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2 Samuel 9

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1 And David saith, `Is there yet any left to the house of Saul, and I do with him kindness because of Jonathan?'

2 And the house of Saul hath a servant, and his name [is] Ziba, and they call for him unto David; and the king saith unto him, `Art thou Ziba?' and he saith, `Thy servant.'

3 And the king saith, `Is there not yet a man to the house of Saul, and I do with him the kindness of God?' And Ziba saith unto the king, `Jonathan hath yet a son -- lame.'

4 And the king saith to him, `Where [is] he?' and Ziba saith unto the king, `Lo, he [is] in the house of Machir, son of Ammiel, in Lo-Debar.'

5 And king David sendeth, and taketh him out of the house of Machir son of Ammiel, of Lo-Debar,

6 and Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, son of Saul, cometh unto David, and falleth on his face, and doth obeisance, and David saith, `Mephibosheth;' and he saith, `Lo, thy servant.'

7 And David saith to him, `Be not afraid; for I certainly do with thee kindness because of Jonathan thy father, and have given back to thee all the field of Saul thy father, and thou dost eat bread at my table continually.'

8 And he boweth himself, and saith, `What [is] thy servant, that thou hast turned unto the dead dog -- such as I?'

9 And the king calleth unto Ziba servant of Saul, and saith unto him, `All that was to Saul and to all his house, I have given to the son of thy lord,

10 and thou hast served for him the land, thou and thy sons, and thy servants, and hast brought in, and there hath been to the son of thy lord bread, and he hath eaten it; and Mephibosheth son of thy lord doth eat continually bread at my table;' and Ziba hath fifteen sons and twenty servants.

11 And Ziba saith unto the king, `According to all that my lord the king commandeth his servant, so doth thy servant;' as to Mephibosheth, `he is eating at my table ([saith the king]) as one of the sons of the king.'

12 And Mephibosheth hath a young son, and his name [is] Micha, and every one dwelling in the house of Ziba [are] servants to Mephibosheth.

13 And Mephibosheth is dwelling in Jerusalem, for at the table of the king he is eating continually, and he [is] lame of his two feet.

   

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Mercy

  
‘Brother Juniper and the Beggar,’ by Spanish Baroque painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Juniper, one of the original followers of St. Francis of Assissi, was renowned for his generosity. When told he could no longer give away his clothes, he instead simply told the needy, like the beggar in the painting, that he couldn’t give them his clothes, but wouldn’t stop them from taking them.

In regular language, "mercy" means being caring and compassionate toward people in poor states. That's a position we are all in relative to the Lord, all the time. Without Him we would be unable to choose what is good; without Him we would be unable to formulate a reasonable thought. Without Him, in fact, we would instantly cease to exist; we have life only because He constantly gives us life. So we are, quite literally, at His mercy. Fortunately, the Lord is caring and compassionate to a degree we cannot fathom. He is the source of all caring and all compassion, and of love itself. His mercy toward us never lessens, never abates, never ends; His whole purpose is to bring each of us, individually, to heaven. The meaning of "mercy" in the Bible is closely tied to this idea: it represents love in a general sense, and the desire for good that comes from love. It can also represent the desire for good and the ideas that describe it when those thoughts and desires are inspired by love of the Lord.