The Murder of Ish-bosheth
And the son of Saul heard that Abner had died in Hebron, and his hands went slack; and all Israel was terrified.
And the son of Saul had two men who were commanders of raiding bands — the name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the second Rechab, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, from the sons of Benjamin; for Beeroth also is counted to Benjamin,
and the Beerothites fled to Gittaim, and they have been resident foreigners there to this day.
Now Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son crippled in his feet. He was five years old when the news of Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse lifted him up and fled; and it was, in her hurrying to flee, that he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.
And the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went and came at the heat of the day to the house of Ish-bosheth, as he was lying down for the midday rest.
And they came into the middle of the house as though taking wheat, and they struck him in the belly; and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.
They had come into the house while he was lying on his bed in his bedroom; and they struck him and put him to death, and removed his head. And they took his head and went the way of the Arabah all night.
And they brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David at Hebron, and they said to the king: “Look — the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul your enemy, who sought your life. The LORD has given my lord the king vengeance this day on Saul and on his seed.”
The Execution of Rechab and Baanah
And David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them: “As the LORD lives, who has ransomed my life from all distress —
when the one telling me said, ‘Look, Saul is dead,’ and he was in his own eyes a bringer of good news, I seized him and killed him at Ziklag — that was my giving him a reward for his news.
How much more, when wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house, on his own bed — shall I not now seek his blood from your hand, and purge you from the earth?”
And David commanded the young men, and they killed them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hung them up by the pool at Hebron. But the head of Ish-bosheth they took and buried in the tomb of Abner at Hebron.