Mephibosheth:

An Introduction

Have you ever heard of the dude named Mephibosheth? I had not either!

I have been reading a lot about shame and about grace. One of the books I have read is Max Lucado’s In the Grip of Grace. (Highly recommend it.) In reading through this book the author introduced me to the Biblical figure named Mephibosheth. In that book the author said that Mephibosheth means “he who scatters shame.” I was intrigued and decided to learn more about this Mephibosheth character.

Before diving into Mephibosheth’s life, I looked around on his name. What I found is that “Mephi” means “distributor” and “bosheth” means shame. Does it mean that Mephibosheth is a distributor — some who scatters or someone who supplies — shame to others? Intriguing!

Also, I was curious where Mephibosheth fit within the broader context of the Biblical narrative. He is the son of Jonathan who is the son of King Saul. Saul is the first king of a politically united Israel — a uniting of the 12-tribes of Israel to better organize against their oppressors. Saul is from one of those tribes, the Tribe of Benjamin.

David, of the oft told story of David & Goliath, was anointed to be the successor to Saul’s kingship given Saul’s disobedience toward God. God was with David and thus he slain Goliath and was then appointed by Saul as commander over his armies. David had great success in battle, got to know Saul’s son Jonathan and grew close to Jonathan, and was offered to marry Saul’s daughter, Michal.

The relationship between Saul and David turned as Saul grew jealous of David’s prowess. At the same time Saul’s son, Jonathan and David’s friendship grew and their love of God was so deep that Jonathan betrayed his father and warned David of Saul’s jealousy-fueled plans to kill David. This only served to strengthen Jonathan and David’s friendship.

In battle, Saul and Jonathan were both killed. (Saul by means of falling on his sword.) In the leadership vacuum following Saul’s death, the politically united Israel fell apart and David was appointed king over the Kingdom of Judah (consisting of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin) while Saul’s lone remaining son, Ish-Bosheth was appointed king over the Kingdom of Israel (consisting of the ten remaining tribes).

Mephibosheth was five years old when his father, Jonathan, and his grandfather, Saul, died. Mephibosheth’s caretaker took him and escaped into hiding in the remote area of LoDebar. (LoDebar is roughly in modern-day Jordan, between the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee.). On the journey into hiding Mephibosheth was severely injured resulting in his feet being deformed and thus being a cripple.

War ensued between Judah and Israel until the assassination of Saul’s lone remaining son, Ish-Bosheth. This left the deceased King Saul with no more living sons and only one remaining living heir, a grandson, Mephibosheth.

(An aside: We know that “bosheth” means shame. “Ish”, the first part of King Saul’s last living son’s name, means great man. Indeed he was a great man of shame as he continued his father’s legacy of unrepentant disobedience toward God.)

Following the assassination of Ish-Bosheth, the leaders of the kingdom of Israel came to the Kingdom of Judah and asked for David to be their king as well. This reunited the kingdom of Israel again with the kingdom of Judah. The Bible says that King David was a just and right to all his people. With his reign secured David thought back to his promise with Jonathan. This was a promise to show unfailing kindness to Jonathan and to never cut off David’s kindness to Jonathan’s family (1 Samuel 20:14–15).

King David’s servants were summoned and asked if they knew of any living descendants of Saul to whom David could show his kindness to Jonathan and his commitment to their promise. One of Saul’s remaining servants, Ziba, was called as he likely would be the best to know if any living descendants remained.

Ziba informed David that the son of Jonathan, a man named Mephibosheth, was still alive and in hiding. Mephibosheth was living in LoDebar. David sent his servants to find and bring Mephibosheth to him.

It is worth being reminded that Mephibosheth’s grandfather was intensely jealous of David and wanted him killed. It is safe to presume most all male descendants of Saul and Jonathan were also killed during the war with the Philistines or in the fighting shortly thereafter since Mephibosheth was all David’s servants could find.

“Don’t be Afraid”

The first words from David to Mephibosheth, after confirming his identity, was to say, “Don’t be afraid.” I can only imagine how scared and uncertain Mephibosheth must have been when in the presence of David’s servants, let alone David himself. These words by David likely provided cautious intrigue.

David continued by referencing the promise he made with Jonathan and then he promised to Mephibosheth all the land Saul had once controlled. Added to this, David invited Mephibosheth to dine at David’s table for the remainder of his life. (This is tantamount to bringing Mephibosheth into David’s family.)

Mephibosheth’s response to David, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?”

David then brought back Ziba, a former servant to Saul (Mephibosheth’s grandfather) and commanded that Ziba, Ziba’s sons (all 15), and their servants (all 20) oversee the farming of the land gifted to Mephibosheth. The harvest from the lands were to be used to support Mephibosheth. Ziba agreed to serve King David and Mephibosheth as commanded all while Mephibosheth lived and dined at David’s side.

Mephibosheth then lived in Jerusalem with his son, Mika.