2 Samuel 19 · a question people ask
Who told the truth, Ziba or Mephibosheth?
The Bible gives both men's words and doesn't say. When David fled, Ziba met him with donkeys and food (16:1-2) and said Mephibosheth was "staying in Jerusalem; for he said, ‘Today the house of Israel will restore me the kingdom of my father.’" (16:3). The king answered, "Behold, all that belongs to Mephibosheth is yours" (16:4). Now the king asks Mephibosheth, "Why didn’t you go with me, Mephibosheth?" (19:25). He answers, "My lord, O king, my servant deceived me" (19:26), and "He has slandered your servant to my lord the king" (19:27) (tap deceived and slandered). The king says, "Why do you speak any more of your matters? I say, you and Ziba divide the land" (19:29), and Mephibosheth answers, "Yes, let him take all, because my lord the king has come in peace to his own house" (19:30). Christians read the two accounts in two main ways. Both agree on what the text says: Ziba spoke first (16:3), Mephibosheth spoke when the king returned (19:26-28), the king's last word was that they divide the land (19:29), and the chapter doesn't say which of them told the truth, or why the king ruled as he did.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Ziba lied
Those who read it this way point to what the narrator says, not only what Mephibosheth says. He "had neither groomed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace" (19:24). He says he had meant to ride with the king, "I will saddle a donkey for myself, that I may ride on it and go with the king" (19:26), and adds, "because your servant is lame" (19:26). The book had said he was "lame in both his feet" (9:13). He asks for nothing: "What right therefore have I yet that I should appeal any more to the king?" (19:28), and when the land is divided he says, "Yes, let him take all" (19:30). On this reading Ziba's report in 16:3 was the slander Mephibosheth names in 19:27.
2 Samuel 19:24 · 2 Samuel 19:26-28 · 2 Samuel 19:30 · 2 Samuel 9:13 · 2 Samuel 16:3
The king left it undecided
Those who read it this way point to the king's ruling. He had heard Ziba, who came to him with "a couple of donkeys saddled" and food for his people (16:1-2), and he now hears Mephibosheth, who had stayed behind; the king's first words to him are "Why didn’t you go with me, Mephibosheth?" (19:25). He doesn't say whom he believes. He says, "Why do you speak any more of your matters? I say, you and Ziba divide the land" (19:29). On this reading the text leaves the king, and the reader, with two accounts and no way to settle them, and the divided land is the king's answer to that.
2 Samuel 16:1-2 · 2 Samuel 19:25 · 2 Samuel 19:29