1 Samuel 25:18

¹When David was a little past the top, behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him with a couple of donkeys saddled, and on them two hundred loaves of bread, and one hundred clusters of raisins, and one hundred summer fruits, and a container of wine.

¹⁶A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men.

²⁵Agree with your adversary quickly while you are with him on the way; lest perhaps the prosecutor deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be cast into prison.

⁴Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids. ⁵Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

³⁴For indeed, as the LORD the God of Israel lives, who has withheld me from harming you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely there wouldn’t have been left to Nabal by the morning light so much as one who urinates on a wall.”

¹¹Their father, Israel, said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Take from the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry down a present for the man, a little balm, a little honey, spices and myrrh, nuts, and almonds; ¹²and take double money in your hand, and take back the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight. ¹³Take your brother also, get up, and return to the man. ¹⁴May God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may release to you your other brother and Benjamin. If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.”

²⁸brought beds, basins, earthen vessels, wheat, barley, meal, parched grain, beans, lentils, roasted grain, ²⁹honey, butter, sheep, and cheese of the herd, for David and for the people who were with him to eat; for they said, “The people are hungry, weary, and thirsty in the wilderness.”

⁴⁰Moreover those who were near to them, as far as Issachar, Zebulun, and Naphtali, brought bread on donkeys, on camels, on mules, and on oxen: supplies of flour, cakes of figs, clusters of raisins, wine, oil, cattle, and sheep in abundance; for there was joy in Israel.

¹⁴A gift in secret pacifies anger, and a bribe in the cloak, strong wrath.

¹³He stayed there that night, and took from that which he had with him a present for Esau, his brother: ¹⁴two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, ¹⁵thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals. ¹⁶He delivered them into the hands of his servants, every herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass over before me, and put a space between herd and herd.” ¹⁷He commanded the foremost, saying, “When Esau, my brother, meets you, and asks you, saying, ‘Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these before you?’ ¹⁸Then you shall say, ‘They are your servant, Jacob’s. It is a present sent to my lord, Esau. Behold, he also is behind us.’” ¹⁹He commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed the herds, saying, “This is how you shall speak to Esau, when you find him. ²⁰You shall say, ‘Not only that, but behold, your servant, Jacob, is behind us.’” For, he said, “I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”