Ecclesiastes 10:4

¹⁵By patience a ruler is persuaded. A soft tongue breaks the bone.

³Don’t be hasty to go out of his presence. Don’t persist in an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him,

²⁴She fell at his feet and said, “On me, my lord, on me be the blame! Please let your servant speak in your ears. Hear the words of your servant. ²⁵Please don’t let my lord pay attention to 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, didn’t see my lord’s young men whom you sent. ²⁶Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, since the LORD has withheld you from blood guiltiness and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now therefore let your enemies and those who seek evil to my lord be as Nabal. ²⁷Now this present which your servant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord. ²⁸Please forgive the trespass of your servant. For the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights the LORD’s battles. Evil will not be found in you all your days. ²⁹Though men may rise up to pursue you and to seek your soul, yet the soul of my lord will be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD your God. He will sling out the souls of your enemies as from a sling’s pocket. ³⁰It will come to pass, 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, ³¹that this shall be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself. When the LORD has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant.”

³²David said to Abigail, “Blessed is the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you today to meet me! ³³Blessed is your discretion, and blessed are you, who have kept me today from blood guiltiness, and from avenging myself with my own hand. 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.”

^35[+] So David received from her hand that which she had brought him. Then he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. Behold, I have listened to your voice and have granted your request.”

³⁶Abigail came to Nabal; and behold, he held a feast in his house like the feast of a king. Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. Therefore she told him nothing until the morning light. ³⁷In 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. ³⁸About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal, so that he died. ³⁹When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed is the LORD, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil. The LORD has returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.” David sent and spoke concerning Abigail, to take her to himself as wife.

⁴⁰When David’s servants had come to Abigail to Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, “David has sent us to you, to take you to him as wife.”

⁴¹She arose and bowed herself with her face to the earth, and said, “Behold, your servant is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” ⁴²Abigail hurriedly arose and rode on a donkey with her five maids who followed her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife. ⁴³David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they both became his wives.

⁴⁴Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.