Mephibosheth Meaning in the Bible

Mephibosheth means "exterminator of shame" or "from the mouth of shame" in Hebrew. He was the son of Jonathan and the grandson of King Saul — a prince who became a cripple and whose story illustrates one of the Bible's most beautiful pictures of unmerited grace.

When Mephibosheth was five years old, news of Saul and Jonathan's deaths reached the palace. His nurse grabbed him and fled, but dropped him in her haste. Both his feet were permanently injured, leaving him unable to walk. The prince became a pauper, living in obscurity in Lo-debar — a place whose name means "no pasture" or "nothing."

Years later, David asked: "Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness for Jonathan's sake?" When Mephibosheth was brought before the king, he fell on his face and called himself "a dead dog." But David restored all of Saul's lands to him and gave him a permanent place at the king's table.

This story is the Old Testament's clearest picture of Gospel grace: an enemy's grandson, crippled and hiding in a place of nothing, summoned not for judgment but for kindness, restored to royalty, and given a permanent seat at the king's table — all "for Jonathan's sake," not for his own merit.