Study Shabbat folio 56B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
עבדך. וירגל בעבדך אל אדני המלך ואדני המלך כמלאך האלהים ועשה הטוב בעיניך״. ״ויאמר לו המלך למה תדבר עוד דבריך אמרתי אתה וציבא תחלקו את השדה. ויאמר מפיבשת אל המלך גם את הכל יקח אחרי אשר בא אדני המלך בשלום אל ביתו״. אמר לו: אני אמרתי ״מתי תבא בשלום״, ואתה עושה לי כך? לא עליך יש לי תרעומות אלא על מי שהביאך בשלום.
your servant. And he slandered your servant to my lord the king; but my lord the king is like an angel of God: Do therefore what is good in your eyes” (II Samuel 19:26–28). “And the king said to him: Why do you speak any more of your matters? I have said: You and Ziba should divide the estate. And Mephibosheth said to the king: Let him even take all, seeing that my lord the king is come back in peace to his own house” (II Samuel 19:30–31). Mephibosheth said to David as follows: I had hoped for your return, saying: When will he come in peace, and yet you do this to me, giving Ziba half of my estate? It is not against you that I have grievances, but against He who brought you back in peace. Mephibosheth’s own statement substantiates Ziba’s report about him.
היינו דכתיב: ״ובן יהונתן מריב בעל״, וכי ״מריב בעל״ שמו? והלא מפיבשת שמו! אלא מתוך שעשה מריבה עם בעליו. יצתה בת קול ואמרה לו: נצא בר נצא. ״נצא״ — הא דאמרן. ״בר נצא״ — דכתיב: ״ויבא שאול עד עיר עמלק וירב בנחל״, אמר רבי מני: על עסקי נחל.
This is what is written: “And the son of Yonatan was Meriv-Baal” (I Chronicles 8:34). The Talmud asks: And was Meriv-Baal his name? Wasn’t his name Mephibosheth? However, since he entered into a quarrel [meriva] with his Master [ba’al], i.e., God, and complained about God having saved David, a bat kol emerged and said to him: Quarrelsome one, the son of a quarrelsome one; you are just like your father, Saul. The Talmud explains: Quarrelsome one; that which we just said that Mephibosheth complained to God about His salvation of David. The son of a quarrelsome one; as it is written: “And Saul came to a city of Amalek and quarreled in the valley” (I Samuel 15:5). And R' Mani said: Saul quarreled with God with regard to matters of the valley, saying: For the murder of even a single person, there is a commandment to break the neck of a heifer in a valley to atone for the crime (see Deuteronomy 21:1–9); why then must all these Amalekites be killed?