1 When Sauls son heard that Abner had died in Hebron, his hands fell limp, and all Israel was dismayed.
2 Now Sauls son had two men who were commanders of troops. The name of one was Baanah and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the sons of Benjamin. (For Beeroth also was part of Benjamin,
3 because the Beerothites fled to Gittaim and are sojourning there to this day.)
4 And Jonathan, Sauls son, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel; and his nurse took him up and fled. And it happened, as she made haste to flee, that he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.
5 And the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, set out and came at the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, who was lying on his bed at noon.
6 And when they had come there, into the middle of the house, as though carrying wheat, they stabbed him in the stomach. And Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.
7 Now when they came into the house, he was lying on his bed in his bedroom; then they struck him and killed him, beheaded him and took his head, and were all night escaping through the plain.
8 And they brought the head of Ishbosheth to David at Hebron, and said to the king, Behold, the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul your enemy, who had sought your life. Jehovah has requited vengeance for my lord the king this day upon Saul and his seed.
9 But David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, As Jehovah lives, who has redeemed my soul from all distress,
10 when someone told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good news, I took him and killed him in Ziklag; the reward I gave him for his news.
11 How much more, when wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house on his bed? Therefore, shall I not now require his blood at your hand and remove you from the earth?
12 And David commanded his young men, and they slew them, cut off their hands and feet, and hung them by the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth and buried it in the tomb of Abner at Hebron.