2 Samuel 9:2-13

New International Version

² Now there was a servant of Saul’s household named Ziba.^(A) They summoned him to appear before David, and the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?”

“At your service,” he replied.

³ The king asked, “Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?”

Ziba answered the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan;^(B) he is lame^(C) in both feet.”

⁴ “Where is he?” the king asked.

Ziba answered, “He is at the house of Makir^(D) son of Ammiel in Lo Debar.”

⁵ So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel.

⁶ When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor.^(E)

David said, “Mephibosheth!”

“At your service,” he replied.

⁷ “Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan.^(F) I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.^(G)”

⁸ Mephibosheth^(H) bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog^(I) like me?”

⁹ Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s steward, and said to him, “I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. ¹⁰ You and your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in the crops, so that your master’s grandson^(J) may be provided for. And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table.” (Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.)

¹¹ Then Ziba said to the king, “Your servant will do whatever my lord the king commands his servant to do.” So Mephibosheth ate at David’s^[a] table like one of the king’s sons.^(K)

¹² Mephibosheth had a young son named Mika, and all the members of Ziba’s household were servants of Mephibosheth.^{(L) 13} And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table; he was lame in both feet.