Meanwhile Samuel passed away and all Israel assembled and mourned for him and buried him in Rama.

David kept wandering in the wilderness, where a man named Nabal did business. Nabal was very rich with three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. Nabal was badly behaved and harsh while his wife, Abigail was discerning and beautiful.

When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep there, David sent him ten young men and said to them - ‘Go to Nabal and greet him in my name. Say unto him, Peace be upon your house. Your shepherds have been with us and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time they sheared in Carmel. Therefore let my young men find favour 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.’

However, when David’s men greeted Nabal with these words, he railed at them harshly and turned them away.

This annoyed David who strapped on his sword along with four hundred of his men to avenge the insult. When this news reached Abigail, who was informed of both David’s and Nabal’s conduct towards each other’s men, she hastily loaded her donkeys with loaves, meat and wine and came along with her men to David.  She got off her donkey and fell at David’s feet and said, ‘On me alone my lord be the guilt. Please forgive thy servant Nabal for he is a worthless fellow, as is his name. Let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to his young men. For the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the LORD and evil shall not be found in you as long as you live. And when the LORD has appointed you as the prince over Israel, then remember your handmaid’.

David was pleased and said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD and blessed be you and your discretion, for unless you had hurried and come to meet me, there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male. Go in peace to your house.” David then received from her hand what she had brought him.

Abigail returned to Nabal who was holding a feast like a king. He was drunk with wine and was making merry. She told him nothing at all until the morning light. In the morning when the wine had gone out of him, his wife told him all these things and his heart died within him and he became as a stone.  And ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal and he died.

David blessed the LORD for avenging his insult  received at the hand of Nabal and sent his servants to Abigail to take her as his wife. She bowed her face to the ground and said, “Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” She followed Davids with her servants and became his wife.