2 Samuel 4

Ish-bosheth is murdered

¹When Saul’s son heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost heart, and all Israel was alarmed.^{a 2}Saul’s son had two men who were commanders of raiding bands. One was called Baanah and the other Rechab, and both were sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, from the tribe of Benjamin, since Beeroth also is counted as part of Benjamin. ³The Beerothites had fled to Gittaim, and they have lived there as outsiders to this day.

⁴(Jonathan son of Saul had a son who was lame in both feet. He was five years old when word about Saul and Jonathan arrived from Jezreel. His nurse took him up and fled, but in her haste to get away he fell and was crippled. His name was Mephibosheth.)^{b 5}Rechab and Baanah, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, went off and reached Ish-bosheth’s house in the heat of the day, while he was taking his midday rest. ⁶They came into the inner part of the house as though to fetch wheat, and they stabbed him in the belly. Then Rechab and his brother Baanah escaped.^{c 7}They had entered the house while he lay on his bed in his bedroom, and they struck him down, killed him, and cut off his head. Taking the head with them, they traveled all night by the road through the Arabah. ⁸They brought Ish-bosheth’s head to David at Hebron and told the king, “Look, here is the head of Ish-bosheth son of Saul, your enemy, the one who sought your life. This day the LORD has given my lord the king vengeance on Saul and his descendants.”

David punishes the murderers

⁹David replied to Rechab and his brother Baanah, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, “As surely as the LORD lives, who has rescued my life from every trouble, ¹⁰when the man who told me, ‘Look, Saul is dead,’ thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and put him to death in Ziklag. That was the reward I gave him for his news, ¹¹how much more when wicked men have killed an innocent man in his own house on his bed! Now then, shall I not demand his blood from your hands and wipe you from the earth?” ¹²Then David gave orders to his young men, and they killed them. They cut off their hands and feet and hung their bodies beside the pool in Hebron. But Ish-bosheth’s head they took and buried in Abner’s tomb at Hebron.