2 Samuel 9 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: 2 Sam 9:1-13

1 David asked, ‘Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?’

2 Now there was a servant of Saul’s household named Ziba. 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; he is lame in both feet.’

4 ‘Where is he?’ the king asked.

Ziba answered, ‘He is at the house of Makir 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 honour.

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. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.’

8 Mephibosheth bowed down and said, ‘What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog 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 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 table like one of the king’s sons.

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

A. Find Out:

1. What did David want to do? v.1
2. So who did they ask? v.2
3. Who did he speak of? v.3b
4. So what did David first do? v.5-7
5. What provision did David make for him? v.9,10
6. So what happened to him? v.13

B. Think:

1. Read 1 Sam 20:12-17,42 Why was David acting as he was now?
2. Read 2 Sam 21:7,8 What does that tell us about Saul’s family?
3. How would you describe David’s actions in today’s passage?

C. Comment:

     In the somewhat primitive days that we are reading about, when one king triumphed over another, it was often the practice to completely wipe out the entire royal family so that there was no one left who might cause an uprising. When we observe David’s actions, therefore, they are all the more surprising, showing us even more of the man who is described as a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam13:14).

     We find here an act of mercy and grace. First an act of mercy that did not hunt out Jonathan’s son and destroy him as was the common practice. Second, an act of grace, that when he did find him he heaped him with provision, he provided for him so that he would have no need unmet.

     So why did David do it? We are not told a reason but we must remember the covenant that David had entered into with Jonathan. David is a man of his word and so, both now and later on after the rebellion, he protects and provides for this grandson of Saul. It is also clear that there were other sons of Saul in the background but David’s covenant had been with Jonathan and not Saul, and so David does not appear to provide for them in the same way. David is a covenant keeper, with God and with man. Another way of putting it, is that David was a man who acted on the basis of relationships.

D. Application:

1. Do we ensure we keep our promises as David did?
2. Can we exercise mercy and grace similarly?