Samuel & King Saul

Now there was a man in Ma'on who had property in Karmel. He was very rich, having three thousand sheep and a thousand goats; and he was shearing his sheep in Karmel.

The man's name was Naval, and his wife was named Avigayil. The woman was intelligent and attractive, but the man was surly and mean in his actions; he belonged to the clan of Kalev.

David, there in the desert, heard that Naval was shearing his sheep.

David sent off ten young men with these orders: "Go up to Naval in Karmel, and bring him greetings from me.

Say, 'Long life and shalom to you, shalom to your household, and shalom to everything that is yours!

I've heard that you now have shearers. Your shepherds were with us [for a while], we did them no harm, and they found nothing missing all the time they were in Karmel.

Ask your own men; they'll tell you. Therefore, receive my men favorably, since we have come on a festive day. Please give what you can to your servants and to your son David.'"

On arrival, David's men said all these things to Naval in David's name. When they had finished,

Naval answered David's servants, "Who is David? Who is the son of Yishai? There are many servants nowadays running away from their masters.

Am I supposed to take my bread, my water and my meat that I slaughtered for my shearers and give it to men coming from who knows where?"

So David's men turned around, went back and came and told him everything Naval had said.

David said to his men, "Buckle your swords on, all of you!" Each one buckled on his sword, David too; and there went up after David about four hundred men, while two hundred stayed with the equipment.

But one of Naval's men told Avigayil his wife, "David sent messengers from the desert to greet our master, and he flew on them in a rage,

even though the men had been very good to us - they didn't harm us, and we found nothing missing during the entire time we went with them, while we were out in the countryside.

They served as a wall protecting us day and night all the time we were with them caring for the sheep.

So now decide what you are going to do, for clearly harm is on its way to our master and all his household, but he's so mean that no one can tell him anything."

Avigayil wasted no time in taking 200 loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already prepared, six quarts of roasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins and 200 fig cakes, and having them loaded on donkeys.

Then she said to her young men, "Go on ahead of me, and I'll come along after you." But she didn't tell her husband Naval.

She was riding her donkey down past the hiding-place in the mountain, when David and his men descended toward her, and she met them.

David had said, "What a waste it has been guarding everything this fellow has in the desert, so that nothing of his was missing! He has repaid me bad for good!"

Then he swore, "May God do the same and more to David's enemies if I leave alive even one male of everything he owns."

When Avigayil saw David, she hurried to dismount from her donkey, fell on her face in front of David and bowed down to the ground.

Having fallen at his feet, she said, "It's all my fault, my lord, all my fault! Please let your servant speak in your ears, and listen to what your servant says.

Please! My lord shouldn't pay any attention to this worthless fellow Naval, because he's just like his name -'Naval' means 'boor,' and his boorishness stays with him. But I, your servant, did not see my lord's men, whom you sent.

Therefore, my lord, as ADONAI lives, and as you live, inasmuch as ADONAI has kept you from the guilt of shedding blood and from taking vengeance into your own hands - therefore, may your enemies and anyone seeking your harm be [as worthless] as Naval.