2 Samuel 9:7-10

9:7 David said to him, “Don’t be afraid, because I will certainly extend kindness to you for the sake of Jonathan your father. You will be a regular guest at my table.” ¹  9:8 Then Mephibosheth ²  bowed and said, “Of what importance am I, your servant, that you show regard for a dead dog like me?” ³ 

9:9 Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s attendant, and said to him, “Everything that belonged to Saul and to his entire house I hereby give to your master’s grandson. 9:10 You will cultivate ⁴  the land for him – you and your sons and your servants. You will bring its produce ⁵  and it will be ⁶  food for your master’s grandson to eat. ⁷  But Mephibosheth, your master’s grandson, will be a regular guest at my table.” (Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.)

[9:7]  ¹ tn Heb “and you will eat food over my table continually.”

[9:8]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Mephibosheth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:8]  ³ tn Heb “What is your servant, that you turn to a dead dog which is like me?”

[9:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “work.”

[9:10]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text implies, but does not actually contain, the words “its produce” here.

[9:10]  ⁶ tc The words “it will be,” though present in the MT, are absent from the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate.

[9:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he will eat it.”