I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Samuel 16-17.

Also during David’s flight from Jerusalem he is met by Ziba, a servant of King Saul whom David had made manager of Mephibosheth’s estates.  Ziba brought supplies for David.  When David asks Ziba where Mephibosheth is Ziba replies that Mephibosheth thought he would gain his grandfather’s throne out of this rebellion.  This suggest ungratefulness on the part of Mephibosheth, but perhaps we should take what Ziba said with a grain of salt. 

Immediately following the scene with Ziba we have the incident where Shimei curses David as he flees.  Joab’s brother, Abishai, wanted to go and kill Shimei for doing so, but David forbade him.  In his response to Abishai, David lumped him with Joab.  So, here we get yet another view of the complex relationship between King David and Joab and discover that Joab’s brother was part of that complex relationship.  And perhaps this incident will shed a little more light on David’s conflict with Joab.  I am reaching a little bit here, but we do not have much to go on.  We learn later that Shimei is a man of some importance, such that even King Solomon, who needed to do less of a political balancing act than his father (as I will explain when we come to him), had to set a trap and wait for Shimei to fall into it before he could have him killed.  This suggests that perhaps David’s problem with Joab and his brother was that they were too direct in dealing with things, making King David’s political balancing act that much more difficult.