2 Samuel 4:1-10 ▼

1 And the son of Saul heard that Abner had died in Hebron, and his hands failed, and all Israel was troubled.

2 And two men, captains of troops, were unto the son of Saul. The name of one was Baanah, and the name of the second Rechab, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the sons of Benjamin. For also Beeroth was reckoned to Benjamin,

3 and the Beerothites fled to Gittaim, and they have been there sojourning until this day.

4 And Jonathan son of Saul had a son lame in the feet. He was a son of five years at the coming in of the report of Saul and Jonathan from Jezreel. And his nurse took him up and fled. And it came to pass, as she hurried to flee, that he fell and became lame; and His name was Mephibosheth.

5 And the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, set out and came in at the heat of the day to the house of Ish-bosheth, and he was lying the lying down of noon.

6 And they came up to the midst of the house, as taking wheat, and they struck him in the fifth rib. And Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.

7 And they came into the house, and he was lying on his bed in his bedroom, and they struck him and killed him and beheaded him, and they took his head and were escaping by way of the plain all the night.

8 And they brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David at Hebron, and they said to the king, “Here is the head of Ish-bosheth son of Saul your enemy, who sought your life. And YHWH has given my lord the king vengeance this day of Saul and of his seed.”

9 And David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and he said to them, “As YHWH lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress,

10 when it was declared to me, saying, ‘Behold, Saul is dead,’ and he was as a bearer of tidings in his own eyes, I arrested him and I killed him at Ziklag, which was instead of my giving to him for his news;