9. When David’s men arrived, they gave the message to Nabal, but Nabal insulted them.
10. He answered them, “Who is David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many slaves are running away from their masters today!
11. I have bread and water, and I have meat that I killed for my servants who cut the wool. But I won’t give it to men I don’t know.”
12. David’s men went back and told him all Nabal had said.
13. Then David said to them, “Put on your swords!” So they put on their swords, and David put on his also. About four hundred men went with David, but two hundred men stayed with the supplies.
14. One of Nabal’s servants said to Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers from the desert to greet our master, but Nabal insulted them.
15. These men were very good to us. They did not harm us. They stole nothing from us during all the time we were out in the field with them.
16. Night and day they protected us. They were like a wall around us while we were with them caring for the sheep.
17. Now think about it, and decide what you can do. Terrible trouble is coming to our master and all his family. Nabal is such a wicked man that no one can even talk to him.”
18. Abigail hurried. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two leather bags full of wine, five cooked sheep, a bushel of cooked grain, a hundred cakes of raisins, and two hundred cakes of pressed figs and put all these on donkeys.
19. Then she told her servants, “Go on. I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband.
20. Abigail rode her donkey and came down toward the mountain hideout. There she met David and his men coming down toward her.
21. David had just said, “It’s been useless! I watched over Nabal’s property in the desert. I made sure none of his sheep was missing. I did good to him, but he has paid me back with evil.
22. May God punish my enemies even more. I will not leave one of Nabal’s men alive until morning.”
23. When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed facedown on the ground before him.
24. She fell at David’s feet and said, “My master, let the blame be on me! Please let me talk to you. Listen to what I say.
25. My master, don’t pay attention to this worthless man Nabal. He is like his name. His name means ‘fool,’ and he is truly a fool. But I, your servant, didn’t see the men you sent.