August 12, 2019

1 SAMUEL 25:16-31

25:16 They were a wall to us both by night and by day all the time we were with them tending the sheep.
25:17 Now therefore know and consider what you will do, because evil has been determined against our master and against all his house; for he is so worthless a man that no one can speak to him.
25:18 Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread and two skins of wine and five sheep ready dressed and five measures of parched grain and one hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and she put them on her donkeys.
25:19 And she said to her young men, Go on before me; I am coming right behind you. But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
25:20 And as she rode on her donkey and came down under the cover of the mountain, David and his men at that moment came down toward her; and she met them.
25:21 Now David had said, It was certainly in vain that I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that he has; for he has repaid me evil for good.
25:22 May God do so to David’s enemies, and even more, if I leave so much as a male child of all that he has until morning.
25:23 And when Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from her donkey and fell on her face before David; and she bowed herself to the ground.
25:24 And she fell at his feet and said, Upon me alone, my lord, be this iniquity; and let your female servant speak in your hearing, and hear the words of your female servant.
25:25 May my lord not take this worthless man Nabal to heart. For as his name is, so he is: Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I your female servant did not see my lord’s young men, whom you sent.
25:26 And now, my lord, as Jehovah lives and as your soul lives, since Jehovah has withheld you from entering into bloodshed and from avenging yourself by your own hand, now therefore let your enemies and those who seek harm against my lord be like Nabal.
25:27 And now this present which your servant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord.
25:28 Please forgive the transgression of your female servant, for Jehovah will no doubt make a sure house for my lord, because my lord fights the battles of Jehovah; and no evil will be found in you throughout your days.
25:29 And though men rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, my lord’s life will be bound up in the bundle of the living with Jehovah your God; and the lives of your enemies He will sling out, as from the hollow of the sling.
25:30 And when Jehovah has done to my lord according to all the good He has spoken concerning you and has appointed you ruler over Israel,
25:31 This will not be a qualm of conscience to you or a stumbling block in heart to my lord, that you shed blood without cause or that my lord has avenged himself. And when Jehovah has dealt well with my lord, may you remember your female servant.