Chapter 16

David and Ziba. ¹ David went a little beyond the top and Ziba, the servant of Meribbaal, was there to meet him with saddled donkeys laden with two hundred loaves of bread, an ephah of cakes of pressed raisins, an ephah of summer fruits, and a skin of wine.^{(A) 2} The king said to Ziba, “What are you doing with all this?” Ziba replied: “The donkeys are for the king’s household to ride on. The bread and summer fruits are for your servants to eat, and the wine to drink when they grow weary in the wilderness.” ³ Then the king said, “And where is your lord’s son?” Ziba answered the king, “He is staying in Jerusalem, for he said, ‘Today the house of Israel will restore to me my father’s kingdom.’”^{(B) 4} The king therefore said to Ziba, “So! Everything Meribbaal had is yours.” Then Ziba said: “I pay you homage, my lord the king. May I find favor with you!”^(C)

David and Meribbaal. ²⁵ Meribbaal, son of Saul, also went down to meet the king. He had not cared for his feet nor trimmed his mustache nor washed his clothes from the day the king left until he returned safely. ²⁶ When he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, “Why did you not go with me, Meribbaal?”^{(A) 27} He replied: “My lord king, my servant deceived me. For your servant said to him, ‘Saddle the donkey for me, that I may ride on it and go with the king’; your servant is lame.^{(B) 28} But he slandered your servant before my lord the king. But my lord the king is like an angel of God. Do whatever seems good to you. ²⁹ For though my father’s entire house deserved only death from my lord the king, yet you placed your servant among those who eat at your table. What right do I still have to make further appeal to the king?”^{(C) 30} But the king said to him: “Why do you go on talking? I say, ‘You and Ziba shall divide the property.’”^{(D) 31} Meribbaal answered the king, “Indeed let him take it all, now that my lord the king has returned safely to his house.”