1 Samuel 25
Open in the reader1When Heard-of-God died, all Strives-with-God gathered to mourn for him; and they buried him at his home in The-Height. Then Beloved set out and went down to the Wilderness of Place-of-Beauty.
2Now there was a man in Dwelling whose business was in Fruitful-Field. He was a very wealthy man with a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Fruitful-Field.
3His name was Fool, and his wife’s name was My-Father-Is-Joy. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband, a Calebite, was harsh and evil in his dealings.
4While Beloved was in the wilderness, he heard that Fool was shearing sheep.
5So Beloved sent ten young men and instructed them, “Go up to Fool at Fruitful-Field. Greet him in my name
6and say to him, ‘Long life to you, and peace to you and to your house and to all that belongs to you.
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 Fruitful-Field.
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 Beloved.’”
9When Beloved’s young men arrived, they relayed all these words to Fool on behalf of Beloved. Then they waited.
10But Fool asked them, “Who is Beloved? Who is this son of Man-of-He-Who-Is? Many servants these days are breaking away from their masters.
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?”
12So Beloved’s men turned around and went back, and they relayed to him all these words.
13And Beloved said to his men, “Strap on your swords!” So Beloved and all his men strapped on their swords, and about four hundred men followed Beloved, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.
14Meanwhile, one of Fool’s young men informed Fool’s wife My-Father-Is-Joy, “Look, Beloved sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he screamed at them.
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.
16They were a wall around us, both day and night, the whole time we were herding our sheep near them.
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!”
18Then My-Father-Is-Joy 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
19and said to her young men, “Go ahead of me. I will be right behind you.” But she did not tell her husband Fool.
20As My-Father-Is-Joy came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, she saw Beloved and his men coming down toward her, and she met them.
21Now Beloved 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.
22May God punish Beloved, and ever so severely, if I let one male belonging to Fool survive until morning.”
23When My-Father-Is-Joy saw Beloved, she quickly got off the donkey, fell facedown, and bowed before him.
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.
25My lord should pay no attention to this scoundrel Fool, 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.
26Now, my lord, as surely as He-Who-Is lives and you yourself live, since He-Who-Is 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 Fool.
27Now let this gift your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow you.
28Please forgive your servant’s offense, for He-Who-Is will surely make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because he fights He-Who-Is’s battles. May no evil be found in you as long as you live.
29And should someone pursue you and seek your life, then the life of my lord will be bound securely by He-Who-Is your God in the bundle of the living. But He shall fling away the lives of your enemies like stones from a sling.
30When He-Who-Is has done for my lord all the good He promised, and when He has appointed you ruler over Strives-with-God,
31then my lord will have no remorse or guilt of conscience over needless bloodshed and revenge. And when He-Who-Is has dealt well with my lord, may you remember your servant.”
32Then Beloved said to My-Father-Is-Joy, “Blessed be He-Who-Is, the God of Strives-with-God, who sent you to meet me this day!
33Blessed is your discernment, and blessed are you, because today you kept me from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand.
34Otherwise, as surely as He-Who-Is, the God of Strives-with-God, lives, who has restrained me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, then surely no male belonging to Fool would have been left alive by morning light.”
35Then Beloved 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.”
36When My-Father-Is-Joy returned to Fool, 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.
37In the morning when Fool was sober, his wife told him about these events, and his heart failed within him, and he became like a stone.
38About ten days later, He-Who-Is struck Fool dead.
39On hearing that Fool was dead, Beloved said, “Blessed be He-Who-Is, who has upheld my cause against the reproach of Fool and has restrained His servant from evil. For He-Who-Is has brought the wickedness of Fool down upon his own head.” Then Beloved sent word to My-Father-Is-Joy, asking her to become his wife.
40When his servants came to My-Father-Is-Joy at Fruitful-Field, they said, “Beloved has sent us to take you as his wife.”
41She arose, bowed facedown, and said, “Here is your servant, ready to serve and to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.”
42So My-Father-Is-Joy hurried and got on a donkey, and attended by five of her maidens, she followed Beloved’s messengers and became his wife.
43Beloved had also married My-Brother-Is-Pleasant of God-Sows. So she and My-Father-Is-Joy were both his wives.
44But Asked-For had given his daughter Brook, Beloved’s wife, to Delivered son of Lion, who was from Heaps.