A Traitor at the Table?

As David goes over the crest of the Mount of Olives, he is met by yet another individual. This is the third of four significant encounters during his evacuation (we will examine the fourth in tomorrow’s study), but while the first two encounters were with people friendly to David, that is not the case with this one or the next.

This time it is Ziba who stops the king. Ziba earlier helped David locate Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, and when David restored all of King Saul’s land to Mephibosheth, he appointed Ziba as steward over it (ch. 9). Now Ziba appears with “a couple of” (or “a string of”) saddled donkeys and some of the produce of Mephibosheth’s land—bread, raisins, summer fruits, and wine. David is surprised to see this person with these provisions, and he blurts out, “What do you mean to do with these?” Ziba simply explains that the donkeys are for David’s household to ride, the food items are meant for provisions, and the wine is intended to refresh those who “faint” during the difficult journey into the wilderness. With these gifts, Ziba presents himself as a friend of the king.

This wily servant is scheming for his own benefit, and David unintentionally complies when he asks after Ziba’s master, Mephibosheth. It is understandable that David should ask this question, for he has treated Mephibosheth as one of his own sons (9:11) and probably is worried about him in the turmoil. But Ziba answers David’s question with a lie designed to curry the king’s favor. He claims that Mephibosheth has decided to stay in Jerusalem in the hope that Israel will look to him as the rightful king while David and Absalom contend for the throne. Matthew Henry points out that this does not square with what David knows of Mephibosheth. “David knew Mephibosheth not to be an ambitious man, but easy in his place, and well- affected to him and his government; nor could he be so weak as to expect with his lame legs to climb the ladder of preferment,” Henry writes. And yet, David accepts this story as true, failing to seek human confirmation or divine guidance. On a day of betrayals, a report of one more sounds only too plausible. Thus, he instantly decrees that all of Mephibosheth’s property is to be Ziba’s—just as the servant hoped. Only later will David discover the truth of this matter.