Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

When we last saw David, he was fleeing Jerusalem because Absalom had staged a coup.

On his way out of town, David found out that his advisor, Ehethephel, was a traitor.

He also ran into his friend Hushai and asked him to keep him posted on everything that was

happening in Jerusalem after he left.

Today, when we pick up on the story, David has just crossed over the mountain on his way

out of town when he runs into Zeba, one of the servants of Mephibbyshev.

As a reminder, Mephibbyshev is the son of Jonathan, who is David's best friend and who

helped save David's life when his father saw tried to kill him.

David had sworn an oath to Jonathan to take care of his family.

So when David found out that Mephibbyshev was Jonathan's only surviving son, he took him

into his home and promised to provide for him forever.

But here things take an interesting turn.

Mephibbyshev servant Zeba brings David a bunch of food, wine, and donkeys as gifts, and

then tells David that Mephibbyshev is going to try to assume the throne that David stole

from his father, Jonathan.

You can imagine how hurt and angry this makes David after all he's done for Mephibbyshev.

Plus, God gave David the throne.

He didn't take it.

So David hands all of Mephibbyshev's blessings over to Zeba his servant instead.

David pin in this story, we'll come back to it.

As David and his crew continue on, they encounter a man named Shimei who is cursing him, calling

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