The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Samuel — Section 392

EXPOSITION. CHAPTER XVI. render "fig-cakes;" but for this there is a special Hebrew word (see 1 Sam. xxx. 12). Ver.1.-Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth. Ver. 3.-Thy master's son; that is, the It is the misfortune of troubled times like son of Jonnthan, or even of Saul, ea the word those in which David found himself, that ''son" is used very indefinitely in Hebrew. unscrupulous men use them for selfish pur- Mephibosheth held :he property as their poses. J:t'or those in danger have no time representative. To-day shall the house, etc. for careful examination, nor a.re their minds Ziba's slander was ..bsurd. Mephibosheth sufficiently calm for impartial judgment, was likely to meet with no !rind treatment but they act on first impressions, and catch from .A.bsalom; but perhaps he was a at every straw. Ziba's present would visionary, and David may have thought naturally raise everybody's spirits, aud be that he was holding back for any chance taken as a good omen; for it showed that that might tum up. But upon this slande? David had adherents in unlikely quarters, David acts with blamable impetuosity, and, when thus a servant of the house of Saul of indignant that the son of his old friend his own accord brought so timely an offer- should so desert him, he gives Ziba all hiB ing. The asses saddled for riding contradict lands. The grant would be valid only if the idea that Ziba met David by chance as David's cause prevailed, and Ziba so far he was bringing the produce of the farm for deserves credit in that he attached himself the use of Mephibosheth's household. More to a ruined man; but his motive was not probably the asses had been saddled for love to David, but selfish calculation. Mephibosheth's own use (comp. eh. xix. 26), Ver. 4.-I humbly beseech thee that, etc. and the provisions had been prepared as a The words are really a form of grateful contribution to the king's needs: but at the acceptance. "I do obeisance" (see margin), last moment the cunning Ziba managed to that is, "I make my humble bow: may I hurry away with his men, leaving his find favour," etc.; may the king continue master in the lurch, and unable to get to look favonrably upon me. anything to ride upon in the short interval Ver. 5.-lla.hurim, The exact site of this between David's escape and Absalom's place is unknown (see note on eh. iii. 16). entry. Moreover, possibly from being a Lieut. Conder, following a Jewish tradition, cripple, and from the distressing circum- identifies it with Almit, a village about stances of his early life, Mephibosheth four miles north-east of Jerusalem. If so it always seems deficient in energy, and per- lay, not on the direct road to the fordB, but haps David's conduct in mulcting him of on a side route. A man of the family of the half his property may not really have been house of Saul The words do not mean that so unjust as it looks, supposing that it was he was a near relative of Saul, but that he his dilatoriness which gave Ziba the chance was a member of the mishpachah, the larger of going away with the whole convoy wh:.le division of the tribe of Benjamin, to which he was wasting time. It was this apparent the house of Saul, a much smaller subuivi- desertion of him by one whom he had so be- sion of the family, belonged (see note on friended whioli. may have made David say, eh. xiv. 7). But he was a strong partisan, "All men are liars" (Ps. oxvi. 11 ), though and so fanatical as to care little for his life, subsequently he learned that the lie was if only he could annoy the usurper. For Ziba's. The food consistecl of two hundred besides "all the people," David had with loaveo, or rather flat cakes of bread, a him "the mighty men," a few of whom hundred bunohos of dried grapes, a hundred could easily have punished him. cakes of pressed dates, and a skin of wine. Ver. 7.-Come out; rather, out, out; that Insteacl of" date-cakes," some of the versions is, "get out ; begone, begone, thou mur- 898 THE SECOND i300K OF SAMUEL. [orr. XVI. 1--23.