²⁸ For all my father's house were but men doomed to death before my lord the king, but ^(A)you set your servant among those who eat at your table. What further right have I, then, to cry to the king?”

¹³ So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for ^(A)he ate always at the king's table. Now ^(B)he was lame in both his feet.

¹⁰ And you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him and shall bring in the produce, that your master's grandson may have bread to eat. But Mephibosheth your master's grandson ^(A)shall always eat at my table.” Now Ziba had ^(B)fifteen sons and twenty servants.

³ And at the end of the seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, she went to appeal to the king for her house and her land.

⁶ let seven of his sons be given to us, so that we may hang them before the Lord at ^(A)Gibeah of Saul, ^(B)the chosen of the Lord.” And the king said, “I will give them.”

⁷ But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul's son Jonathan, because of ^(C)the oath of the Lord that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. ⁸ The king took the two sons of ^(D)Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Merab^[a] the daughter of Saul, whom ^(E)she bore to ^(F)Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite; ⁹ and he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the mountain before the Lord, and the seven of them perished together. They were put to death in the first days of harvest, ^(G)at the beginning of barley harvest.

⁷ And David said to him, “Do not fear, ^(A)for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and ^(B)you shall eat at my table always.” ⁸ And he paid homage and said, “What is your servant, that you should show regard for ^(C)a dead dog such as I?”

¹⁶ This thing that you have done is not good. ^(A)As the Lord lives, you deserve to die, because you have not kept watch over your lord, the Lord's anointed. And now see where the king's spear is and the jar of water that was ^(B)at his head.”

^10 (A)I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.