Bible Strands
2 Samuel 9:11
And Ziba said to the king, “Your servant will do all that my lord the king has commanded.” So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table like one of the king’s own sons.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Ziba addresses King David, affirming he will execute the royal order concerning Mephibosheth’s land and household. The verse concludes by stating that Mephibosheth subsequently eats at David’s table like one of the king’s sons.
The words — The Hebrew וַיֹּאמֶר (va.yomer) translates literally as “and he said,” and יְצַוֶּה (ye.tzavveh) means “he will command.” These verbs frame Ziba’s verbal submission to David’s directive.
The thread — Ziba’s interaction with David reappears in 2 Samuel 16:1 when he meets the fleeing king, and again in 2 Samuel 19:17 and 19:26 as he reports his movements and disputes over Mephibosheth’s estate.
Why it lands — The text records a servant’s compliance and a displaced heir’s restored table fellowship without evaluating motives or future consequences. A reader must track the stated transfer of household labor and dining rights against the later claims and counterclaims in 2 Samuel 16 and 19.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then said Ziba unto the king, According to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servant, so shall thy servant do. As for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table, as one of the king’s sons.
Cross-references
- 2 Samuel 16:1 When David had gone a little beyond the summit, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth was there to meet him. He had a pair of saddled donkeys loaded with two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred clusters of raisins, a hundred summer fruits, and a skin of wine.
- 2 Samuel 19:26 “My lord the king,” he replied, “because I am lame, I said, ‘I will have my donkey saddled so that I may ride on it and go with the king.’ But my servant Ziba deceived me,
- 2 Samuel 19:17 along with a thousand men of Benjamin, as well as Ziba the steward of the house of Saul and his fifteen sons and twenty servants. They rushed down to the Jordan before the king