2 Samuel 9:3

⁴Now Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the news came about Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel; and his nurse picked him up and fled. As she hurried to flee, he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.

³For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. ⁴But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared,

¹⁴You shall not only show me the loving kindness of the LORD while I still live, that I not die; ¹⁵but you shall also not cut off your kindness from my house forever, no, not when the LORD has cut off every one of the enemies of David from the surface of the earth.” ¹⁶So Jonathan made a covenant with David’s house, saying, “The LORD will require it at the hand of David’s enemies.”

¹⁷Jonathan caused David to swear again, for the love that he had to him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul.

³⁶“Therefore be merciful, even as your Father is also merciful.

¹⁵Only the LORD had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their offspring after them, even you above all peoples, as it is today.

^44[+] But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, ⁴⁵that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

²⁶He answered, “My lord, O king, my servant deceived me. For your servant said, ‘I will saddle a donkey for myself, that I may ride on it and go with the king,’ because your servant is lame.

³⁷Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their offspring after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt;