ceased.

And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, "Who is David? and who
is the son of Jesse? there are many servants nowadays that break away
every man from his {419} master. Shall I then take my bread, and my
water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it
unto men of whom I know not whence they be?"

So David's young men turned on their way, and went back, and came and
told him according to all these words.

And David said unto his men, "Gird ye on every man his sword." And
they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his
sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two
hundred remained in the camp.

But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, "Behold,
David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and
he flew upon them. But the men were very good unto us, and we were not
hurt, neither missed we anything, as long as we were with them, when
we were in the fields: they were a wall unto us both by night and by
day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore
consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master,
and against all his house: for he is such a worthless fellow that one
cannot speak to him."

Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles
of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched
corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of
figs, and laid them on asses.

And she said unto her young men, "Go on before me; behold, I come
after you."

But she told not her husband Nabal. And it was so, {420} as she rode
on her ass, and came down by the covert of the mountain, that, behold,
David and his men came down against her; and she met them.

Now David had said, "Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow
hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that
pertained unto him: and he hath returned me evil for good. God do so
unto the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave of all that
pertain to him by the morning light so much as one man child."

And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off her ass, and
fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground. And
she fell at his feet, and said, "Upon me, my lord, upon me be the
iniquity: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine ears,
and hear thou the words of thine handmaid.' Let not my lord, I pray
thee, rega