CHAPTER 4
1 And Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, heard that Abner had fallen down in Hebron; and his hands were discomfort-ed, and all Israel was troubled.
2 And two men, princes of companies, were to the son of Saul; name to the one was Baanah, and name to the tother was Rechab, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the sons of Benjamin; for also Beeroth is areckoned in Benjamin.
3 And men of Beeroth fled into Gittaim; and they were comelings there till to that time.
4 And a son feeble in his feet was to Jonathan, the son of Saul; and he was five years eld [or old], when the messenger came from Saul and Jonathan, from Jezreel, telling that they were dead. Therefore his nurse took him, and fled; and when she hasted to flee, she felled down, and the child was made lame; and the name of the child was Mephibosheth.
5 Therefore Rechab and Baanah, the sons of Rimmon of Beeroth, came, and entered in the hot day into the house of Ishbosheth, that slept upon his bed at midday; and the woman that kept the doors of the house, who had been purging wheat, now slept fast.
6 And they came till to the midst of the house, and took wheat; and Rechab, and Baanah, his brother, smote Ishbo-sheth in the share-bone, and fled.
7 Soothly when they had entered into the house, he slept on his bed in a bed-closet; and they smited and killed him; and when they had taken [off] his head, they went by the way of desert in all that night.
8 And they brought the head of Ishbosheth to David, in Hebron, and they said to the king, Lo! the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, thine enemy, that sought thy life; and the Lord hath given today to our lord the king vengeance of Saul, and of his seed.
9 And David answered to Rechab, and Baanah, his brother, the sons of Rimmon of Beeroth, and said to them, The Lord liveth, that hath delivered my life from all anguish,;
10 for I held him that told to me, and said, Saul is dead, which man guessed himself to tell prosperities, and I killed him in Ziklag, to whom it behooved me give meed for his message;
11 how much more now, when wicked men have slain a guiltless man in his house upon his bed, shall I not seek his blood of your hand, and shall not I do away you from the earth?
12 Therefore David commanded to his servants, and they killed them; and they cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them over the cistern in Hebron. Forsooth they took the head of Ishbosheth, and they buried it in the sepulchre of Abner, in Hebron.