And when King David came to Bahurim,.... The Targum is, Alemath, perhaps the same that is said to be a city of the Levites, given unto them out of the tribe of Benjamin, 1Ch 6:60 for the man next described, who was of this place, was a Benjaminite, 2Sa 19:16;See Gill on "2Sa 3:16"; David was not yet come to the city itself, but into the neighbourhood of it, the fields adjacent to it: andbehold, thence came out a man of the family of Saul; a descendant of a branch of his family, who had entertained a private grudge and secret enmity against David, to whom he imputed the fall of the family of Saul:whose name [was] Shimei, the son of Gera: which might be a name common in the tribe of Benjamin, one of Benjamin's sons being named Gera, Ge 46:21.
Some say he was the same with Nebat, the father of Jeroboam; but he was of the tribe of Ephraim, this of Benjamin:he came forth, and cursed still as he came; he came out of Bahurim, of which place he was, and all the way he came continued cursing David, until he came near unto him.
Hieron. Trad. Helb. in 2. Reg. fol. 79.