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Ishbaal Assassinated

4When Saul’s son Ishbaal^* heard that Abner had died at Hebron, his courage failed, and all Israel was dismayed. ²Saul’s son had two captains of raiding bands; the name of one was Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab. They were sons of Rimmon, a Benjaminite from Beeroth—for Beeroth is considered to belong to Benjamin. ³(Now the people of Beeroth had fled to Gittaim and are there as resident aliens to this day).

4 Saul’s son Jonathan had a son who was crippled in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled; and, in her haste to flee, it happened that he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.^*

5 Now the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, set out, and about the heat of the day they came to the house of Ishbaal,^* while he was taking his noonday rest. ⁶They came inside the house as though to take wheat, and they struck him in the stomach; then Rechab and his brother Baanah escaped.^{* 7}Now they had come into the house while he was lying on his couch in his bedchamber; they attacked him, killed him, and beheaded him. Then they took his head and travelled by way of the Arabah all night long. ⁸They brought the head of Ishbaal^* to David at Hebron and said to the king, ‘Here is the head of Ishbaal,^* 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.’

9 David answered Rechab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, ‘As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life out of every adversity, ¹⁰when the one who told me, “See, Saul is dead”, thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and killed him at Ziklag—this was the reward I gave him for his news. ¹¹How much more then, when wicked men have killed a righteous man on his bed in his own house! And now shall I not require his blood at your hand, and destroy you from the earth?’ ¹²So David commanded the young men, and they killed them; they cut off their hands and feet, and hung their bodies beside the pool at Hebron. But the head of Ishbaal^* they took and buried in the tomb of Abner at Hebron.