2 Samuel 4

When Ish-bosheth Ibn Talut heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands became feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled. 2Ish-bosheth Ibn Talut had two men who were captains of bands: the name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the children of Binyamin (for Beeroth also is reckoned to Binyamin: 3and the Beerothites fled to Gittaim, and have lived as foreigners there until this day). 4Now Jonathan Ibn Talut had a son who was lame of his feet. He was five years old when the news came of Talut and Jonathan out of Jezreel; and his nurse took him up, and fled: and it happened, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth. 5The sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went, and came to the house of Ish-bosheth in the heat of the day, as he took his rest at noon. 6They went into the inner part of the house, as if to get some wheat; and they stabbed him in the abdomen: and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped. 7Now when they went into the house, as he lay on his bed in his bedroom, they stabbed him, and killed him, and beheaded him, and took his head, and went by the way of the Arabah all night. 8They brought the head of Ish-bosheth to Dawud at Hebron, and said to the king, Behold, the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of Talut, your enemy, who sought your life; and Allah has avenged my lord the king this day of Talut, and of his seed. 9Dawudanswered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, As Allah lives, who has redeemed my soul out of all adversity, 10when one told me, Talut is dead, thinking to have brought good news, I took hold of him, and killed him in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news. 11How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house on his bed! Shall I not now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth? 12Dawud commanded his young men, and they killed them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up beside the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth, and buried it in the grave of Abner in Hebron.

 

Next Page