1When the son of Saul heard that Abner had died in Hebron, his hands went slack, and all Israel was dismayed.
2The son of Saul had two men who were captains of raiding bands. The name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the second was Rechab, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the sons of Benjamin — for Beeroth too is reckoned as part of Benjamin,
3and the Beerothites had fled to Gittaim and have been sojourners there down to this day.
4Now Jonathan the son of Saul had a son crippled in his feet. He was five years old when the report about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse picked him up and fled; and it happened that in her haste to flee he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.
5The sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, set out and came in the heat of the day to the house of Ish-bosheth, while he was lying down in his midday rest.
6And they came into the middle of the house fetching wheat, and they struck him in the belly; then Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.
7They came into the house while he was lying on his bed in his bedchamber, and they struck him and put him to death and removed his head. Then they took his head and traveled the way of the Arabah all night.
8They brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David at Hebron and said to the king, “Here is the head of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, your enemy who sought your life. Yahweh has granted my lord the king vengeance this day on Saul and on his offspring.”
9But David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, “As Yahweh lives, who has redeemed my life from every distress:
10the one who told me, saying, ‘Look, Saul is dead,’ and thought himself a bearer of good news — I seized him and killed him at Ziklag, which was how I gave him his reward for the news.
11How much more, when wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house on his bed — shall I not now require his blood from your hand and rid the earth of you?”
12So David commanded the young men, and they killed them and cut off their hands and their feet and hung them up by the pool at Hebron. But the head of Ish-bosheth they took and buried in the tomb of Abner at Hebron.
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