New International Version

1 Samuel 25:27-40 New International Version (NIV)

27. And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you.

28. “Please forgive your servant’s presumption. The Lord your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because you fight the Lord’s battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live.

29. Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the Lord your God, but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling.

30. When the Lord has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel,

31. my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the Lord your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant.”

32. David said to Abigail, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me.

33. May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands.

34. Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak.”

35. Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said, “Go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request.”

36. When Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until daybreak.

37. Then in the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone.

38. About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.

39. When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Praise be to the Lord, who has upheld my cause against Nabal for treating me with contempt. He has kept his servant from doing wrong and has brought Nabal’s wrongdoing down on his own head.” Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife.

40. His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail, “David has sent us to you to take you to become his wife.”