2 Samuel 4

When Saul's son Ishbosheth heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost his courage, and all the Israelites were shaken.

1And when Saul’s son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands were feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled.

NoteThe King James here says only "Saul's son"; the name Ishbosheth is supplied from the wider account. After Saul died in battle, Ishbosheth was made king over the northern tribes while David ruled only Judah from Hebron. Abner, Saul's army commander and the real power behind Ishbosheth, had just changed sides to David and been murdered (chapter 3). "His hands were feeble" is a Hebrew idiom for losing the nerve or strength to act.

2Saul's son had two men who led raiding parties. One was named Baanah and the other Rechab. They were sons of Rimmon from Beeroth, from the tribe of Benjamin. (Beeroth was counted as part of Benjamin,

2And Saul’s son had two men that were captains of bands: the name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon a Beerothite, of the children of Benjamin: (for Beeroth also was reckoned to Benjamin.

Note"Captains of bands" means commanders of raiding parties, mobile units that made quick attacks on enemy territory, rather than a standing army. Beeroth was one of the towns of the Gibeonites, a non-Israelite people who had made a treaty with Israel; the town lay inside the territory allotted to the tribe of Benjamin, which is why the writer stops to explain that it "was reckoned to Benjamin."

3and the people of Beeroth had run away to Gittaim, and they have lived there as foreigners to this day.)

3And the Beerothites fled to Gittaim, and were sojourners there until this day.)

Note"Sojourners" means resident foreigners: people living in a place that is not their ancestral home, tolerated but without the land rights of the locals. "Until this day" means down to the time the account was written, not the reader's own day.

4Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son whose feet were crippled. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and ran, but as she hurried away he fell and was left crippled. His name was Mephibosheth.

4And Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son that was lame of his feet. He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse took him up, and fled: and it came to pass, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.

NoteThis verse interrupts the story to note that Jonathan's crippled son Mephibosheth was the only male heir of Saul's line left besides Ishbosheth, and that a man with a permanent physical disability was in practice never going to be made king. Jezreel is the broad valley in northern Israel; the "news out of Jezreel" is the report of Israel's defeat by the Philistines, in which Saul and Jonathan both died. Mephibosheth's name appears elsewhere as Merib-baal; "bosheth" means "shame" and was substituted by later scribes for the name of the god Baal.

5Rechab and Baanah, the sons of Rimmon from Beeroth, set out and came to the house of Ishbosheth in the hottest part of the day, while he was lying down for his midday rest.

5And the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went, and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, who lay on a bed at noon.

NoteIn that climate work stopped during the hottest hours and households slept; a king resting at noon with the house quiet explains how two men could walk in unchallenged.

6They went into the middle of the house as if they were coming to get wheat, and they stabbed him in the belly. Then Rechab and his brother Baanah slipped away.

6And they came thither into the midst of the house, as though they would have fetched wheat; and they smote him under the fifth rib: and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.

NoteThe King James "under the fifth rib" is a guess at an obscure Hebrew phrase that simply means the belly or abdomen; it recurs in Samuel for a fatal stab wound. This verse is difficult in the Hebrew, and the ancient Greek version reads differently: there the woman keeping the door had been cleaning wheat and had dozed off, which is how the brothers got in.

7When they had come into the house, he was lying on his bed in his bedroom. They stabbed him and killed him, cut off his head, took it, and traveled all night by way of the Jordan Valley.

7For when they came into the house, he lay on his bed in his bedchamber, and they smote him, and slew him, and beheaded him, and took his head, and gat them away through the plain all night.

Note"The plain" is the Arabah, the deep rift valley running south along the Jordan River and down toward the Dead Sea, the route from Ishbosheth's capital east of the Jordan to Hebron in the south, a long overnight journey. Carrying the severed head was the standard way of proving to a distant ruler that a rival was actually dead.

8They brought Ishbosheth's head to David at Hebron and said to the king, "Here is the head of Ishbosheth son of Saul, your enemy, who tried to kill you. Today the LORD has paid back my lord the king against Saul and his children."

8And they brought the head of Ishbosheth unto David to Hebron, and said to the king, Behold the head of Ishbosheth the son of Saul thine enemy, which sought thy life; and the LORD hath avenged my lord the king this day of Saul, and of his seed.

Note"Seed" means offspring or descendants. The brothers are speaking the language of blood vengeance: they present the killing not as murder but as a debt settled on David's behalf against Saul's whole family line, and they expect to be paid for it.

9But David answered Rechab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon from Beeroth, "As surely as the LORD lives, who has rescued my life out of every trouble,

9And David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said unto them, As the LORD liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity,

Note"As the LORD liveth" is the standard Hebrew oath formula, binding the speaker's words to the life of God himself. "Redeemed my soul" uses "soul" in its ordinary Hebrew sense of life, and "redeem" in its ordinary sense of buying back or ransoming, as one would ransom a captive.

10when a man told me, 'Look, Saul is dead,' and thought he was bringing me good news, I grabbed him and killed him at Ziklag. That was the reward he got for his news.

10When one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag, who thought that I would have given him a reward for his tidings:

NoteDavid is recalling the events of 2 Samuel 1: a man came to him claiming he had finished off the wounded Saul, brought Saul's crown as proof, and expected to be rewarded, and David had him executed instead. Ziklag was the town in Philistine territory given to David by the Philistine king Achish during the years David was a fugitive from Saul.

11How much more, when wicked men have killed an innocent man in his own house, on his own bed! Should I not now hold you responsible for his death and wipe you off the earth?"

11How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed? shall I not therefore now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth?

Note"Require his blood of your hand" is a legal idiom: to hold someone answerable for a death and exact the penalty for it. In Israelite law an unavenged killing left a claim outstanding that had to be settled, normally by the dead man's nearest relative, but here by the king.

12So David gave the order to his young men, and they killed Rechab and Baanah. They cut off their hands and feet and hung the bodies up beside the pool in Hebron. But they took Ishbosheth's head and buried it in Abner's tomb in Hebron.

12And David commanded his young men, and they slew them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up over the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth, and buried it in the sepulchre of Abner in Hebron.

NoteCutting off the hands and feet singled out the limbs that had done the deed, and hanging the bodies in public (rather than burying them the same day, as custom required) was the most degrading treatment available and served as a visible warning. Burying Ishbosheth's head in Abner's tomb is the deliberate opposite: an honorable burial in the grave of a man David had publicly mourned.