11. Should I take my bread and my water and my meat that I’ve slaughtered for my shearers and give it to a band of outlaws who come from who knows where?”
12. So David’s young men returned and told him what Nabal had said.
13. “Get your swords!” was David’s reply as he strapped on his own. Then 400 men started off with David, and 200 remained behind to guard their equipment.
14. Meanwhile, one of Nabal’s servants went to Abigail and told her, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he screamed insults at them.
15. These men have been very good to us, and we never suffered any harm from them. Nothing was stolen from us the whole time they were with us.
16. In fact, day and night they were like a wall of protection to us and the sheep.
17. You need to know this and figure out what to do, for there is going to be trouble for our master and his whole family. He’s so ill-tempered that no one can even talk to him!”
18. Abigail wasted no time. She quickly gathered 200 loaves of bread, two wineskins full of wine, five sheep that had been slaughtered, nearly a bushel of roasted grain, 100 clusters of raisins, and 200 fig cakes. She packed them on donkeys
19. and said to her servants, “Go on ahead. I will follow you shortly.” But she didn’t tell her husband Nabal what she was doing.
20. As she was riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, she saw David and his men coming toward her.
21. David had just been saying, “A lot of good it did to help this fellow. We protected his flocks in the wilderness, and nothing he owned was lost or stolen. But he has repaid me evil for good.
22. May God strike me and kill me if even one man of his household is still alive tomorrow morning!”
23. When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed low before him.
24. She fell at his feet and said, “I accept all blame in this matter, my lord. Please listen to what I have to say.
25. I know Nabal is a wicked and ill-tempered man; please don’t pay any attention to him. He is a fool, just as his name suggests. But I never even saw the young men you sent.
26. “Now, my lord, as surely as the lord lives and you yourself live, since the lord has kept you from murdering and taking vengeance into your own hands, let all your enemies and those who try to harm you be as cursed as Nabal is.
27. And here is a present that I, your servant, have brought to you and your young men.