This article examines the representation of Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 4:4; 9:1–13; and 19:24–30 through the interdisciplinary lens of disability studies and narrative criticism. It argues that Mephibosheth’s disability is not merely a biographical detail or a literary device intended to magnify David’s benevolence. Rather, his impaired mobility becomes a site at which dynastic politics, royal power, social dependence and personal agency intersect. David’s restoration of Saul’s land and invitation to Mephibosheth to eat continually at the royal table provide material security and symbolic inclusion, but they do not remove hierarchy or dependence. Mephibosheth remains subject to decisions made by David and to the labour and testimony of Ziba. Nevertheless, the narrative does not portray him as without agency. He speaks, remembers, contests Ziba’s accusation and makes a deliberate judgment about his property in 2 Samuel 19. A disability-studies reading therefore complicates interpretations that reduce Mephibosheth either to a passive recipient of grace or to a political non-threat. The article concludes that the king’s table signifies both welcome and control: Mephibosheth is included in the royal household, but under conditions determined by royal power.
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- Emmanuel Sarfo-Kantanka (Autor), 2026, Beyond the King’s Table: Disability, Power, Dependence, and Agency in the Story of Mephibosheth, Múnich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1768558
