2 Samuel 9 is the ninth chapter of the Second Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

or the second part of

Books of Samuel The Book of Samuel (, ''Sefer Shmuel'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the narrative history of Ancient Israel called the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Josh ...

in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Samuel, with additions by the prophets Gad and

Nathan Nathan or Natan may refer to: People *Nathan (given name), including a list of people and characters with this name *Nathan (surname) *Nathan (prophet), a person in the Hebrew Bible * Nathan (son of David), biblical figure, son of King David an ...

, but modern scholars view it as a composition of a number of independent texts of various ages from c. 630–540 BCE. This chapter contains the account of

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

's reign in Jerusalem. This is within a section comprising 2 Samuel 9–20 and continued to 1 Kings 1– 2 which deal with the power struggles among David's sons to succeed David's throne until 'the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon' (1 Kings 2:46).

Text

This chapter was originally written in the

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

. It is divided into 13 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

are of the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...

tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), Aleppo Codex (10th century), and

Codex Leningradensis The Leningrad Codex ( la, Codex Leningradensis [Leningrad Book]; he, כתב יד לנינגרד) is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew, using the Masoretic Text and Tiberian vocalization. According to its colopho ...

(1008). Fragments containing parts of this chapter in Hebrew were found among the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the ...

including 4Q51 (4QSam; 100–50 BCE) with extant verses 8–10.Dead sea scrolls - 2 Samuel
/ref> Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

known as the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond ...

(originally was made in the last few centuries BCE) include

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...

(B;

\mathfrak

^B; 4th century) and

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manu ...

(A;

\mathfrak

^A; 5th century).

Analysis

The structure of this chapter is as follows: :A. David's intention (9:1) ::B. David speaks to Ziba (9:2–5) :::C. Mephibosheth does obeisance (9:6) :::: D. David fulfills his covenant with Jonathan (9:7) :::C'. Mephibosheth does obeisance (9:8) ::B'. David speaks to Ziba (9:9–11) :A'. David's intention is accomplished (9:12–13) This chapter is connected with events concerning the house of Saul and the death of Ishbosheth in

2 Samuel 2 2 Samuel 2 is the second chapter of the Second Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or the second part of Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, wit ...

– 4, but more strongly with the story of the Gibeonites' revenge in 2 Samuel 21:1–14, which should precede the accommodation of Mephibosheth at David's table.

David inquires about the house of Saul (9:1–4)

The section begins with David asking about 'showing kindness to the house of

Saul Saul (; he, , ; , ; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first monarch of the United Kingdom of Israel. His reign, traditionally placed in the late 11th century BCE, supposedly marked the transition of Israel and Judah from a scattered t ...

for Jonathan's sake' (verse 1), which is based on his promises to Jonathan in their covenant before

YHWH The Tetragrammaton (; ), or Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew theonym (transliterated as YHWH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are ''yodh'', '' he'', '' waw'', and ...

() and his promise to Saul that he 'would not cut off his descendants' (). The passage contains a flashback to a time early in David's reign (c. 999 BCE according to Steinmann), placed in this chapter in anticipation of the events in 1 Samuel 16 and 1 Samuel 19 concerning Ziba and

Mephibosheth Mephibosheth (Biblical Hebrew: , ''Məfīḇōšeṯ'', also called Meribaal, , ''Mərīḇ-Baʻal'') was the son of Jonathan—and, thus, a grandson of Saul—mentioned in the Biblical Books of Samuel and Chronicles. Mephibosheth was five yea ...

. David did not have much information about Saul's house since his escape from that house (c. 1015 BCE), whereas his last contact with Jonathan was at Horesh (1 Samuel 23:16–18; c. 1013–1012 BCE) about one year after Mephibosheth's birth. David's official knew about Saul's servant, Ziba, who had the information about Saul's descendants (verse 2). Ziba only identified Mephibosheth as the surviving member of the house of Saul, because Saul's sons from concubines and the grandsons through his daughter Merab (cf. 2 Samuel 21:8) were not considered heirs to Saul's house.

Verse 1

:''And David said, "Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?"'' *"Kindness": in the sense of "covenant faithfulness".

David and Mephibosheth (9:5–13)

The presence of a Saulide in David's household emphasizes that David was dealing honorably with Jonathan's descendant, using the word 'kindness' (''khesed''), which occurs in verses 1, 3, and 7, to conform with Jonathan's appeal to 'show me the kindness (''khesed')' of the Lord' in . David granted Mephibosheth son of Jonathan special patronage (verse 7), at royal expense (v. 11), his grandfather's property restored to him (verse 7) and arrangements were made for Ziba to act as estate manager to provide for the family (verse 10). Saul's estate (verse 7) was a crown property, so it should belong to David after he became king, but at that time some may also be still the property of remaining members in Saul's house, including his children of concubines, relatives and the family of his daughters. Merab, Saul's oldest daughter, was with her husband, Adriel, in Meholah (1 Samuel 14:49; 18:17–19), whereas Michal, Saul's other daughter, resided with her husband, king David, in Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6:16–23), so some lands in other areas may have been maintained by caretakers, including Ziba. This could be how David's officials were able to trace Ziba. Now David could declare that all the estate should be given to Mephibosheth as Saul's sole legitimate heir.

Verse 5

:''Then King David sent and brought him out of the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, from Lo Debar.''

NKJV The New King James Version (NKJV) is an English translation of the Bible. The complete NKJV Bible was published in 1982 by Thomas Nelson, now HarperCollins. The NKJV is described by Thomas Nelson as being "scrupulously faithful to the origin ...

Machir Machir or Makir ( ''Māḵîr'', "bartered") was the name of two figures in the Hebrew Bible: * Machir was the son of Manasseh, grandson of Joseph, and father of Gilead. Joseph lived to see and to play a part in the up-bringing of Machir and his ch ...

": a valued member in Saul's house who later also showed kindness to David during Absalom's rebellion (1 Samuel 17:27–29).

Notes

References

Sources

Commentaries on Samuel

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General

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External links

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

translations: *
Samuel II - II Samuel - Chapter 9 (Judaica Press)
Hebrew text and English translation ith_Rashi's_commentary.html"_;"title="Rashi.html"_;"title="ith_Rashi">ith_Rashi's_commentary">Rashi.html"_;"title="ith_Rashi">ith_Rashi's_commentaryat_Chabad.org *__Christian_translations: *
''Online_Bible''_at_GospelHall.org
(ESV,_KJV,_Darby,_American_Standard_Version,_Bible_in_Basic_English) *
2_Samuel_chapter_9._Bible_Gateway
{{DEFAULTSORT:Samuel_2_09 Second_Book_of_Samuel_chapters.html" ;"title="2_Samuel_9.html" ;"title="Rashi">ith_Rashi's_commentary.html" ;"title="Rashi.html" ;"title="ith Rashi">ith Rashi's commentary">Rashi.html" ;"title="ith Rashi">ith Rashi's commentaryat Chabad.org * Christian translations: *
''Online Bible'' at GospelHall.org
(ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English) *
2 Samuel chapter 9. Bible Gateway
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