1 Samuel 25:27

THE MESSAGE

To Fight God's Battles Samuel died. The whole country came to his funeral. Everyone grieved over his death, and he was buried in his hometown of Ramah. Meanwhile, David moved again, this time to the wilderness of Maon. There was a certain man in Maon who carried on his business in the region of Carmel. He was very prosperous—three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and it was sheep-shearing time in Carmel. The man's name was Nabal (Fool), a Calebite, and his wife's name was Abigail. The woman was intelligent and good-looking, the man brutish and mean. David, out in the backcountry, heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep and sent ten of his young men off with these instructions: "Go to Carmel and approach Nabal. Greet him in my name, ‘Peace! Life and peace to you. Peace to your household, peace to everyone here! I heard that it's sheep-shearing time. Here's the point: When your shepherds were camped near us we didn't take advantage of them. They didn't lose a thing all the time they were with us in Carmel. Ask your young men—they'll tell you. What I'm asking is that you be generous with my men—share the feast! Give whatever your heart tells you to your servants and to me, David your son.'" David's young men went and delivered his message word for word to Nabal. Nabal tore into them, "Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? The country is full of runaway servants these days. Do you think I'm going to take good bread and wine and meat freshly butchered for my sheepshearers and give it to men I've never laid eyes on? Who knows where they've come from?" David's men got out of there and went back and told David what he had said. David said, "Strap on your swords!" They all strapped on their swords, David and his men, and set out, four hundred of them. Two hundred stayed behind to guard the camp. Meanwhile, one of the young shepherds told Abigail, Nabal's wife, what had happened: "David sent messengers from the backcountry to salute our master, but he tore into them with insults. Yet these men treated us very well. They took nothing from us and didn't take advantage of us all the time we were in the fields. They formed a wall around us, protecting us day and night all the time we were out tending the sheep. Do something quickly because big trouble is ahead for our master and all of us. Nobody can talk to him. He's impossible—a real brute!" Abigail flew into action. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep dressed out and ready for cooking, a bushel of roasted grain, a hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes, and she had it all loaded on some donkeys. Then she said to her young servants, "Go ahead and pave the way for me. I'm right behind you." But she said nothing to her husband Nabal. As she was riding her donkey, descending into a ravine, David and his men were descending from the other end, so they met there on the road. David had just said, "That sure was a waste, guarding everything this man had out in the wild so that nothing he had was lost—and now he rewards me with insults. A real slap in the face! May God do his worst to me if Nabal and every cur in his misbegotten brood aren't dead meat by morning!" As soon as Abigail saw David, she got off her donkey and fell on her knees at his feet, her face to the ground in homage, saying, "My master, let me take the blame! Let me speak to you. Listen to what I have to say. Don't dwell on what that brute Nabal did. He acts out the meaning of his name: Nabal, Fool. Foolishness oozes from him. "I wasn't there when the young men my master sent arrived. I didn't see them. And now, my master, as God lives and as you live, God has kept you from this avenging murder—and may your enemies, all who seek my master's harm, end up like Nabal! Now take this gift that I, your servant girl, have brought to my master, and give it to the young men who follow in the steps of my master.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Let this gift your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord.

Hebrew Names Version
Now this present which your servant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord.

King James Version
And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord.

Lexham English Bible
So then, this gift which your female servant has brought to my lord, may it be given to the young men who follow my lord.

English Standard Version
And now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord.

New Century Version
I have brought a gift to you for the men who follow you.

New English Translation
Now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the servants who follow my lord.

Amplified Bible
"Now this gift, which your maidservant has brought my lord, let it be given to the young men who accompany and follow my lord.

New American Standard Bible
"And now let this gift which your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who accompany my lord.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And now, this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought vnto my lorde, let it be giuen vnto the yong men, that followe my lord.

Legacy Standard Bible
So now let this gift which your servant-woman has brought to my lord be given to the young men who went about with my lord.

Complete Jewish Bible
Meanwhile, let this present which your servant has brought to my lord be given to the men in my lord's service.

Darby Translation
And now this blessing which thy bondmaid has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men that follow my lord.

Easy-to-Read Version
Now, I am bringing this gift to you. Please give these things to your men.

George Lamsa Translation
And now this present which your handmaid has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men that follow my lord.

Good News Translation
Please, sir, accept this present I have brought you, and give it to your men.

Literal Translation
And now this blessing which your handmaid has brought to my lord, even let it be given to the young men who go after my lord.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Here is ye blessynge, yt thy handmayde hath brought my lorde, take it, and geue it vnto the yonge men, that walke vnder my lorde.

American Standard Version
And now this present which thy servant hath brought unto my lord, let it be given unto the young men that follow my lord.

Bible in Basic English
And let this offering, which your servant gives to my lord, be given to the young men who are with my lord.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And now this blessing which thyne handmayd hath brought vnto my lord, let it be geuen vnto the young men that folowe my lorde.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And now this present which thy servant hath brought unto my lord, let it be given unto the young men that follow my lord.

King James Version (1611)
And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought vnto my lord, let it euen be giuen vnto the yong men that follow my lord.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And now accept this token of goodwill, which thy servant has brought to my lord, and thou shalt give it to the servants that wait on my lord.

English Revised Version
And now this present which thy servant hath brought unto my lord, let it be given unto the young men that follow my lord.

Berean Standard Bible
Now let this gift your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow you.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Wherfor resseyue thou this blessyng, which thin handmaide brouyte to thee, my lord, and yyue thou to the children that suen thee, my lord.

Young's Literal Translation
`And, now, this blessing which thy maid-servant hath brought to my lord -- it hath been given to the young men who are going up and down at the feet of my lord.

Update Bible Version
And now this present which your slave has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men that follow my lord.

Webster's Bible Translation
And now this blessing which thy handmaid hath brought to my lord, let it even be given to the young men that follow my lord.

World English Bible
Now this present which your servant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord.

New King James Version
And now this present which your maidservant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord.

New Living Translation
And here is a present that I, your servant, have brought to you and your young men.

New Life Bible
Now let this gift which your woman servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord.

New Revised Standard
And now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Now, therefore, this blessing which thy maid-servant hath brought to my lord, let it even be given unto the young men who are going to and fro at the feet of my lord.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Wherefore receive this blessing, which thy handmaid hath brought to thee, my lord: and give it to the young men that follow thee, my lord.

Revised Standard Version
And now let this present which your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Now let this gift which your maidservant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who accompany my lord.

Contextual Overview

¹⁸Abigail flew into action. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep dressed out and ready for cooking, a bushel of roasted grain, a hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes, and she had it all loaded on some donkeys. Then she said to her young servants, "Go ahead and pave the way for me. I'm right behind you." But she said nothing to her husband Nabal. ²⁰As she was riding her donkey, descending into a ravine, David and his men were descending from the other end, so they met there on the road. David had just said, "That sure was a waste, guarding everything this man had out in the wild so that nothing he had was lost—and now he rewards me with insults. A real slap in the face! May God do his worst to me if Nabal and every cur in his misbegotten brood aren't dead meat by morning!" ²³As soon as Abigail saw David, she got off her donkey and fell on her knees at his feet, her face to the ground in homage, saying, "My master, let me take the blame! Let me speak to you. Listen to what I have to say. Don't dwell on what that brute Nabal did. He acts out the meaning of his name: Nabal, Fool. Foolishness oozes from him. "I wasn't there when the young men my master sent arrived. I didn't see them. And now, my master, as God lives and as you live, God has kept you from this avenging murder—and may your enemies, all who seek my master's harm, end up like Nabal! Now take this gift that I, your servant girl, have brought to my master, and give it to the young men who follow in the steps of my master. "Forgive my presumption! But God is at work in my master, developing a rule solid and dependable. My master fights God 's battles! As long as you live no evil will stick to you. If anyone stands in your way, if anyone tries to get you out of the way, Know this: Your God-honored life is tightly bound in the bundle of God-protected life; But the lives of your enemies will be hurled aside as a stone is thrown from a sling. "When God completes all the goodness he has promised my master and sets you up as prince over Israel, my master will not have this dead weight in his heart, the guilt of an avenging murder. And when God has worked things for good for my master, remember me." And David said, "Blessed be God , the God of Israel. He sent you to meet me! And blessed be your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and taking charge of looking out for me. A close call! As God lives, the God of Israel who kept me from hurting you, if you had not come as quickly as you did, stopping me in my tracks, by morning there would have been nothing left of Nabal but dead meat." Then David accepted the gift she brought him and said, "Return home in peace. I've heard what you've said and I'll do what you've asked." When Abigail got home she found Nabal presiding over a huge banquet. He was in high spirits—and very, very drunk. So she didn't tell him anything of what she'd done until morning. But in the morning, after Nabal had sobered up, she told him the whole story. Right then and there he had a heart attack and fell into a coma. About ten days later God finished him off and he died. When David heard that Nabal was dead he said, "Blessed be God who has stood up for me against Nabal's insults, kept me from an evil act, and let Nabal's evil boomerang back on him." Then David sent for Abigail to tell her that he wanted her for his wife. David's servants went to Abigail at Carmel with the message, "David sent us to bring you to marry him." She got up, and then bowed down, face to the ground, saying, "I'm your servant, ready to do anything you want. I'll even wash the feet of my master's servants!" Abigail didn't linger. She got on her donkey and, with her five maids in attendance, went with the messengers to David and became his wife. David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel. Both women were his wives. Saul had married off David's wife Michal to Palti (Paltiel) son of Laish, who was from Gallim. ²⁶To Fight God's Battles Samuel died. The whole country came to his funeral. Everyone grieved over his death, and he was buried in his hometown of Ramah. Meanwhile, David moved again, this time to the wilderness of Maon. There was a certain man in Maon who carried on his business in the region of Carmel. He was very prosperous—three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and it was sheep-shearing time in Carmel. The man's name was Nabal (Fool), a Calebite, and his wife's name was Abigail. The woman was intelligent and good-looking, the man brutish and mean. David, out in the backcountry, heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep and sent ten of his young men off with these instructions: "Go to Carmel and approach Nabal. Greet him in my name, ‘Peace! Life and peace to you. Peace to your household, peace to everyone here! I heard that it's sheep-shearing time. Here's the point: When your shepherds were camped near us we didn't take advantage of them. They didn't lose a thing all the time they were with us in Carmel. Ask your young men—they'll tell you. What I'm asking is that you be generous with my men—share the feast! Give whatever your heart tells you to your servants and to me, David your son.'" David's young men went and delivered his message word for word to Nabal. Nabal tore into them, "Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? The country is full of runaway servants these days. Do you think I'm going to take good bread and wine and meat freshly butchered for my sheepshearers and give it to men I've never laid eyes on? Who knows where they've come from?" David's men got out of there and went back and told David what he had said. David said, "Strap on your swords!" They all strapped on their swords, David and his men, and set out, four hundred of them. Two hundred stayed behind to guard the camp. Meanwhile, one of the young shepherds told Abigail, Nabal's wife, what had happened: "David sent messengers from the backcountry to salute our master, but he tore into them with insults. Yet these men treated us very well. They took nothing from us and didn't take advantage of us all the time we were in the fields. They formed a wall around us, protecting us day and night all the time we were out tending the sheep. Do something quickly because big trouble is ahead for our master and all of us. Nobody can talk to him. He's impossible—a real brute!" Abigail flew into action. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep dressed out and ready for cooking, a bushel of roasted grain, a hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes, and she had it all loaded on some donkeys. Then she said to her young servants, "Go ahead and pave the way for me. I'm right behind you." But she said nothing to her husband Nabal. As she was riding her donkey, descending into a ravine, David and his men were descending from the other end, so they met there on the road. David had just said, "That sure was a waste, guarding everything this man had out in the wild so that nothing he had was lost—and now he rewards me with insults. A real slap in the face! May God do his worst to me if Nabal and every cur in his misbegotten brood aren't dead meat by morning!" As soon as Abigail saw David, she got off her donkey and fell on her knees at his feet, her face to the ground in homage, saying, "My master, let me take the blame! Let me speak to you. Listen to what I have to say. Don't dwell on what that brute Nabal did. He acts out the meaning of his name: Nabal, Fool. Foolishness oozes from him. "I wasn't there when the young men my master sent arrived. I didn't see them. And now, my master, as God lives and as you live, God has kept you from this avenging murder—and may your enemies, all who seek my master's harm, end up like Nabal! Now take this gift that I, your servant girl, have brought to my master, and give it to the young men who follow in the steps of my master. "Forgive my presumption! But God is at work in my master, developing a rule solid and dependable. My master fights God 's battles! As long as you live no evil will stick to you. If anyone stands in your way, if anyone tries to get you out of the way, Know this: Your God-honored life is tightly bound in the bundle of God-protected life; But the lives of your enemies will be hurled aside as a stone is thrown from a sling. "When God completes all the goodness he has promised my master and sets you up as prince over Israel, my master will not have this dead weight in his heart, the guilt of an avenging murder. And when God has worked things for good for my master, remember me." And David said, "Blessed be God , the God of Israel. He sent you to meet me! And blessed be your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and taking charge of looking out for me. A close call! As God lives, the God of Israel who kept me from hurting you, if you had not come as quickly as you did, stopping me in my tracks, by morning there would have been nothing left of Nabal but dead meat." Then David accepted the gift she brought him and said, "Return home in peace. I've heard what you've said and I'll do what you've asked." When Abigail got home she found Nabal presiding over a huge banquet. He was in high spirits—and very, very drunk. So she didn't tell him anything of what she'd done until morning. But in the morning, after Nabal had sobered up, she told him the whole story. Right then and there he had a heart attack and fell into a coma. About ten days later God finished him off and he died. When David heard that Nabal was dead he said, "Blessed be God who has stood up for me against Nabal's insults, kept me from an evil act, and let Nabal's evil boomerang back on him." Then David sent for Abigail to tell her that he wanted her for his wife. David's servants went to Abigail at Carmel with the message, "David sent us to bring you to marry him." She got up, and then bowed down, face to the ground, saying, "I'm your servant, ready to do anything you want. I'll even wash the feet of my master's servants!" Abigail didn't linger. She got on her donkey and, with her five maids in attendance, went with the messengers to David and became his wife. David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel. Both women were his wives. Saul had married off David's wife Michal to Palti (Paltiel) son of Laish, who was from Gallim. ²⁷To Fight God's Battles Samuel died. The whole country came to his funeral. Everyone grieved over his death, and he was buried in his hometown of Ramah. Meanwhile, David moved again, this time to the wilderness of Maon. There was a certain man in Maon who carried on his business in the region of Carmel. He was very prosperous—three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and it was sheep-shearing time in Carmel. The man's name was Nabal (Fool), a Calebite, and his wife's name was Abigail. The woman was intelligent and good-looking, the man brutish and mean. David, out in the backcountry, heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep and sent ten of his young men off with these instructions: "Go to Carmel and approach Nabal. Greet him in my name, ‘Peace! Life and peace to you. Peace to your household, peace to everyone here! I heard that it's sheep-shearing time. Here's the point: When your shepherds were camped near us we didn't take advantage of them. They didn't lose a thing all the time they were with us in Carmel. Ask your young men—they'll tell you. What I'm asking is that you be generous with my men—share the feast! Give whatever your heart tells you to your servants and to me, David your son.'" David's young men went and delivered his message word for word to Nabal. Nabal tore into them, "Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? The country is full of runaway servants these days. Do you think I'm going to take good bread and wine and meat freshly butchered for my sheepshearers and give it to men I've never laid eyes on? Who knows where they've come from?" David's men got out of there and went back and told David what he had said. David said, "Strap on your swords!" They all strapped on their swords, David and his men, and set out, four hundred of them. Two hundred stayed behind to guard the camp. Meanwhile, one of the young shepherds told Abigail, Nabal's wife, what had happened: "David sent messengers from the backcountry to salute our master, but he tore into them with insults. Yet these men treated us very well. They took nothing from us and didn't take advantage of us all the time we were in the fields. They formed a wall around us, protecting us day and night all the time we were out tending the sheep. Do something quickly because big trouble is ahead for our master and all of us. Nobody can talk to him. He's impossible—a real brute!" Abigail flew into action. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep dressed out and ready for cooking, a bushel of roasted grain, a hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes, and she had it all loaded on some donkeys. Then she said to her young servants, "Go ahead and pave the way for me. I'm right behind you." But she said nothing to her husband Nabal. As she was riding her donkey, descending into a ravine, David and his men were descending from the other end, so they met there on the road. David had just said, "That sure was a waste, guarding everything this man had out in the wild so that nothing he had was lost—and now he rewards me with insults. A real slap in the face! May God do his worst to me if Nabal and every cur in his misbegotten brood aren't dead meat by morning!" As soon as Abigail saw David, she got off her donkey and fell on her knees at his feet, her face to the ground in homage, saying, "My master, let me take the blame! Let me speak to you. Listen to what I have to say. Don't dwell on what that brute Nabal did. He acts out the meaning of his name: Nabal, Fool. Foolishness oozes from him. "I wasn't there when the young men my master sent arrived. I didn't see them. And now, my master, as God lives and as you live, God has kept you from this avenging murder—and may your enemies, all who seek my master's harm, end up like Nabal! Now take this gift that I, your servant girl, have brought to my master, and give it to the young men who follow in the steps of my master. ²⁸"Forgive my presumption! But God is at work in my master, developing a rule solid and dependable. My master fights God 's battles! As long as you live no evil will stick to you. If anyone stands in your way, if anyone tries to get you out of the way, Know this: Your God-honored life is tightly bound in the bundle of God-protected life; But the lives of your enemies will be hurled aside as a stone is thrown from a sling. ³⁰"When God completes all the goodness he has promised my master and sets you up as prince over Israel, my master will not have this dead weight in his heart, the guilt of an avenging murder. And when God has worked things for good for my master, remember me."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

blessing: or, present, 1 Samuel 30:26, Genesis 33:11, 2 Kings 5:15, 2 Corinthians 9:5

follow: Heb. walk at the feet of, 1 Samuel 25:42, *marg. Judges 4:10, 2 Samuel 16:2

Reciprocal: Genesis 32:13 - a present Genesis 43:11 - carry down Joshua 15:19 - a blessing Judges 1:15 - a blessing 2 Samuel 15:16 - after him Proverbs 18:16 - General Proverbs 31:12 - General Isaiah 36:16 - Make an agreement with me by a present

Cross-References

Genesis 6:9
This is the story of Noah: Noah was a good man, a man of integrity in his community. Noah walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Genesis 21:20
God was on the boy's side as he grew up. He lived out in the desert and became a skilled archer. He lived in the Paran wilderness. And his mother got him a wife from Egypt.

Genesis 25:3
Jokshan had Sheba and Dedan. Dedan's descendants were the Asshurim, the Letushim, and the Leummim.

Genesis 25:5
But Abraham gave everything he possessed to Isaac. While he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons he had by his concubines, but then sent them away to the country of the east, putting a good distance between them and his son Isaac.

Job 1:1
Job was a man who lived in Uz. He was honest inside and out, a man of his word, who was totally devoted to God and hated evil with a passion. He had seven sons and three daughters. He was also very wealthy—seven thousand head of sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred teams of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and a huge staff of servants—the most influential man in all the East!

Job 1:8
God said to Satan, "Have you noticed my friend Job? There's no one quite like him—honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil."

Psalms 37:37
Keep your eye on the healthy soul, scrutinize the straight life; There's a future in strenuous wholeness. But the willful will soon be discarded; insolent souls are on a dead-end street.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And now this blessing, which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord,.... The present, consisting of the things mentioned in

1 Samuel 25:18; which came as a blessing from God, and with good will from her:

let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord; the servants of David: in the original it is, "that walk at the feet of my lord": and which the Targum paraphrases, "who minister before my lord"; and so Abigail's damsels are called "pedissequae", or "that walked at her feet", 1 Samuel 25:42; and with the Romans, in later times, servants were called a "pedibus" and "pedissequi" d. This also is very artfully said, as if the present was not good enough for David, and worthy of his acceptance; might be agreeable to his men, and of service to them.

d Vid. Pignorium de Servis, p. 140, 248, 293.