Lives of Scripture

Shobi, son of Nahash, was from Rabbah of the Ammonites -- likely a brother of Hanun, the Ammonite king whose humiliation of David's envoys had triggered war with Israel years earlier (2 Samuel 10:1-4), which raises the possibility that Shobi had been installed as a loyal vassal after Israel's victory over Ammon. Whatever his exact position, when David fled Jerusalem barefoot and grieving during Absalom's rebellion, arriving exhausted and hungry at Mahanaim, Shobi was one of three men -- alongside Machir son of Ammiel and Barzillai the Gileadite -- who came out to meet him with substantial provisions: beds, basins, pottery, wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans, lentils, honey, curds, sheep, and cheese, reasoning that the people with David "were hungry, tired, and thirsty in the wilderness" (2 Samuel 17:27-29). Nothing else is recorded about Shobi -- no further word or deed -- but this single act, offered to a king at his lowest and most vulnerable moment, placed him among the small group of loyal friends whose provision sustained David and his men until Absalom's rebellion was crushed. Shobi's story is a reminder that Scripture sometimes remembers a person for exactly one thing: showing costly kindness to someone in need at precisely the right time.