2 Samuel 4:1-12
4 When the son+ of Saul heard that Abʹner had died in Heʹbron,+ then his hands became feeble+ and all the Israelites themselves were disturbed.
2 And there were two men, chiefs of the marauding bands,+ that happened to belong to the son of Saul,* the name of the one being Baʹa·nah and the name of the other being Reʹchab, the sons of Rimʹmon the Be·erʹoth·ite, of the sons of Benjamin; for Be·erʹoth,+ too, used to be counted as part of Benjamin.
3 And the Be·erʹoth·ites went running away to Gitʹta·im,+ and they came to be alien residents there down to this day.
4 Now Jonʹa·than,+ the son of Saul, had a son lame in the feet.+ Five years old he happened to be when the report about Saul and Jonʹa·than came from Jezʹre·el;+ and his nurse began to carry him and flee, but it came about that as she was running in panic to flee, he then had a fall and was lamed. And his name was Me·phibʹo·sheth.+
5 And the sons of Rimʹmon the Be·erʹoth·ite, Reʹchab and Baʹa·nah, proceeded to go and come to the house of Ish-boʹsheth+ about when the day had heated up, as he was taking his noonday siesta.
6 And here they came into the middle of the house as men fetching wheat, and then struck him in the abdomen;+ and Reʹchab and Baʹa·nah+ his brother themselves escaped detection.
7 When they went into the house, he was lying upon his couch in his inner bedroom, and then they struck him so that they put him to death,+ after which they removed his head+ and took his head and walked on the road to the Arʹa·bah all night long.
8 Eventually they came bringing the head of Ish-boʹsheth+ to David at Heʹbron and said to the king: “Here is the head of Ish-boʹsheth the son of Saul your enemy+ who looked for your soul;+ but Jehovah gives to my lord the king revenge+ this day upon Saul and his offspring.”
9 However, David answered Reʹchab and Baʹa·nah his brother, the sons of Rimʹmon the Be·erʹoth·ite, and said to them: “As Jehovah who redeemed+ my soul+ out of all distress+ is living,+
10 when there was one reporting to me,+ saying, ‘Here Saul is dead,’ and he himself in his own eyes became like a bringer of good news, I, however, took hold of him and killed+ him in Zikʹlag when it was due [for me] to give him the messenger’s fee;
11 how much more so when wicked men+ themselves have killed a righteous man in his own house upon his bed? And now should I not require his blood from YOUR hands,+ and must I not clear YOU out of the earth?”+
12 With that David commanded the young men and they killed them+ and cut off their hands and their feet and hanged+ them by the pool in Heʹbron; and the head of Ish-boʹsheth they took and then buried in the burial place of Abʹner in Heʹbron.+
Footnotes
^ “Belong to Ish-bosheth the son of Saul,” LXXBagster.
