Orthodox Jewish Bible

Shmuel Alef 25:8-23 Orthodox Jewish Bible (OJB)

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.

11. Shall I then take my lechem, and my mayim, and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it unto anashim who come from I know not where?

12. So the ne'arim of Dovid turned to their derech, and went back, and came and told him all those devarim.

13. And Dovid said unto his anashim, Gird ye on every ish his cherev. And they girded on every ish his cherev; and Dovid also girded on his cherev; and there went up after Dovid about arba me'ot ish; and two hundred stayed by the kelim (supplies).

14. But one of the ne'arim told Avigal, eshet Naval, saying, Hinei, Dovid sent malachim out of the midbar to put a berakhah on adoneinu; and he drove them off.

15. But the anashim were tovim unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we accompanied them, when we were in the sadeh;

16. They were a chomah (wall) unto us both by lailah gam yomam (night and day), all the while we were with them shepherding hatzon.

17. Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for ra'ah is determined against adoneinu, and against all his bais; for he is such a ben Beliyaal, that a man cannot speak to him.

18. Then Avigal made haste, and took two hundred lechem, and two skins of yayin, and five tzon ready cooked, and five measures of roasted grain, and a hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred pressed figs, and laid them on chamorim (donkeys).

19. And she said unto her ne'arim, Go on ahead of me; hineni, I come after you. But she told not her ish Naval.

20. And it was so, as she rode on the chamor, that she came down by the covert on the har, hinei, Dovid and his anashim came down toward her; and she met them.

21. Now Dovid had said, Surely for sheker have I been shomer over all that this one hath in the midbar, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him; and he hath requited me ra'ah for tovah.

22. So and more also do Elohim unto the oyvei Dovid, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the boker any that urinate against the wall.

23. And when Avigal saw Dovid, she hasted, dismounted the chamor, and fell before Dovid on her face, and bowed herself to the ground,