravine. There she met David and his men coming down toward her.
21. David had just said, “It’s been useless! I watched over Nabal’s property in the desert. I made sure none of his sheep were missing. I did good to him, but he has paid me back with evil.
22. May God punish me terribly if I let just one of Nabal’s family live until tomorrow.”