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Proverbs 15:1
A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
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Ecclesiastes 10:4
If a ruler’s anger rises against you, do not leave your post; calmness can lay great offenses to rest.
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Proverbs 16:14
A king’s wrath is a messenger of death, but the wise will appease it.
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1 Samuel 25 24-1 Samuel 25 44
She fell at his feet and said:“ Pardon your servant, my lord, and let me speak to you; hear what your servant has to say.Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name— his name means Fool, and folly goes with him. And as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my lord sent.And now, my lord, as surely as the Lord your God lives and as you live, since the Lord has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, may your enemies and all who are intent on harming my lord be like Nabal.And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you.“ Please forgive your servant’s presumption. The Lord your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because you fight the Lord’s battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live.Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the Lord your God, but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling.When the Lord has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel,my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the Lord your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant.”David said to Abigail,“ Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me.May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands.Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak.”Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said,“ Go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request.”When Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until daybreak.Then in the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone.About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said,“ Praise be to the Lord, who has upheld my cause against Nabal for treating me with contempt. He has kept his servant from doing wrong and has brought Nabal’s wrongdoing down on his own head.” Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife.His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail,“ David has sent us to you to take you to become his wife.”She bowed down with her face to the ground and said,“ I am your servant and am ready to serve you and wash the feet of my lord’s servants.”Abigail quickly got on a donkey and, attended by her five female servants, went with David’s messengers and became his wife.David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both were his wives.But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Paltiel son of Laish, who was from Gallim.
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1 Samuel 25 14
One of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife,“ David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them.
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Genesis 32:4-21
He instructed them:“ This is what you are to say to my lord Esau:‘ Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now.I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.’”When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said,“ We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well.He thought,“ If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.”Then Jacob prayed,“ O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me,‘ Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps.Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.But you have said,‘ I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau:two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants,“ Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.”He instructed the one in the lead:“ When my brother Esau meets you and asks,‘ Who do you belong to, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?’then you are to say,‘ They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.’”He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds:“ You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him.And be sure to say,‘ Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’” For he thought,“ I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.”So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.
