Chapter Four

The violent death of Ish-bosheth.

2 Samuel 4:1. And when Ish-bosheth, son of Saul, heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands became weak, and all Israel was troubled. See (2 Sam 3:26-27). “And his hands became weak, and all Israel was troubled”—from the unexpectedness of the news and from not knowing what to do in that moment. “Rough though Abner was with Ish-bosheth, he still constituted his only strength. The prudent counsel and strong hand of Abner had decided all the difficulties that arose in Ish-bosheth’s kingdom up to this time. Now, with Abner’s death, no one strong bound his interests to the person of the weak king, whom it was far easier to destroy than to support.... “And all Israel, it is said, was troubled”: the people felt themselves in the position of sheep without a shepherd” (Y. Bogorodsky, “Hebrew Kings”, p. 148).

2 Samuel 4:2. Now Ish-bosheth, son of Saul, had two commanders of his forces; the name of the one was Baanah and the name of the other was Rechab, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, from the tribe of Benjamin, for Beeroth also was reckoned to Benjamin. “To Benjamin,” that is, to the tribe of Benjamin.

2 Samuel 4:3. And the Beerothites fled to Gittaim and remained there as sojourners until this day. Gittaim, according to the interpretation of Calmet, is the same as Gath.

2 Samuel 4:4. Now Jonathan, son of Saul, had a son who was lame. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse fled, carrying him. And as she fled in haste, he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth. An introductory passage having no direct bearing on the narrative being told. In concluding the history of Saul’s reigning house, the historian, for the sake of completeness, mentions also a member of Saul’s house who, though he had not played an active role up to this time, by his origin belonged to that house, and by his miserable situation in some degree characterized the fate of the offspring of the king rejected by God (1 Sam 16:1).

2 Samuel 4:10. If the one who brought me news, saying, “Behold, Saul is dead,” and who considered himself a good messenger, I seized and killed him in Ziklag, instead of giving him a reward, 2 Samuel 4:11. How much more when wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house on his bed—shall I not now demand his blood from your hand and destroy you from the earth? 2 Samuel 4:12. And David commanded his servants, and they killed them, and cut off their hands and feet, and hanged them over the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth and buried it in the tomb of Abner in Hebron. Cf. (2 Sam 1:1-16). Besides punishing the guilty, David’s vengeance had another significance: it was meant to strengthen in the people’s consciousness the inviolability of the person of the king as the anointed of God (cf. 1 Sam 24:7).