2 Samuel 4:5-12 ▼

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;

11 how much more, when wicked men have killed a righteous person in his own house on his bed, shall I not now seek his blood from your? hands and remove you? from the earth?”

12 And David commanded the young men, and they killed them and cut off their hands and feet and hanged them by the pool in Hebron. And the head of Ish-bosheth they took and buried it in the tomb of Abner in Hebron.