⁸ The Lord has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul, in whose place you have reigned.^(A) The Lord has given the kingdom into the hands of your son Absalom. You have come to ruin because you are a murderer!”^(B)

⁶ let seven of his male descendants be given to us to be killed and their bodies exposed^(A) before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul—the Lord’s chosen^(B) one.”

So the king said, “I will give them to you.”

⁷ The king spared Mephibosheth^(C) son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath^(D) before the Lord between David and Jonathan son of Saul. ⁸ But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Aiah’s daughter Rizpah,^(E) whom she had borne to Saul, together with the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab,^[a] whom she had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite.^{(F) 9} He handed them over to the Gibeonites, who killed them and exposed their bodies on a hill before the Lord. All seven of them fell together; they were put to death^(G) during the first days of the harvest, just as the barley harvest was beginning.^(H)

⁷ “Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan.^(A) I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.^(B)”

¹³ And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table; he was lame in both feet.