And the king said unto him, where is he?.... In what part of the land, city, or town, does he dwell?and Ziba said unto the king, behold, he [is] in the house of Machir,the son of Ammiel; a descendant of Machir, the son of Manasseh, to whom the land of Gilead was given, which lay on the other side Jordan:in Lodebar; a place in that country, perhaps the same with Debir in Jos 13:26.
Here it may be his mother's relations lived, and here he might dwell in obscurity, and lie hid from the knowledge of David; who, it might be feared by his friends, would have dispatched him, had he known where he was.
Some take it to be an appellative, and render it, as Abarbinel observes, "without anything"; as if he was so poor that he had not anything to support himself with.