2 Samuel 16:1
And when David was a little past the top of the hill, behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of asses saddled, and upon them two hundred loaves of bread, and an hundred bunches of raisins, and an hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine.
2 Samuel 16:1 belongs to the account of David fleeing Jerusalem in fear and adversity during Absalom's rebellion and war against him. That flight ends with David's victory over Absalom and his return to Jerusalem. Chapters 16 and 17 record the events leading up to the battle in which Absalom died at the hand of Joab. About three months passed between Absalom's occupation of Jerusalem and his death, during which David numbered his adherents and thoroughly organized his army while Absalom rallied the people to his standard, the delay being caused by the counsel of Hushai, David's friend, in answer to David's prayer that the counsel of Ahithophel be turned into foolishness.
Absalom's superiority of numbers counted for nothing against David's trained heroes under experienced generals because God was not with Absalom. However loud the profession, large the following, and flattering the prospects, failure is certain where God is not in the move. The circumstances recorded in chapter 16 help explain the feelings expressed in Psalm 3. The surrounding account includes Shimei cursing and stoning David.
The journey touched the hearts of many of David's old friends, and his kindness to the house of Saul remained evident during this period. The verse is part of the retribution and consequences that followed David's wicked and wrong conduct toward Uriah through all the rest of his life, principally and especially within his own family. That retribution included the sad history of Amnon and Tamar and the rebellion and unnatural crimes of Absalom. The very kind of evil caused to others comes back upon the wrongdoer, and sin pays only in its own kind.
The verse belongs to the subsequent history in 2 Samuel 11-24 and 1 Kings 1-2 that shows the judgments that came upon David in complete fulfillment of Nathan's terrible denunciation after his great wickedness in the case of Uriah, by which he gave great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. That transgression is not covered up or excused but is placed on record with Nathan's denunciation and David's own humble confession for all future time.