¹When Saul's son heard that Abner had died in Hebron, his hands sank, and all Israel was agitated. ²Now Saul's son had two men who were commanders of troops. The name of one was Baanah and the name of the other was Rechab – the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the sons of Benjamin, for Beeroth was also reckoned to Benjamin. ³And the Beerothites fled to Gittaim and dwelt there, as they are up to this day. ⁴And Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son who was lame in his legs. He was five years old when the report of Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his foster mother took him away and fled, and it came to pass in her haste to flee that he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth. ⁵And the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite – Rechab and Baanah – departed, and they arrived as the day was becoming hot, at the house of Ish-Bosheth, and he was lying on a bed at midday. ⁶And they went into the house as if they were customers for wheat, and they struck him in the abdomen, and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped. ⁷For they went into the house while he was lying on his bed in his bedroom, and they struck him and killed him, and they removed his head, and they took his head and departed through the arid tract all night. ⁸And they brought Ish-Bosheth's head to David in Hebron, and they said to the king, “Here is the head of Ish-Bosheth, the son of Saul your enemy who sought your life, and the Lord avenged my lord the king on this day on Saul and his seed.” ⁹But David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and he said to them, “As the Lord lives, who redeemed my life from all adversity, ¹⁰when the one reporting to me said, ‘Look, Saul is dead’ – when he was bringing good news in his eyes – I seized him and killed him in Ziklag, which was me giving him good news. ¹¹How much more is it like that when wicked men have killed a righteous man in his house on his bed? So now, should I not require his blood from yourselves and eradicate you from the land?” ¹²Then David commanded his servant-lads, and they killed them, and they cut off their hands and feet, and they hanged them over the pool in Hebron, and they took Ish-Bosheth's head and buried it in Abner's sepulchre in Hebron.