2Sa 16:1 | KD | STEP | Ziba’s faithless conduct towards Mephibosheth. - 2Sa 16:1. When David had gone a little over the height (of the Mount of Olives: הראשׁ points back to ), Mephibosheth’s servant Ziba came to meet him, with a couple of asses saddled, and laden with two hundred loaves, a hundred raisin-cakes, a hundred date or fig-cakes, and a skin of wine. The word קיץ corresponds to the Greek ὀπώρα, as the lxx have rendered it in , , and is used to signify summer fruits, both here and in (Symm.). The early translators rendered it lumps of figs in the present passage (παλάθαι; cf. Ges . Thes . p. 1209). The Septuagint only has ἑκατὸν φοίνικες. The latter is certainly the more correct, as the dried lumps of figs or fig-cakes were called דּבלים ( ); and even at the present day ripe dates, pressed together in lumps like cakes, are used in journeys through the desert, as a satisfying and refreshing food (vid., Winer, bibl. Realwörterbuch , i. 253).

‏ 2 Samuel 16:1

Ziba’s faithless conduct towards Mephibosheth. - 2Sa 16:1. When David had gone a little over the height (of the Mount of Olives: הראשׁ points back to 2Sa 15:32), Mephibosheth’s servant Ziba came to meet him, with a couple of asses saddled, and laden with two hundred loaves, a hundred raisin-cakes, a hundred date or fig-cakes, and a skin of wine. The word קיץ corresponds to the Greek ὀπώρα, as the lxx have rendered it in Jer 40:10, Jer 40:12, and is used to signify summer fruits, both here and in Amo 8:1 (Symm.). The early translators rendered it lumps of figs in the present passage (παλάθαι; cf. Ges. Thes. p. 1209). The Septuagint only has ἑκατὸν φοίνικες. The latter is certainly the more correct, as the dried lumps of figs or fig-cakes were called דּבלים (1Sa 25:18); and even at the present day ripe dates, pressed together in lumps like cakes, are used in journeys through the desert, as a satisfying and refreshing food (vid., Winer, bibl. Realwörterbuch, i. 253).