¹ And Samuel died; and all Israel gathered themselves together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

² And there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

³ Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail; and the woman was of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.

⁴ And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep.

⁵ And David sent ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name:

⁶ and thus shall ye say to him that liveth [in prosperity], Peace be unto thee, and Peace be to thy house, and Peace be unto all that thou hast.

⁷ And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: thy shepherds have now been with us, and we did them no hurt, neither was there aught missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel.

⁸ Ask thy young men, and they will tell thee: wherefore let the young men find favor in thine eyes; for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thy hand, unto thy servants, and to thy son David.

⁹ And when David's young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased.

¹⁰ And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there are many servants now-a-days that break away every man from his master.

¹¹ Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men of whom I know not whence they are?

¹² So David's young men turned on their way, and went back, and came and told him according to all these words.

¹³ And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the baggage.

¹⁴ But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed at them.

¹⁵ But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we anything, as long as we went with them, when we were in the fields:

¹⁶ they were a wall unto us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.

¹⁷ Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his house: for he is such a worthless fellow, that one cannot 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 grain, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.

¹⁹ And she said unto her young men, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal.

²⁰ And it was so, as she rode on her ass, and came down by the covert of the mountain, that, behold, David and his men came down toward her; and she met them.

²¹ Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he hath returned me evil for good.

²² God do so unto the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light so much as one man-child.

²³ And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and alighted from her ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground.

²⁴ And she fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me be the iniquity; and let thy handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine ears, and hear thou the words of thy handmaid.

²⁵ Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this worthless fellow, even Nabal; for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thy handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.

²⁶ Now therefore, my lord, as Jehovah liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing Jehovah hath withholden thee from bloodguiltiness, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now therefore let thine enemies, and them that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.

²⁷ And now this present which thy servant hath brought unto my lord, let it be given unto the young men that follow my lord.

²⁸ Forgive, I pray thee, the trespass of thy handmaid: for Jehovah will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fighteth the battles of Jehovah; and evil shall not be found in thee all thy days.

²⁹ And though men be risen up to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul, yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with Jehovah thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as from the hollow of a sling.

³⁰ And it shall come to pass, when Jehovah shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee prince over Israel,

³¹ that this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood without cause, or that my lord hath avenged himself. And when Jehovah shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thy handmaid.

³² And David said to Abigail, Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, who sent thee this day to meet me:

³³ and blessed be thy discretion, and blessed be thou, that hast kept me this day from bloodguiltiness, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.

³⁴ For in very deed, as Jehovah, the God of Israel, liveth, who hath withholden me from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light so much as one man-child.

³⁵ So David received of her hand that which she had brought him: and he said unto her, Go up in peace to thy house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person.

³⁶ And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.

³⁷ And it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, that his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.

³⁸ And it came to pass about ten days after, that Jehovah smote Nabal, so that he died.

³⁹ And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be Jehovah, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept back his servant from evil: and the evil-doing of Nabal hath Jehovah returned upon his own head. And David sent and spake concerning Abigail, to take her to him to wife.

⁴⁰ And when the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spake unto her, saying, David hath sent us unto thee, to take thee to him to wife.

⁴¹ And she arose, and bowed herself with her face to the earth, and said, Behold, thy handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.

⁴² And Abigail hasted, and arose, and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of hers that followed her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.

⁴³ David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they became both of them his wives.

⁴⁴ Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.

¹ Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers that write perverseness;

² to turn aside the needy from justice, and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!

³ And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?

⁴ They shall only bow down under the prisoners, and shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

⁵ Ho Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, the staff in whose hand is mine indignation!

⁶ I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

⁷ Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few.

⁸ For he saith, Are not my princes all of them kings?

⁹ Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?

¹⁰ As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;

¹¹ shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

¹² Wherefore it shall come to pass, that, when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.

¹³ For he hath said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have understanding: and I have removed the bounds of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures, and like a valiant man I have brought down them that sit [on thrones]:

¹⁴ and my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the peoples; and as one gathereth eggs that are forsaken, have I gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved the wing, or that opened the mouth, or chirped.

¹⁵ Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? shall the saw magnify itself against him that wieldeth it? as if a rod should wield them that lift it up, [or] as if a staff should lift up [him that is] not wood.

¹⁶ Therefore will the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory there shall be kindled a burning like the burning of fire.

¹⁷ And the light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briers in One day.

¹⁸ And he will consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and it shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth.

¹⁹ And the remnant of the trees of his forest shall be few, so that a child may write them.

²⁰ And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and they that are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again lean upon him that smote them, but shall lean upon Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

²¹ A remnant shall return, [even] the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.

²² For though thy people, Israel, be as the sand of the sea, [only] a remnant of them shall return: a destruction [is] determined, overflowing with righteousness.

²³ For a full end, and that determined, will the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, make in the midst of all the earth.

²⁴ Therefore thus saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian, though he smite thee with the rod, and lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt.

²⁵ For yet a very little while, and the indignation [against thee] shall be accomplished, and mine anger [shall be directed] to his destruction.

²⁶ And Jehovah of hosts will stir up against him a scourge, as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and his rod will be over the sea, and he will lift it up after the manner of Egypt.

²⁷ And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall depart from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed by reason of fatness.

²⁸ He is come to Aiath, he is passed through Migron; at Michmash he layeth up his baggage;

²⁹ they are gone over the pass; they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah trembleth; Gibeah of Saul is fled.

³⁰ Cry aloud with thy voice, O daughter of Gallim! hearken, O Laishah! O thou poor Anathoth!

³¹ Madmenah is a fugitive; the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.

³² This very day shall he halt at Nob: he shaketh his hand at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

³³ Behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, will lop the boughs with terror: and the high of stature shall be hewn down, and the lofty shall be brought low.

³⁴ And he will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.