²⁸ All my grandfather’s descendants deserved nothing but death^(A) from my lord the king, but you gave your servant a place among those who eat at your table.^(B) So what right do I have to make any more appeals to the king?”

¹³ And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table; he was lame in both feet.

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^(A) may be provided for. And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table.” (Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.)

³ At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and land.

⁶ let seven of his male descendants be given to us to be killed and their bodies exposed^(A) before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul—the Lord’s chosen^(B) one.”

So the king said, “I will give them to you.”

⁷ The king spared Mephibosheth^(C) son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath^(D) before the Lord between David and Jonathan son of Saul. ⁸ But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Aiah’s daughter Rizpah,^(E) whom she had borne to Saul, together with the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab,^[a] whom she had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite.^{(F) 9} He handed them over to the Gibeonites, who killed them and exposed their bodies on a hill before the Lord. All seven of them fell together; they were put to death^(G) during the first days of the harvest, just as the barley harvest was beginning.^(H)

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

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

¹⁶ What you have done is not good. As surely as the Lord lives, you and your men must die, because you did not guard your master, the Lord’s anointed. Look around you. Where are the king’s spear and water jug that were near his head?”

¹⁰ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness^(A) you have shown your servant. I had only my staff^(B) when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps.^(C)