Bible Commentaries

DAVID’S KINDNESS TO MEPHIBOSHETH, 2 Samuel 9:1-13.

1. Is there yet any… of the house of Saul — Being but five years old at his father’s death, (2 Samuel 4:4,) Mephibosheth must have been born during the period of David’s wanderings, so that it is nothing strange that David had no knowledge of him; and the incessant cares of his reign had thus far prevented the king’s making special inquiry into this matter. Now, in a time of peace, his thoughts go back to the brotherly covenant made between himself and Jonathan, (1 Samuel 18:3; 1 Samuel 20:15-16; 1 Samuel 20:42,) and he yearns for opportunity to requite some of the kindness of that noble prince.

2. Ziba — This slave of Saul seems to have become a freedman at his master’s death, and so well did he improve all advantages that at this time he had himself become the head of a family of fifteen sons and twenty slaves. 2 Samuel 9:10.

3. Lame — See 2 Samuel 4:4.

4. Machir — Josephus calls him “the principal man of Gilead.” He also showed kindness to David when he fled from Absalom. 2 Samuel 17:27.

Lodebar — A town of Gilead, not far from Mahanaim, and probably identical with Debir of Joshua 13:26. Its site is unknown.

6. Fell on his face — Probably fearing that he had been suspected as an aspirant to the throne of his grandfather Saul, (comp. 2 Samuel 16:3,) and had been summoned into the king’s presence to receive sentence of death.

7. Restore thee all the land of Saul — The private estate of Saul is doubtless meant, comprising both what fell to him by inheritance from Kish, and what he had himself acquired. “The landed property belonging to Saul had either fallen to David as crown lands, or had been taken possession of by distant relations after the death of Saul.” — Keil.

Eat bread at my table — Be a royal courtier, and receive the treatment and familiarity of a member of the royal family.

8. A dead dog — Compare 1 Samuel 24:14. “The strongest devisable hyperbole of unworthiness and degradation; for in a dead dog the vileness of a corpse is added to the vileness of a dog.” — Kitto.

9. Thy master’s son — Ziba had doubtless been accustomed to regard and call both Saul and Jonathan master. The word son is also often used where grandson, or even a more remote descendant, is intended.

12. Micha — Called Micah in 1 Chronicles 8:35, where it appears that the posterity of Jonathan continued through many generations.