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 companies; the name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon, a Beerothite, of the sons of Benjamin (for Beeroth also was reckoned to Benjamin;
3 and the Beerothites fled to Gittaim and were sojourners there until this day).
4 And Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son that was lame of his feet. He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel, 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. And his name was Mephibosheth.
5 And the sons of Rimmon, the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, who lay on a bed at noon.
6 And they came there into the midst of the house as though they were wheat merchants, 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, and they smote him, and slew him and beheaded him and took his head and walked all night through the plain.
8 And they brought the head of Ishbosheth unto David to Hebron and said to the king, Behold the head of Ishbosheth the son of Saul thy enemy, who sought thy life, and the Lord has avenged my lord the king this day of Saul and of his seed.
9 And David answered Rechab and Baanah, his brother, the sons of Rimmon, the Beerothite, and said unto them, As the Lord lives, who has ransomed my soul out of all adversity,
10 when one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him and slew him in Ziklag as a reward for his tidings.
11 How much more unto wicked men who have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed? Shall I not, therefore, now require his blood of your hand and remove you from the earth?
12 Then David commanded his young men, and they slew them and cut off their hands and their feet and hung them up over the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth and buried it in the sepulchre of Abner in Hebron.