Atlas Biblica

    1 Samuel · 44 verses

    1 Samuel 25

    Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

    The chapter

    What happens here

    Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

    Nabal held a feast fit for a king while danger came down the mountain, and Abigail, with excellent timing, told him nothing until morning. By then his heart had failed, he had become like a stone, and ten days later he was dead.

    The insult at Carmelvv. 1–13

    Samuel died, Israel gathered to mourn him, and David went down to the Wilderness of Paran. In Maon lived Nabal, a wealthy man whose sheep were being sheared in Carmel. David’s men had guarded Nabal’s shepherds, so David sent ten young men with a polite request for provisions. Nabal answered with the sort of speech that makes a feast suddenly feel rather less festive: he knew nothing of David, Jesse, or the men’s origin. David heard the answer, strapped on his sword, and set four hundred men moving.

    Abigail meets the swordsvv. 14–35

    One of Nabal’s young men warned Abigail that disaster was looming, and Abigail set out at once with bread, wine, sheep, grain, raisins, and fig cakes—an inventory with the cheerful bulk of a small procession. She met David in a mountain ravine just as he was promising that no male belonging to Nabal would survive the morning. Abigail bowed, called Nabal a fool by name, and turned David’s anger away from bloodshed and toward the possibility of a future in which he would not regret this particular morning. David blessed her discernment, accepted the provisions, and sent her home in peace.

    The feast, the stone, and the marriagesvv. 36–44

    Abigail returned to find Nabal holding a feast fit for a king, in high spirits and very drunk, so she sensibly postponed the conversation until morning. When sober, Nabal heard what had happened; his heart failed within him, and he became like a stone. About ten days later, the LORD struck him dead. David praised the LORD for restraining him from evil, then sent for Abigail as his wife. She came with five maidens and followed his messengers. Ahinoam of Jezreel was already David’s wife, while Saul had given Michal, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, from Gallim—a final rearrangement of marriages delivered with the briskness of a household inventory.

    The text

    Read it

    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. 1 Sam 25:1When Samuel died, all Israel gathered to mourn for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David set out and went down to the Wilderness of Paran.

    2. 1 Sam 25:2Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. He was a very wealthy man with a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel.

    3. 1 Sam 25:3His name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband, a Calebite, was harsh and evil in his dealings.

    4. 1 Sam 25:4While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep.

    5. 1 Sam 25:5So David sent ten young men and instructed them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel. Greet him in my name

    6. 1 Sam 25:6and say to him, ‘Long life to you, and peace to you and to your house and to all that belongs to you.

    7. 1 Sam 25:7Now I hear that it is time for shearing. When your shepherds were with us, we did not harass them, and nothing of theirs was missing the whole time they were in Carmel.

    8. 1 Sam 25:8Ask your young men, and they will tell you. So let my young men find favor with you, for we have come on the day of a feast. Please give whatever you can spare to your servants and to your son David.’”

    9. 1 Sam 25:9When David’s young men arrived, they relayed all these words to Nabal on behalf of David. Then they waited.

    10. 1 Sam 25:10But Nabal asked them, “Who is David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants these days are breaking away from their masters.

    11. 1 Sam 25:11Why should I take my bread and water and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give them to these men whose origin I do not know?”

    12. 1 Sam 25:12So David’s men turned around and went back, and they relayed to him all these words.

    13. 1 Sam 25:13And David said to his men, “Strap on your swords!” So David and all his men strapped on their swords, and about four hundred men followed David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.

    14. 1 Sam 25:14Meanwhile, one of Nabal’s young men informed Nabal’s wife Abigail, “Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he screamed at them.

    15. 1 Sam 25:15Yet these men were very good to us. When we were in the field, we were not harassed, and nothing of ours went missing the whole time we lived among them.

    16. 1 Sam 25:16They were a wall around us, both day and night, the whole time we were herding our sheep near them.

    17. 1 Sam 25:17Now consider carefully what you must do, because disaster looms over our master and all his household. For he is such a scoundrel that nobody can speak to him!”

    18. 1 Sam 25:18Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five butchered sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs. She loaded them on donkeys

    19. 1 Sam 25:19and said to her young men, “Go ahead of me. I will be right behind you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

    20. 1 Sam 25:20As Abigail came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, she saw David and his men coming down toward her, and she met them.

    21. 1 Sam 25:21Now David had just said, “In vain I have protected all that belonged to this man in the wilderness. Nothing that belongs to him has gone missing, yet he has paid me back evil for good.

    22. 1 Sam 25:22May God punish David, and ever so severely, if I let one male belonging to Nabal survive until morning.”

    23. 1 Sam 25:23When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off the donkey, fell facedown, and bowed before him.

    24. 1 Sam 25:24She fell at his feet and said, “My lord, may the blame be on me alone, but please let your servant speak to you; hear the words of your servant.

    25. 1 Sam 25:25My lord should pay no attention to this scoundrel Nabal, for he lives up to his name: His name means Fool, and folly accompanies him. I, your servant, did not see my lord’s young men whom you sent.

    26. 1 Sam 25:26Now, my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, since the LORD has held you back from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, may your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be like Nabal.

    27. 1 Sam 25:27Now let this gift your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow you.

    28. 1 Sam 25:28Please forgive your servant’s offense, for the LORD will surely make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because he fights the LORD’s battles. May no evil be found in you as long as you live.

    29. 1 Sam 25:29And should someone pursue you and seek your life, then the life of my lord will be bound securely by the LORD your God in the bundle of the living. But He shall fling away the lives of your enemies like stones from a sling.

    30. 1 Sam 25:30When the LORD has done for my lord all the good He promised, and when He has appointed you ruler over Israel,

    31. 1 Sam 25:31then my lord will have no remorse or guilt of conscience over needless bloodshed and revenge. And when the LORD has dealt well with my lord, may you remember your servant.”

    32. 1 Sam 25:32Then David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me this day!

    33. 1 Sam 25:33Blessed is your discernment, and blessed are you, because today you kept me from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand.

    34. 1 Sam 25:34Otherwise, as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, then surely no male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by morning light.”

    35. 1 Sam 25:35Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him, and he said to her, “Go home in peace. See, I have heeded your voice and granted your request.”

    36. 1 Sam 25:36When Abigail returned to Nabal, there he was in the house, holding a feast fit for a king, in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing until morning light.

    37. 1 Sam 25:37In the morning when Nabal was sober, his wife told him about these events, and his heart failed within him, and he became like a stone.

    38. 1 Sam 25:38About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal dead.

    39. 1 Sam 25:39On hearing that Nabal was dead, David said, “Blessed be the LORD, who has upheld my cause against the reproach of Nabal and has restrained His servant from evil. For the LORD has brought the wickedness of Nabal down upon his own head.” Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife.

    40. 1 Sam 25:40When his servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they said, “David has sent us to take you as his wife.”

    41. 1 Sam 25:41She arose, bowed facedown, and said, “Here is your servant, ready to serve and to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.”

    42. 1 Sam 25:42So Abigail hurried and got on a donkey, and attended by five of her maidens, she followed David’s messengers and became his wife.

    43. 1 Sam 25:43David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel. So she and Abigail were both his wives.

    44. 1 Sam 25:44But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 377 passages were voted onto 44 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 3Proverbs 14:1Every wise woman builds her house, but a foolish one tears it down with her own hands.
    • 29John 17:21that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
    • 11 Samuel 28:3Now by this time Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had removed the mediums and spiritists from the land.
    • 262 Samuel 18:32The king asked the Cushite, “Is the young man Absalom all right?” And the Cushite replied, “May the enemies of my lord the king and all who rise up against you to harm you be like that young man.”
    • 29Matthew 10:29–30Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.
    • 29Malachi 3:17“They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.
    • 331 Samuel 25:26Now, my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, since the LORD has held you back from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, may your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be like Nabal.
    • 1Numbers 20:29When the whole congregation saw that Aaron had died, the entire house of Israel mourned for him thirty days.
    • 1Deuteronomy 34:8The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end.
    • 21 Samuel 23:24So they set out and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the Wilderness of Maon in the Arabah south of Jeshimon,
    • 2Genesis 38:13When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,”
    • 2Joshua 15:55Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Juttah,
    • 3Isaiah 32:5–7No longer will a fool be called noble, nor a scoundrel be respected.
    • 3Proverbs 31:10A wife of noble character, who can find? She is far more precious than rubies.
    • 21Proverbs 17:13If anyone returns evil for good, evil will never leave his house.
    • 26Romans 12:19–20Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.”

    Onward

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    Next chapter1 Samuel 2625 verses.Named hereAbigailEverything the graph connects to this name.Book1 SamuelAll 31 chapters.Every bookThe Bible66 books, 1,189 chapters.