10. But Nabal answered David’s servants by saying, “Who is David? And who is Jesse’s son? Nowadays there are many slaves each running away from his master.
11. So should I take my bread, my water and my meat that I have cooked for my shearers, and give it to men whom I don’t know where they come from?”
12. So David’s young men turned around and went back. When they came and reported to him all these words,
13. David said to his men, “Everyone buckle on your sword!” So each man buckled on his sword and David also buckled on his sword. About 400 men went up following David, while 200 stayed with the baggage.
14. But one of the young men told Nabal’s wife Abigail saying, “Look, David had sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he spurned them.
15. Yet the men were very good to us. We were not harmed, nor were we missing anything as long as we went about with them while we were in the fields.
16. They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the time that we were with them tending the sheep.
17. Now therefore, know and consider what you will do, for evil is determined against our master and against all his household. But he is such a worthless fellow that no one can speak to him.”