602
Patriarchs and Prophets
wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them. But the men
were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we
anything, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were
in the fields. They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the
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while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore know and
consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master,
and against all his household.”
Without consulting her husband or telling him of her intention,
Abigail made up an ample supply of provisions, which, laded upon
asses, she sent forward in the charge of servants, and herself started
out to meet the band of David. She met them in a covert of a hill. “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, 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.” Abigail
addressed David with as much reverence as though speaking to a
crowned monarch. Nabal had scornfully exclaimed, “Who is David?”
but Abigail called him, “my lord.” With kind words she sought to
soothe his irritated feelings, and she pleaded with him in behalf of her
husband. With nothing of ostentation or pride, but full of the wisdom
and love of God, Abigail revealed the strength of her devotion to her
household; and she made it plain to David that the unkind course of
her husband was in no wise premeditated against him as a personal
affront, but was simply the outburst of an unhappy and selfish nature.
“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.” Abigail did not take to
herself the credit of this reasoning to turn David from his hasty purpose,
but gave to God the honor and the praise. She then offered her rich
provision as a peace offering to the men of David, and still pleaded as
if she herself were the one who had so excited the resentment of the
chief.
“I pray thee,” she said, “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.” Abigail presented by implication the course that
David ought to pursue. He should fight the battles of the Lord. He was