MEPHIBOSHETH
104
IMEPHIBOSHETH
The seven corpses, protected by the tender care of the mother of Mephibosheth from the attacks of bird and beast, were exposed on their crosses to the fierce sua of at least live of the midsummer months, on the sacred eminence of Gibeah. This period results from the state- ment that they hung from barley harvest (April) till the commencement of the rains (October); but it is also worthy of notice that the Sept. lias employed the word i'i,i]\ui'L,tiv, " to expose to the sun." It is also remark- able that on the only other occasion on which this He- brew term is used — Numb, xxv, 4 — an express command was given that the victims should be crucified '-in front of tlic sun." At tlie end of tliat time the attention of David was called to the circumstance, and also possibly to the fact that tlie sacrifice had failed in its pur[)ose. A different method was tried: the bones of Saul and Jonathan were disinterred from their resting-place at the foot of the great tree at Jaljesh-Gilead, the blanched and withered remains of Mephiboshetfi, his brother, and his five relatives, were taken down from the crosses, and father, son, and grandsons found at last a resting- jilace together in the ancestral cave of Kish at Zelah. ^\■hen this liad been done, " God was entreated for the land," and the famine ceased.— Smith. B.C. 1053-1019. See KizpAii.
2. The son of Jonathan and grandson of king Saul (2 Sam. iv, 4; in which sense " the son of Saul" is to be taken in 2 Sam. xix, 24; see Gesenius, Thesaur. p. 21G) ; called also by the equivalent name of Meuibbaal (1 Chron. ix, 40). The following account of his history and character embraces much of the matter found in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible^ s. v., with modifications and additions.
1. His life seems to have been, from beginning to end, one of trial and discomfort. Tlie name of his mother is iniknown. There is reason to think that she died shortly after his birth, and that he was an onlj^ child. At any rate, we know for certain that when his father and grandfather were slain on (iilboa he was an infant of but five years old. E.G. 1053. He was tlien living under the charge of his nurse, probably at (iibeah, the regular residence of Saul. Tlie tidings that the army was destroyed, the king and his sons slain, and that the riiilistines, spreading from hill to hill of the country, were sweeping all before tliem, reached the royal house- hold. Tlie nurse, jierhaps apprehending that the enemy were seeking to exterminate the whole royal family, fled, carrying the child on her shoulder. This is the statement of Josejjhus (utto tmv wjnav. Ant. vii, 5, 5) ; but it is hardly necessarj-, for in the East cliildren are always carried on the shoulder (see Lane's Mod. Ei/yp- //ans, ch. i, p. 52, and the art. Cim.i)). But in her panic and hurry she stumbled, and Jleiihibosheth was precip- itated to the ground with such force as to deprive him for life of the use of both feet (2 Sam. iv, 4). These early misfortunes threw a shade over his whole life, and his personal deformity — as is often the case where it has been the result of accident — seems to have exercised a depressing and depreciatory influence on his character. He can never forget that he is a poor lame slave (2 Sam. xix, 2fj), and unable to walk; a dead dog (ix, 8) ; that all the house of his father were dead (xix, 28); that the king is an angel of God (ib. 27), and he his ab- ject dci)endent (ix, G, 8). He receives the slanders of Ziba and the harshness of David alike with a submis- sive efiuaiiiinity which is quite touching, and which ef- fectually wins our sympathy.
2. After the accident which thus embittered his whole existence, IMephibosheth was carried with the rest of his family beyond the Jordan to the mountains of (Jil- ead, where he found a refuge in the house of JIachir ben-Ammiel, a powerful (iadite or Manassite sheik at Lo-debar, not far from jNIahanaim, which during the reign Of his uncle Islibosheth was the head-quarters of his family. 15y Machir he was brouj^ht up (^Josejiluis, ,l«/.vii,5,5); tliere he married, and there he wasliving at a later period, when David, having completed the
subjugation of the adversaries of Israel on every side, had leisure to turn his attention to claims of other and less pressing descriptions. The solemn oath which he had sworn to the father of Mephibosheth at their critical interview by the stone Ezel, that he ''would not cut off his kindness from the house of Jonathan forever: no, not when Jehovah had cut off the ene- mies of David each one from the face of the earth" (1 Sam. XX, 15) ; and again, that "Jehovah should be between Jonathan's seed and his seed forever" (ver.42), was naturally the first thing that occurred to liim, and he eagerly inqiured who was left of the house of Saul, that he might show kindness to him for Jonathan's sake (2 Sam. L\, 1). So completely had the family of the late king vanished from the western side of Jordan that the only person to be met with in any way related to them was one Ziba, formerly a slave of the royal house, but now a freed man, with a famOy of fifteen sons, who, by arts which, from the glimpse we subse- quently have of his character, are not difficult to unc'.cr- stand, must have acquired considerable substance, since he was possessed of an establishment of twenty slaves of his own. From this man David learned of the ex- istence of jNIephibosheth. Koyal messengers were sent to the house of Machir at I^i-debar, in the mountains of Gilead, and by them the prince and his infant son Mi- chah (comp. 1 Chron, ix, 40) were brought to Jerusalem. The interview with David was marked bj' extreme kind- ness on the part of the king, and on that of Jlephibo- sheth by the fear and humility which have been pointed out as characteristic of him. He leaves the royal pres- ence with all the property of his grandfather restored to him, and with the whole family and establishment of Ziba as his slaves, to cultivate the land and harvest the produce. He himself is to be a daily guest at Da- vid's table. From this time forward lie resided at Jeru- salem (2 Sam. ix). B.C. cir. 1037. See Kitto's Daily Bible Illust. ad loc.