17. And so then, know and consider what you should do, for evil has been decided against our master and against all his household, and he is such a wicked man, nobody can reason with him!”
18. Then Abigail quickly took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five prepared sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes, and she put them on the donkeys.
19. Then she said to her servants, “Go ahead before me; look, I am coming after you,” but she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20. And then, as she was riding on the donkey and was going down the ravine of the mountain, David and his men were coming down to meet her, and she met them.
21. Now David had said, “Surely in vain I guarded all that this fellow had in the desert. And nothing was missed of all that was his, but he returned evil against me in place of good!
22. May God severely punish the enemies of David and again do thus if I leave behind anything that is his until the morning, not even one male!”
23. When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell on her face before David’s anger, and she bowed down to the ground.
24. She fell at his feet and said, “On me, my lord, be the guilt! Please let your female servant speak to you personally! Hear the words of your female servant!
25. Please do not let my lord set his heart against this worthless man, Nabal; for as his name, so is he. Nabal is his name, and stupidity is with him! But I, your female servant, did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.
26. So then, my lord, as Yahweh lives and as your soul lives, since Yahweh restrained you from bloodguilt by taking matters into your own hand, so then, may your enemies be like Nabal, even those who seek to do my lord harm.
27. So then, this gift which your female servant has brought to my lord, may it be given to the young men who follow my lord.
28. Please forgive the transgression of your female servant, because Yahweh will certainly make a lasting house for my lord, because my lord is fighting the battles of Yahweh, and evil will not be found in you as long as you live.