2-3. There was a man of the clan of Caleb named Nabal, who was from the town of Maon, and who owned land near the town of Carmel. He was a very rich man, the owner of 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats. His wife Abigail was beautiful and intelligent, but he was a mean, bad-tempered man.Nabal was shearing his sheep in Carmel,
11. I'm not going to take my bread and water, and the animals I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give them to people who come from I don't know where!”
12. David's men went back to him and told him what Nabal had said.
13. “Buckle on your swords!” he ordered, and they all did. David also buckled on his sword and left with about 400 of his men, leaving 200 behind with the supplies.
14. One of Nabal's servants said to Nabal's wife Abigail, “Have you heard? David sent some messengers from the wilderness with greetings for our master, but he insulted them.
15. Yet they were very good to us; they never bothered us, and all the time we were with them in the fields, nothing that belonged to us was stolen.
16. They protected us day and night the whole time we were with them looking after our flocks.
17. Please think this over and decide what to do. This could be disastrous for our master and all his family. He is so pigheaded that he won't listen to anybody!”
18. Abigail quickly collected 200 loaves of bread, two leather bags full of wine, five roasted sheep, seventeen kilogrammes of roasted grain, a hundred bunches of raisins, and 200 cakes of dried figs, and loaded them on donkeys.
19. Then she said to the servants, “You go on ahead and I will follow you.” But she said nothing to her husband.
20. She was riding her donkey round a bend on a hillside when suddenly she met David and his men coming towards her.
21. David had been thinking, “Why did I ever protect that fellow's property out here in the wilderness? Not a thing that belonged to him was stolen, and this is how he pays me back for the help I gave him!
22. May God strike me dead if I don't kill every last one of those men before morning!”
23. When Abigail saw David, she quickly dismounted and threw herself on the ground
24. at David's feet, and said to him, “Please, sir, listen to me! Let me take the blame.
25. Please, don't pay any attention to Nabal, that good-for-nothing! He is exactly what his name means — a fool! I wasn't there when your servants arrived, sir.