1. And Shmuel died; and kol Yisroel were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him at his bais at Ramah. And Dovid arose, and went down to the midbar Paran.
2. And there was an ish in Ma'on, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the ish was gadol me'od, and he had three thousand tzon, and a thousand izzim (goats); and he was shearing his tzon in Carmel.
3. Now the shem of the ish was Naval; and the shem of his isha Avigal; and she was an isha of tovat seichel, and beautiful; but the ish was kasheh (churlish, difficult) and rah (mean) in his doings; and he was a descendent of Kalev.
4. And Dovid heard in the midbar that Naval did shear his tzon.
5. And Dovid sent out ten ne'arim, and Dovid said unto the ne'arim, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Naval, and give him a shalom greeting in my shem (name);
6. And thus shall ye say to him, Koh lechai (good fortune to you), shalom to thee, shalom to thine bais, shalom unto all that thou hast.
7. And now I have heard that thou hast shearers; now thy ro'im (shepherds) which were with us, we hurt them not, and nothing was missing by them, all the while they were in Carmel.
8. Ask thy ne'arim, and they will show thee. Wherefore let the ne'arim find chen (favor, grace) in thine eyes; for we come on yom tov; give, now, whatsoever cometh to thine yad unto thy avadim, and to thy ben, Dovid.
9. And when the naarei Dovid came, they spoke to Naval according to all those devarim b'shem Dovid, and ceased.
10. And Naval answered the avadim of Dovid, and said, Who is Dovid? And who is Ben Yishai? There be many avadim nowadays who break away every ish from his adon.