Contents ▼▲
Front Matter The Story of a Beautiful Garden The First Baby in the World and His Brother The Great Ship That Saved Eight People The Tower That Was Never Finished The Story of a Long Journey How Abram's Choice Brought Blessing The Angel by the Well The Rain of Fire That Fell on a City The Boy Who Became an Archer How an Angel's Voice Saved a Boy's Life The Story of a Journey after a Wife How Jacob Stole His Brother's Blessing Jacob's Wonderful Dream A Midnight Wrestling Match The Rich Man's Son Who Was Sold as a Slave From the Prison to the Palace How Joseph's Dream Came True A Lost Brother Found From the Land of Famine to the Land of Plenty The Beautiful Baby Who Was Found in a River The Voice from the Burning Bush The River That Ran Blood The Night When a Nation Was Born How the Sea Became Dry Land and the Sky Rained Bre The Mountain That Smoked and Words That Were Spoke How Aaron Made a Golden Calf and What Became of It The Tent Where God Lived Among His People How They Worshipped God in the Tabernacle What Strong Drink Brought to Aaron's Sons The Scapegoat in the Wilderness The Cluster of Grapes from the Land of Canaan How the Long Journey of the Israelites Came to an What a Wise Man Learned from an Ass How Moses Looked upon the Promised Land The Story of Job The Story of a Scarlet Cord How the River Jordan Became Dry The Story of a Wedge of Gold How Joshua Conquered the Land of Canaan The Old Man Who Fought Against the Giants The Avenger of Blook and the Cities of Refuge The Story of an Altar Beside the River The Presnt That Ehud Brought to King Eglon How a Woman Won a Great Victory Gideon and His Brave Three Hundred Jephthah's Rash Promise and What Came from It The Strong Man: How He Lived and How He Died The Idol Temple at Dan and Its Priest How Ruth Gleaned in the Field of Boaz The Little Boy with a Linen Coat How the Idol Fell Down Before the Ark The Last of the Judges The Tall Man Who Was Chosen King How Saul Saved the Eyes of the Men of Jabesh The Brave Young Prince Saul's Great Sin and His Great Loss The Shepherd Boy of Bethlehem The Shepherd Boy's Fight with the Giant The Little Boy Looking for the Arrows Where David Found the Giant's Sword How David Spared Saul's Life The Last Days of King Saul The Shepherd Boy Becomes a King The Sound in the Treetops The Cripple at the King's Table The Prophet's Story of the Little Lamb David's Handsome Son and How He Stole the Kingdom Absalom in the Wood; David on the Throne The Angel with the Drawn Sword on Mount Moriah Solomon on This Father's Throne The Wise Young King The House of God on Mount Moriah The Last Days of Solomon's Reign The Breaking Up of a Great Kingdom The King Who Led Israel to Sin The Prophet Who Raised a Boy to Life The Prayer That Was Answered in Fire The Voice That Spoke to Elijah in the Mount The Wounded Prophet and His Story What Ahab Paid for His Vineyard The Arrow That Killed a King Elijah's Chariot of Fire A Spring Sweetened by Salt The Pot of Oil and the Pot of Poison The Little Boy at Shunem How a Little Girl Helped to Cure a Leper The Chariots of Fire around Elisha What the Lepers Found in the Camp Jehu, the Furious Driver of His Chariot Elisha and the Bow; Jonah and Nineveh How the Ten Tribes Were Lost The First Four Kings of Judah The Little Boy Who Was Crowned King Three Kings and a Great Prophet The Good King Hezekiah The Lost Book Found in the Temple The Last Four Kings of Judah and the Weeping Proph What Ezekiel Saw in the Valley The Jewish Captives in the Court of the King The Golden Image and the Fiery Furnace The Tree That Was Cut Down and Grew Again The Writing upon the Wall Daniel in the Den of Lions The Story of a Joyous Journey The New Temple on Mount Moriah The Beautiful Queen of Persia The Scribe Who Wrote the Old Testament The Nobleman Who Built the Wall of Jerusalem Ezra's Great Bible Class in Jerusalem The Angel by the Altar The Manger of Bethlehem The Star and the Wise Men The Boy in his Father's House The Prophet in the Wilderness Jesus in the Desert, and beside the River The Water Jars at the Wedding Feast The Stranger at the Well The Story of a Boy in Capernaum and a Riot A Net Full of Fishes The Leper and the Man Let Down through the Roof The Cripple at the Pool and the Withered Hand The Twelve Disciples and the Sermon on the Mount The Captain's Servant, the Widow's Son, and a Sinn Some Stories Jesus Told by the Sea "Peace, Be Still" The Little Girl Who Was Raised to Life A Dancing Girl and What Was Given Her The Feast beside the Sea and What Followed It The Answer to a Mother's Prayer The Glory of Jesus on the Mountain The Little Child in the Arms of Jesus At the Feast of Tabernacles The Man with Clay on His Face The Good Shepherd and the Good Samaritan Lazarus Raised to Life Some Parables in Perea The Poor Rich Man and the Rich Poor Man Jesus at Jericho Palm Sunday The Last Vistis of Jesus to the Temple The Parables on the Mount of Olives The Last Supper The Olive Orchard and the High Priests Hall The Crown of Thorns The Darkest Day of All the World The Brightest Day of All the World The Stranger on the Shore The Church of the First Days The Man at the Beautiful Gate The Right Way to Give, and the Wrong Way Stephen with the Shining Face The Man Reading in the Chariot The Voice That Spoke to Saul What Peter Saw by the Sea How the Iron Gate Was Opened The Earliest Missionaries The Song in the Prison Paul's Speech on the Hill Paul at Corinth Paul at Ephesus Paul's Last Journey to Jerusalem The Speech on the Stairs Two Years in Prison The Story That Paul Told to the King Paul in the Storm How Paul Came to Rome and How He Lived There The Throne of God The City of God

Story of the Bible Told for Young and Old - Jesse Hurlbut




The Cripple at the King's Table


As soon as the kings of the nations around Israel saw that a strong man was ruling over the tribes, they began to make war upon David, for they feared to see Israel gaining in power. So it came to pass that David had many wars. The Moabites, who lived on the eart of the Dead Sea, went to war with David, but David conquered them, and made Moab submit to Israel. Far in the north, the Syrians came against David; but he won great victories over them, and took Damascus, their chief city, and held it as a part of his kingdom. In the south, he made war upon the Edomites, and brought them under his rule.

For a number of years David was constantly at war, but at last he was at peace, the ruler of all the lands from the great river Euphrates on the north, down to the wilderness on the south, where the Israelites had wandered; and from the great desert on the eat to the Great Sea on the west. All these lands were under the rule of King David, except the people of Tyre and Sidon, who lived beside the Great Sea on the north of Israel. These people, the Tyrians, never made war on Israel, and their king, Hiram, was one of David's best friends. The men of Tyre cut down cedar-trees on Mount Lebanon for David, and brought them to Jerusalem, and built for David the palace which became his home.

When David's wars were over, and he was at rest, he thought of the promise that he had made to his friend Jonathan, the brave son of Saul (see Story Six in this Part), that he would care for his children. David asked of his nobles and the men at his court, "Are there any of Saul's family living, to whom I can show kindness for the sake of Jonathan?"

They told David of Saul's servant, Ziba, who had the charge of Saul's farm in the country; and David sent for him. Ziba had become a rich man from his care of the lands that had belonged to Saul.

David said to Ziba, "Are there any of Saul's family living, to whom I can show some of the kindness which God has shown toward me?"

And Ziba said, "Saul's son Jonathan left a little boy, named Mephibosheth, who is now grown to be a man. He is living at Lo-debar, on the east of Jordan."

This child of Jonathan was in the arms of his nurse when the news came of the battle at Mount Gilboa, where Jonathan was slain. The nurse fled with him, to hide from the Philistines, and in running fell; and the child's feet were so injured that ever after he was lame.

Perhaps he was kept hidden in the distant place on the east of Jordan, from fear lest David, now that he was king, might try to kill all those who were of Saul's family; for such deeds were common in those times, when one king took the power away from another king's children.

David sent for Mephibosheth, Jonathan's son; and he was brought into David's presence, and fell down in his face before the king, for he was in great fear. And David said to him, "Mephibosheth, you need have no fear. I will be kind to you, because I loved Jonathan, your father, and he loved me. You shall have all the lands that ever belonged to Saul and his family; and you shall always sit at my table in the royal palace."

Mephibosheth, Jonathan's son, before David

MEPHIBOSHETH, JONATHAN'S SON, BEFORE DAVID


Then the king called Ziba, who had been the servant of Saul, and said to him, "All the lands and houses that once belonged to Saul I have given to Mephibosheth. You shall care for them, and bring the harvests and the fruits of the fields to him. But Mephibosheth shall live here with me, and shall sit down at the king's table among the princes of the kingdom."

So Mephibosheth, the lame son of Jonathan, was taken into David's palace, and sat at the king's table, among the highest in the land. And Ziba, with his fifteen sons and his twenty servants, waited on him, and stood at his command.

This kindness of David to Mephibosheth might have brought trouble to David; for Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, and the grandson of Saul, might have been the king if David had not won the crown. By giving to Saul's grandson a place at his table, and showing him honor, David might have helped him to take the kingdom away from himself, if Mephibosheth bad been a stronger man, with a purpose to win the throne of Israel. But David was generous, and Mephibosheth was grateful, and was contented with his place in the palace.