5. And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Climb up to Carmel and go to Nabal and greet him in my name.
6. And thus shall ye say to him, May thou live and peace be unto thee and peace be unto thy house and peace be unto all that thou hast.
7. I have recently heard that thou hast shearers. Now thy shepherds who were with us, we did not hurt them, neither was there anything missing unto them all the while they were in Carmel.
8. Ask thy slaves, and they will tell thee. Therefore, let the young men find grace in thine eyes, for we come in a good day; give, I pray thee, whatever is in thy hand unto thy slaves and to thy son David.
9. And when David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David and ceased.
10. And Nabal answered David’s slaves and said, Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many slaves nowadays that break from their masters.
11. Shall I then take my bread and my water and my slaughtered meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it unto men that I do not know where they are from?
12. So David’s young men left and returned and came and told him all those words.
13. Then David said unto his men, Gird ye on each man his sword. And each one girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword; and about four hundred men went up after David, and they left two hundred with the stuff.
14. And one of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to bless our master, and he railed on them.
15. But the men were very good unto us and never hurt us, neither did we miss anything all the time that we have been conversant with them when we were in the fields.
16. They were a wall unto us both by night and day all the time that we were feeding the sheep with them.
17. Now, therefore, know and consider what thou must do, for evil is determined against our master and against all his household, for he is such a son of Belial that no one can speak to him.
18. Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two bottles of wine and five sheep ready dressed and five measures of parched flour and one hundred bunches of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs and laid them on asses.
19. And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told nothing to her husband Nabal.
20. And it was so as she rode on the ass that she came down a secret part of the mountain, and, behold, David and his men came down against her, and she met them.
21. Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow has in the wilderness so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him, and he has returned unto me evil for good.