B C x 1. Ishbosheth's weakness.
y 2,3. His two captains. Description.
D 4. Mephibosheth.
C x 5-8. Ish-bosheth's murder.
y 9-12. His two captains. Execution.960 to 953 B.C.
2 Samuel 4)
1: And when Saul's son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands were feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled.
2: And Saul's son had two men that were captains of bands: the name of the one was Baanah (= in affliction), and the name of the other Rechab (= rider. Head of the house of the Kenites = sons of Cain), the sons of Rimmon a Beerothite (near Gibeon [Josh. 18:25], now El Bireh, 6 miles north of Jerusalem, one of the Hivite towns possessed by Benjamin), of the sons of Benjamin: {for Beeroth also was reckoned to Benjamin:
3: And the Beerothites fled to Gittaim, and were sojourners (= vagabonds) there until this day.}
4: And Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son that was lame of his feet (cp. state of sinner by nature). He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel (i.e. the death of Saul, &c.: v.4 is introduced here to explain the ease with which David's accession was accomplished, Mephibosheth being unable to succeed his father or avenge the death of Ish-bosheth), and his nurse took him up, and fled: and it came to pass, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and became lame (it crippled him). And his name was Mephibosheth (= exterminating the idol).
5: And the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went, and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ish-bosheth, who lay on a bed at noon.
6: And they came to that place into the midst of the house, as though they would have fetched wheat; and they smote him under the fifth rib: and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.
7: For when they came into the house, he lay on his bed in his bedchamber (cp. 3:31), and they smote him, and slew him, and beheaded him, and took his head, and got them away through the plain all night.
8: And they brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David to Hebron, and said to the king, “Behold the head of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul thine enemy, which sought your soul; and the Lord has avenged my lord the king this day of Saul, and of his seed.” (Siesta time is the best time for an attack by the enemy. They had free run of the kings house, a sign of the Kenite = the sons of Cain. They are doing this to get inside the next palace. One problem though, they didn't understand the compassion of David. Evil men never advertise that they are mean, conniving, low-down sun-of-a guns [no gender intended]. They come with kindness and pump up your ego. Con men. Satan's main M.O. Stay awake on your watch!)
9: And David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, “As the Lord lives, Who has redeemed my soul out of all adversity,
10: When one told me (the Egyptian, the Amalekite), saying, ‘Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings,’ I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag, who thought that I would have given him a reward for his tidings:
11: How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed? shall I not therefore now exact the penalty for his blood of your hand, and take you away from the land?” (see Ecc. 12:7)
12: And David commanded his young men, and they slew them, and cut off their hands and their feet (they were thieves. Now they can no run and tell tales to people), and hanged them up over the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth, and buried it in the sepulchre of Abner in Hebron (cp. 3:32).