(18) В¶ 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. (19) And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal. (20) And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the covert of the hill, and, behold, David and his men came down against her; and she met them. (21) 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 requited me evil for good. (22) So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall. (23) And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, (24) And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid. (25) Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send. (26) Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal. (27) 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. (28) I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the LORD, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days. (29) Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling. (30) And it shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel; (31) That this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself: but when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid.
I need not offer any comment, by way of explaining what is already so very plain; or of recommending what is so very beautiful in itself, in this conduct and address of Abigail, to the Reader's notice. But, while I would leave the Reader to his own reflections on this most interesting passage in the chapter, I cannot suffer him to pass on, without calling on him to remark with me, how very evident the wisdom and grace of God must have been working upon Abigail's mind, to induce this conduct. Oh, Sir! it is sweet, very sweet, to observe how a gracious God arrangeth and disposeth of a thousand things to bring about the purposes and counsels of his own will. Whether Abigail knew the Lord, or whether she did not, at this time, yet God was pleased to make her an instrument to save the shedding of blood, to protect and shelter the innocent from being included in the common calamity with the wicked, and to keep back his servant David from sin. Perhaps David referred to this instance when he expressed himself in that Psalm, of being kept from presumptuous sins. Psalms 19:13.