¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.^{(A) 14} You are my friends^(B) if you do what I command.^{(C) 15} I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.^(D)

David and Mephibosheth

9 David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”^(A)

² Now there was a servant of Saul’s household named Ziba.^(B) 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;^(C) he is lame^(D) in both feet.”

⁴ “Where is he?” the king asked.

Ziba answered, “He is at the house of Makir^(E) 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.^(F)

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.^(G) I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.^(H)”

⁸ Mephibosheth^(I) bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog^(J) 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^(K) 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.^(L)

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

⁴ Jonathan spoke^(A) well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Let not the king do wrong^(B) to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly. ⁵ He took his life^(C) in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The Lord won a great victory^(D) for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent^(E) man like David by killing him for no reason?”

⁴⁹ Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!”^(A) and kissed him.

⁵⁰ Jesus replied, “Do what you came for, friend.”^[a](B)

Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him.

⁷ The king spared Mephibosheth^(A) son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath^(B) before the Lord between David and Jonathan son of Saul.