ECB(i)
4 And in the wilderness David hears that Nabal shears his flock:
5 and David sends out ten lads and David says to the lads, Ascend to Karmel and go to Nabal and ask him of shalom in my name:
6 and say thus to him, Life and shalom to you; and shalom to your house; and shalom to all you have.
7 And now I hear that you have shearers: now your tenders who are with us, we neither shamed them nor oversaw aught of theirs all their days in Karmel:
8 ask your lads and they tell you: may the lads find charism in your eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I beseech you, whatever your hand finds to your servants and to your son David.
9 And the lads of David come, and they word all those words to Nabal in the name of David; and rest.
10 And Nabal answers the servants of David and says, Who is David? Who is the son of Yishay? Now a days servants abound by the myriads - every man who breaks away from the face of his adoni:
11 Take I my bread and my water and the slaughter I slaughter for my shearers and give it to men whom I know not whence they are?
12 So the lads of David turn their way and return and come and tell him all those words.
13 And David says to his men, Every man, girt his sword! - and every man girt his sword and David also girt his sword: and about four hundred men ascend after David and two hundred settle by the instruments.
14 And one lad of the lads tells Abi Gail, the woman of Nabal, saying, Behold, David sends angels from the wilderness to bless our adoni; and he swoops on them:
15 and the men were mighty good to us and we neither shamed nor was aught overseen all the days we walked with them when we were in the fields:
16 they were a wall to us, both by night and by day, all the days we were with them tending the flock.
17 So now know and see what you work; for evil finishes off against our adoni and against all his household: for he is too much of a son of Beli Yaal to word to.
18 And Abi Gail hastens and takes two hundred breads and two bags of wine and five worked flocks and five seahs of parched and a hundred raisincakes and two hundred lumps of figs - and sets them on he burros.
19 And she says to her lads, Pass over at my face; behold, I come after you. - and she tells not her man Nabal.
20 And so be it, she rides on the he burro, and she descends by the covert of the mountain; and behold, David and his men descend to meet her; and she meets them.
21 And David says, Surely in falsehood guarded I all this one has in the wilderness, so that naught of all he has was overseen: and he returns me evil for good:
22 may Elohim add to work thus to the enemies of David, if, of all he has, I let survive toward the morning light any who urinate against the wall.
23 And Abi Gail sees David, and she hastens and descends off the he burro and falls on her face at the nostrils of David; and prostrates herself to the earth
24 and falls at his feet and says, On me, my adoni, this perversity: and may your maid, I beseech you, word in your ears; hear the words of your maid:
25 may not my adoni, I beseech you, set his heart to this man of Beli Yaal, Nabal: for as his name, thus is he: Nabal is his name and folly is with him: but I your maid saw not the lads of my adoni whom you sent.
26 And now, my adoni, as Yah Veh lives and as your soul lives, seeing Yah Veh withheld you from coming to blood and from saving yourself by your own hand, now may your enemies and they who seek evil to my adoni, be as Nabal:
27 and now this blessing which your maid brings to my adoni, may it even be given to the lads who walk at the feet of my adoni:
28 I beseech you, lift the rebellion of your maid: for in working, Yah Veh works an amenable house for my adoni; because my adoni fights the wars of Yah Veh and no evil is found in you all your days:
29 yet a human rises to pursue you and to seek your soul: but the soul of my adoni is bound in the bundle of life with Yah Veh your Elohim; and he slings the souls of your enemies, as midst the hollow of a sling.
30 And so be it, when Yah Veh works to my adoni according to all the good he worded concerning you and misvahs you eminent over Yisra El;
31 that this neither stagger you, nor be a stumblingblock of heart to my adoni, either that you pour blood gratuitously, or that my adoni save himself: and Yah Veh deals well-pleasingly with my adoni, then remember your maid.
32 And David says to Abi Gail, Blessed - Yah Veh Elohim of Yisra El, who sends you this day to meet me:
33 and blessed - your perception and blessed - you who restrains me this day from coming to blood and from saving myself by my own hand.
34 And as Yah Veh Elohim of Yisra El lives, who withheld me from vilifying you, unless you had hastened to come to meet me, there had not remained to Nabal by the morning light any who urinates against the wall.
35 And David takes from her hand what she brings him, and says to her, Ascend in shalom to your house! See, I hearken to your voice and spare your face.
36 And Abi Gail comes to Nabal; and behold, he holds a banquet in his house, as the banquet of a sovereign; and the heart of Nabal is good within him, and he is mighty intoxicated: she tells him no word, less or great, until the morning light.
37 And so be it, in the morning, the wine is gone from Nabal and his woman tells him these words; and his heart dies within him and he becomes as a stone.
38 And so be it, about ten days, and Yah Veh smites Nabal and he dies.
39 And David hears Nabal is dead, and he says, Blessed - Yah Veh, who pleads the plea of my reproach from the hand of Nabal; and restrains his servant from evil: for Yah Veh returns the evil of Nabal on his own head. And David sends and words with Abi Gail to take her to him to woman:
40 and the servants of David come to Abi Gail to Karmel, and they word to her, saying, David sends us to you, to take you to him to woman.
41 And she rises and prostrates herself on her nostrils to the earth and says, Behold, your maid - a maid to bathe the feet of the servants of my adoni.
42 And Abi Gail hastens and rises and rides on a he burro with five of her lasses who go at her feet; and she goes after the angels of David and becomes his woman.