2 Samuel 4

¹When Ish-boʹsheth, Saul’s son, heard that Abner had died at Hebron, his courage failed, and all Israel was dismayed. ²Now Saul’s son had two men who were captains of raiding bands; the name of the one was Baʹanah, and the name of the other Rechab, sons of Rimmon a man of Benjamin from Be-erʹoth (for Be-erʹoth also is reckoned to Benjamin; ³the Be-erʹothites fled to Gitʹtaim, and have been sojourners there to this day).

⁴Jonathan, the son of Saul, had a son who was crippled in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel; and his nurse took him up, and fled; and, as she fled in her haste, he fell, and became lame. And his name was Mephibʹosheth.

⁵Now the sons of Rimmon the Be-erʹothite, Rechab and Baʹanah, set out, and about the heat of the day they came to the house of Ish-boʹsheth, as he was taking his noonday rest. ⁶And behold, the doorkeeper of the house had been cleaning wheat, but she grew drowsy and slept; so Rechab and Baʹanah his brother slipped in. ⁷When they came into the house, as he lay on his bed in his bedchamber, they smote him, and slew him, and beheaded him. They took his head, and went by the way of the Arabah all night, ⁸and brought the head of Ish-boʹsheth to David at Hebron. And they said to the king, “Here is the head of Ish-boʹsheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life; the Lord has avenged my lord the king this day on Saul and on his offspring.” ⁹But David answered Rechab and Baʹanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Be-erʹothite, “As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life out of every adversity, ¹⁰when one told me, ‘Behold, Saul is dead,’ and thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and slew him at Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news. ¹¹How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous man in his own house upon his bed, shall I not now require his blood at your hand, and destroy you from the earth?” ¹²And David commanded his young men, and they killed them, and cut off their hands and feet, and hanged them beside the pool at Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-boʹsheth, and buried it in the tomb of Abner at Hebron.