2 Samuel 4

¹When the son of Saul heard that Abner had died in Hebron, his hands went limp, and all Israel was dismayed.

²Now there were two men who were commanders of raiding bands belonging to the son of Saul: the name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the other was Rechab, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, from the sons of Benjamin -- for Beeroth also is reckoned to Benjamin.

³And the Beerothites fled to Gittaim and have been sojourning there to this day.

⁴Now Jonathan son of Saul had a son who was 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 in her haste to flee he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.

⁵Rechab and Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, went and came to the house of Ish-bosheth at the heat of the day, and he was lying on his bed at midday.

⁶And they came into the midst of the house, taking wheat, and struck him in the belly; and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.

⁷And they came into the house while he was lying on his bed in his bedroom, and they struck him down and killed him and removed his head, and they took his head and went by the way of the Arabah all night long.

⁸And they brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David at Hebron and said to the king, 'Look, the head of Ish-bosheth son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life. And the Lord has given my lord the king vengeance this day against Saul and against his offspring.'

⁹David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them: As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my life from every adversity,

¹⁰When the one who told me, saying, 'Look, Saul is dead,' thought himself to be a bearer of good news in his own eyes, I seized him and killed him at Ziklag, which was what I gave him as a reward for the news.

¹¹How much more, when wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house upon his bed -- shall I not now require his blood at your hand and remove you from the land?

¹²David commanded his young men, and they killed them and cut off their hands and their feet and hung them by the pool at Hebron. They took the head of Ish-bosheth and buried it in the tomb of Abner at Hebron.