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Proverbs 15:1
A gentle response turns away anger, but a harsh word stirs up wrath.
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Ecclesiastes 10:4
If the anger of the ruler flares up against you, do not resign from your position, for a calm response can undo great offenses.
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Proverbs 16:14
A king’s wrath is like a messenger of death, but a wise person appeases it.
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1 Samuel 25 24-1 Samuel 25 44
Falling at his feet, she said,“ My lord, I accept all the guilt! But please let your female servant speak with my lord! Please listen to the words of your servant!My lord should not pay attention to this wicked man Nabal. He simply lives up to his name! His name means‘ fool,’ and he is indeed foolish! But I, your servant, did not see the servants my lord sent.“ Now, my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and as surely as you live, it is the LORD who has kept you from shedding blood and taking matters into your own hands. Now may your enemies and those who seek to harm my lord be like Nabal.Now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the servants who follow my lord.Please forgive the sin of your servant, for the LORD will certainly establish the house of my lord, because my lord fights the battles of the LORD. May no evil be found in you all your days!When someone sets out to chase you and to take your life, the life of my lord will be wrapped securely in the bag of the living by the LORD your God. But he will sling away the lives of your enemies from the sling’s pocket!The LORD will do for my lord everything that he promised you, and he will make you a leader over Israel.Your conscience will not be overwhelmed with guilt for having poured out innocent blood and for having taken matters into your own hands. When the LORD has granted my lord success, please remember your servant.”Then David said to Abigail,“ Praised be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has sent you this day to meet me!Praised be your good judgment! May you yourself be rewarded for having prevented me this day from shedding blood and taking matters into my own hands!Otherwise, as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives– he who has prevented me from harming you– if you had not come so quickly to meet me, by morning’s light not even one male belonging to Nabal would have remained alive!”Then David took from her hand what she had brought to him. He said to her,“ Go back to your home in peace. Be assured that I have listened to you and responded favorably.”When Abigail went back to Nabal, he was holding a banquet in his house like that of the king. Nabal was having a good time and was very intoxicated. She told him absolutely nothing until morning’s light.In the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him about these matters. He had a stroke and was paralyzed.After about ten days the LORD struck Nabal down and he died.When David heard that Nabal had died, he said,“ Praised be the LORD who has vindicated me and avenged the insult that I suffered from Nabal! The LORD has kept his servant from doing evil, and he has repaid Nabal for his evil deeds.” Then David sent word to Abigail and asked her to become his wife.So the servants of David went to Abigail at Carmel and said to her,“ David has sent us to you to bring you back to be his wife.”She arose, bowed her face toward the ground, and said,“ Your female servant, like a lowly servant, will wash the feet of the servants of my lord.”Then Abigail quickly went and mounted her donkey, with five of her female servants accompanying her. She followed David’s messengers and became his wife.David had also married Ahinoam from Jezreel; the two of them became his wives.( Now 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
But one of the servants told Nabal’s wife Abigail,“ David sent messengers from the desert to greet our lord, but he screamed at them.
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Genesis 32:4-21
He commanded them,“ This is what you must say to my lord Esau:‘ This is what your servant Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban until now.I have oxen, donkeys, sheep, and male and female servants. I have sent this message to inform my lord, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”The messengers returned to Jacob and said,“ We went to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you and has four hundred men with him.”Jacob was very afraid and upset. So he divided the people who were with him into two camps, as well as the flocks, herds, and camels.“ If Esau attacks one camp,” he thought,“ then the other camp will be able to escape.”Then Jacob prayed,“ O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O LORD, you said to me,‘ Return to your land and to your relatives and I will make you prosper.’I am not worthy of all the faithful love you have shown your servant. With only my walking stick I crossed the Jordan, but now I have become two camps.Rescue me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children.But you said,‘ I will certainly make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand on the seashore, too numerous to count.’”Jacob stayed there that night. Then he sent as a gift to his brother Esautwo 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 entrusted them to his servants, who divided them into herds. He told his servants,“ Pass over before me, and keep some distance between one herd and the next.”He instructed the servant leading the first herd,“ When my brother Esau meets you and asks,‘ To whom do you belong? Where are you going? Whose herds are you driving?’then you must say,‘ They belong to your servant Jacob. They have been sent as a gift to my lord Esau. In fact Jacob himself is behind us.’”He also gave these instructions to the second and third servants, as well as all those who were following the herds, saying,“ You must say the same thing to Esau when you meet him.You must also say,‘ In fact your servant Jacob is behind us.’” Jacob thought,“ I will first appease him by sending a gift ahead of me. After that I will meet him. Perhaps he will accept me.”So the gifts were sent on ahead of him while he spent that night in the camp.
