Hear Your Servant

Abigail quickly got off her donkey when she saw David. She fell facedown, bowed before him, and placed herself at his feet. Before asking him to turn back, she asked him to listen, taking the blame upon herself for an answer she had not given.

“My lord, may the blame be on me alone, but please let your servant speak to you; hear the words of your servant.” She did not defend her husband’s conduct. She named it plainly before the man who had come to avenge it.

“My 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.” She had missed the first messengers; she was here to address their master herself.

“Now, my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, the LORD has held you back from coming to bloodshed and avenging yourself with your own hand. May your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be like Nabal. Now let this gift your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow you.”

“Please 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. And 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.”

“When the LORD has done for my lord all the good He promised, and when He has appointed you ruler over Israel, then 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 maidservant.” She ended with that request, having placed his future before him and the bloodshed he could still leave undone.

David answered her. “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me this day! Blessed is your discernment, and blessed are you, because today you kept me from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand.” He named the thing she had prevented without softening what he had intended.

“Otherwise, 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.” Her haste had mattered. David’s answer made plain how close the household had come to the morning he had sworn it would not survive.

Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought. The provisions that Nabal had refused were received, and the woman at David’s feet received an answer of her own. “Go home in peace. See, I have heeded your voice and granted your request.”

She could return to the household she had left without telling her husband. David had heard her, accepted the gift, and granted what she asked. The encounter in the ravine ended with permission to go home, to the man whose answer had brought her here.