Fools Rush In

Trinity Presbyterian Church

1 Samuel 25:1-13
Now Samuel died. And all Israel assembled and mourned for him, and they buried him in
his house at Ramah.
Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. 2 And there was a man in
Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand
sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3 Now the name of the
man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was discerning and beauti-
ful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved; he was a Calebite. 4 David heard in the wil-
derness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. 5 So David sent ten young men. And David said
to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal and greet him in my name. 6 And
thus you shall greet him: ‘Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all
that you have. 7 I hear that you have shearers. Now your shepherds have been with us, and
we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time they were in Carmel. 8 Ask
your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your
eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants
and to your son David.’”
9 When David's young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David, and
then they waited. 10 And Nabal answered David's servants, “Who is David? Who is the son
of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters.
11 Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and
give it to men who come from I do not know where?” 12 So David's young men turned
away and came back and told him all this. 13 And David said to his men, “Every man strap
on his sword!” And every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his
sword. And about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained
with the baggage.

1 Samuel 25:14-31
But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, “Behold, David sent messengers out
of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them. 15 Yet the men were very good
to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields,
as long as we went with them. 16 They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the
while we were with them keeping the sheep. 17 Now therefore know this and consider
what you should do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house,
and he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.”
18 Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five
sheep already prepared and five seahs of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins
and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys. 19 And she said to her young
men,
“Go on before me; behold, I come after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20 And as she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, behold,
David and his men came down toward her, and she met them. 21 Now David had said,
“Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing
was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil for good. 22 God do so
to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all
who belong to him.”
23 When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell before Da-
vid on her face and bowed to the ground. 24 She fell at his feet and said, “On me alone, my
lord, be the guilt. Please let your servant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your
servant. 25 Let not my lord regard this worthless fellow, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he.
Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I your servant did not see the young men of
my lord, whom you sent. 26 Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, be-
cause the Lord has restrained you from bloodguilt and from saving with your own hand,
now then let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal. 27 And
now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men
who follow my lord. 28 Please forgive the trespass of your servant. For the Lord will cer-
tainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the Lord, and
evil shall not be found in you so long as you live. 29 If men rise up to pursue you and to
seek your life, the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of
the Lord your God. And the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of
a sling. 30 And when the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that he has
spoken concerning you and has appointed you prince over Israel, 31 my lord shall have no
cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for my lord
working salvation himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant.”
1 Samuel 25:32-44
And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day
to meet me! 33 Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day
from bloodguilt and from working salvation with my own hand! 34 For as surely as the
Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had
hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much
as one male.” 35 Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he
said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice, and I have
granted your petition.”
36 And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the
feast of a king. And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she
told him nothing at all until the morning light. 37 In the morning, when the wine had gone
out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became
as a stone. 38 And about ten days later the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.
39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord who has avenged
the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from wrongdo-
ing. The Lord has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent and
spoke to Abigail, to take her as his wife. 40 When the servants of David came to Abigail at
Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.” 41 And
she rose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, “Behold, your handmaid is a
servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” 42 And Abigail hurried and rose and
mounted a donkey, and her five young women attended her. She followed the messengers
of David and became his wife.
43 David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives. 44 Saul had giv-
en Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.