The Murder of Ishbosheth
1 When Saul’s son, Ishbosheth, heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands became feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled. 2 Saul’s son had two men who were captains of raiding bands. The name of one was Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the Benjaminites (for Beeroth also is considered a part of Benjamin, 3 and the Beerothites fled to Gittaim and have lived as foreigners there until today).
4 Now Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the news from Jezreel came about Saul and Jonathan, and his nurse picked him up and fled. As she hurried to flee, he fell and became crippled. His name was Mephibosheth.
5 The sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, set out for the house of Ishbosheth and arrived at about the heat of the day as he took his rest at noon. 6 They came there into the midst of the house, as if they were fetching wheat, and they stabbed him in the stomach, and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped. 7 Now when they came into the house, as he lay on his bed in his bedroom, they stabbed him, killed him, beheaded him, and took his head, and went by the way of the Arabah all night. 8 They brought the head of Ishbosheth to David to Hebron, and said to the king, “Here is the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life! The Lord has avenged my lord the king today of Saul, and of his offspring.”
David Executes the Murderers
9 David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, “As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my soul from all adversity, 10 when someone told me, ‘Saul is dead,’ thinking that he brought good news, I seized him and killed him in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news. 11 How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house on his bed, should I not now require his blood from your hand, and rid the earth of you?” 12 David commanded his young men, and they killed them, cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up beside the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth, and buried it in Abner’s grave in Hebron.