23. When Abigail saw David, she hastened and lighted off the donkey, and fell before David on her face and did obeisance.
24. Kneeling at his feet she said, Upon me alone let this guilt be, my lord. And let your handmaid, I pray you, speak in your presence, and hear the words of your handmaid.
25. Let not my lord, I pray you, regard this foolish and wicked fellow Nabal, for as his name is, so is he–Nabal [foolish, wicked] is his name, and folly is with him. But I, your handmaid, did not see my lord's young men whom you sent.
26. So now, my lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, seeing that the Lord has prevented you from bloodguiltiness and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal.
27. And now this gift, which your handmaid has brought my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord.
28. Forgive, I pray you, the trespass of your handmaid, for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the Lord's battles, and evil has not been found in you all your days.
29. Though man is risen up to pursue you and to seek your life, yet the life of my lord shall be bound in the living bundle with the Lord your God. And the lives of your enemies–them shall He sling out as out of the center of a sling.
30. And when the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that He has promised concerning you and has made you ruler over Israel,
31. This shall be no staggering grief to you or cause for pangs of conscience to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause or that my lord has avenged himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then [earnestly] remember your handmaid.
32. And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, Who sent you this day to meet me.
33. And blessed be your discretion and advice, and blessed be you who have kept me today from bloodguiltiness and from avenging myself with my own hand.
34. For as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, Who has prevented me from hurting you, if you had not hurried and come to meet me, surely by morning there would not have been left so much as one male to Nabal.