2 Samuel 4 – “Give Space For God To Judge”

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 6 Feb. 2021

Introduction

It is curious how the cast is introduced in the first few verses of 2 Samuel 4, before the action takes off: First Rechab and Banah, the assasains, are introduced, and then Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth is introduced. But you know this is history – and not some polished play – from the little bits and pieces of lore mentioned along the way.
Please follow along in your Bible as I read my translation of chapter 4: Presently, {Ishbosheth}, son of Saul, heard that Abner had died in Hebron, and his hands went limp; then all Israel was panicked. Now there were two men who were officers of troops {belonging to Ishbosheth}, son of Saul. The name of the first man was Baanah and the name of the second was Recab. They were sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, from the descendents of Benjamin (for Beeroth is also considered to be in Benjamin, since the Beerothites fled to Gittaim and have been tenants there to this day). Meanwhile there belonged to Saul’s son Jonathan a son who had been injured in both feet. Five years old he was when hearsay about Saul and {his son} Jonathan had came from Jezreel, so his nurse had picked him up and fled, but it happened in her mad dash to escape that he had fallen and became crippled. Anyway, his name was Mephibosheth. Now the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite – Rechab and Baanah – went walking and arrived around the hottest part of the day at the house of Ish Bosheth. Now he was lying in a recliner that midday. So there they came right into the middle of the house to get some wheat. Then they struck him through the abdomen, and Rechab and his brother Baanah made their escape. (Now, when they had come into the house, {Ishbosheth} had been lying on his bed in his sleeping room, and they had struck and killed him and removed his head. Then they took his head and walked the Arabah road all that night.) And so they brought the head of Ish Bosheth to David at Hebron, and they said to the king, “Here is the head of Ish Bosheth, son of Saul your enemy who tried to take your life! Now Yahweh has given to my lord the king reliefs this day from Saul and from his offspring!” But David answered Recab and his brother Baanah – the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite – and said to them, “Yahweh is alive who has redeemed my life out of every crisis. Now, when the one who communicated it to me said, ‘Saul is dead,’ and, in his eyes, it was like bringing good-news, I seized him and killed him in Ziqlag. That’s what I gave him for ‘good-news’! Moreover, if wicked men have murderd an upstanding man in his own house, upon his recliner, wouldn’t I also now seek blood from y’all personally for him and burn y’all off the earth?” So David commanded his guys, and they killed them. Then they chopped off their hands and their feet and hung {them} over the fountain in Hebron. As for the head of Ish Bosheth, they took it and buried it in Abner’s grave in Hebron.
This account gives us a contrast between two views of history, the man-centered view of Rechab and Banah and Ish Bosheth and the God-centered view of David.
- The man-centered view led Ish Bosheth to laziness and self-indulgence while it led Rechab and Banah to a Machievellian attempt to achieve a good goal through lawless activism.
- But David’s God-centered view led him to obey God’s laws and to wait with trust in God to fulfill His promises.
- At the end of the chapter, Rechab, Banah, and Ish Bosheth are dead, but David is the one who is alive and in power.
Let’s consider the lessons about faith in Jesus that this story has for us as we step into the details. First the negative example from...

vs. 1-8 Rechab and Baanah’s assasination of King Ish Boseth

These two brothers from the border between the tribe of Benjamin and the Philistines were officers in the northern Israelite army under King Ishbosheth and General Abner.
There is a brief allusion in v.3 to a mass-exodus of Benjamites from the town of Beeroth (a town which the Benjamites under Joshua had annexed from the Gibeonites, just south of Gibeah of Saul), and these Beerothites mass-migrated to the town of Gittaim (about 20 miles East Northeast at the Philistine border¹).
- Many² think they got overrun by Philistines during one of the battles recorded in 1 Sam.,
- but I prefer the theory that they were fugitives escaping Saul’s slaughter of the Gibeonites mentioned later on in chapter 21.
  - If they were Gibeonites living in Philistia, this would explain why there would need to be an explanation that they were Benjamites,
  - and if they had been persecuted by Saul, this would explain why these guys could be of the same tribe as Saul and yet hate Saul enough to kill his heir.
Rechab and Baanah had also been working under Abner as Israelite army officers, so they may have been influenced by Abner’s change of loyalty from Ishbosheth to David, and, upon the death of Abner, they must have feared that the new Israelite confederation under David that Abner was trying to construct might fall apart without Abner, so they took matters into their own hands rather than trusting God to work things out.
They figured that assasinating King Ishbosheth, Saul’s only remaining legitimate son, would remove the last eligible heir to the throne of Saul and clear the way for David to become king over all Israel with no contenders from Saul’s family. (Mephibosheth, Saul’s only remaining legitimate grandson, was the only other possibility, but he was lame and also was younger than 12 years old, too young to actually reign in the midst of a power vaccuum like this.)
They hatched a plan and carried it out with precision. There is some debate as to why the account of the assasination is duplicated in verses 6 and 7, but most commentators explain it just in terms of Hebrew writing style³. They walked from their army post to the palace, right into the king’s bedroom at noon, murdered him, and made off with his head 68 miles down to David in Hebron.
They expected David would reward them because that was the way Saul had done things:
Now, how did Rechab and Baanah get into Ish Bosheth’s house to murder him?
- The ancient Greek and Latin versions of this passage both add the detail that Ishbosheth’s housekeeper was cleaning wheat at the time. This may be an explanation for why it would not be suspicious for Rechab and Baanah to arrive with the seeming intent to pick up⁴ some wheat.
- Perhaps, as army officers, they regularly brought the soldiers’ daily ration of food from the palace to the army post, stopping by the king’s chambers to give routine updates on the troops.
Whatever the case, Ish Bosheth was not on his guard, nor was he being diligent in his work.
- After the death of Abner, he should have tightened his security, considering the delicate condition of his kingdom.
- And if it was normal for his servants to be working in the middle of the day, why was he sleeping? Surely there was much work to be done to mend his ship of state in the wake of Abner’s death!
- These seem to be evidences that Ish Bosheth was negligent or incompetent in his administration.
How it is with you and your ship of state?
- It might be a very small ship that you run, just the size of your bedroom that you’re supposed to clean and study in, or it might be a family, or a classroom, or a company, or a county or a state, but are you taking proper measures to keep it secure from whatever damages might threaten it?
- Or are you being lazy and failing to work when you should be working? Matthew Henry commented, “When those difficulties dispirit us which should rather invigorate us and sharpen our endeavours, we betray both our crowns and lives. Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty and ruin (Prov. 20:13).”
- Furthermore, are you taking matters into your own hands with disregard to God’s ways (like Rechab & Baanah did), or are you praying every day for God to protect you from evil and to provide your daily needs while you do the things He has called you to do?
The root of Ish Bosheth’s problems was that he did not place his trust in God. His confidence was in Abner, so when Abner died, Ish Bosheth lost all heart.
- Dismay and despair is what will always happen to you if you put your trust in human beings. People will always disappoint you, but Jesus “never fails” (Zeph. 3:5).
- David was able to trust that God’s promises would come true and therefore to act with decisiveness and justice, relying upon Divine Providence even though the promise had not come true yet.
- Do you often find yourself dismayed? Perhaps by the foolish things going on in our political system? Could that be a symptom of putting your trust in man instead of in God?
  - I love the way the Psalter puts it in Psalm 146: “Put no confidence in princes, Nor for help on man depend; He shall die, to dust returning, And his purposes shall end. Happy is the man that chooses Israel's God to be his aid; He is blessed whose hope of blessing On the Lord his God is stayed.”
- Can you trust God to fulfill His promises? Promises like:
  - Isaiah 42:1 “Here is my servant... [speaking of Jesus] He will cause justice to go out to the nations.” (NAW) or how about
  - Matthew 12:20 which quotes from another prophecy of Isaiah concerning Jesus, “He will not break off a crushed reed, and He will not extinguish a smoldering wick until He dispenses justice in victory.” (NAW)
  - Do you believe these promises that Jesus will victoriously bring justice on this earth?
Well, in contrast to Rechab and Baanah and Ish Bosheth, we have the example of David’s actions of justice and patience motivated by faith in Yahweh.

vs. 9-12 David’s response to Rechab and Baanah

The word in v.8 translated “avenge/vengeance” (which I translated “reliefs”) only occurs a few other times in the Hebrew Old Testament as a plural noun, and it seems to have two complementary sides of meaning:
- One is veangence-oriented, in combination with the verb עשה, like in Judges 11:36, Ezek. 25:17 where, “Yahweh executes nachams on enemies” - veangences,
- and the other is more relief-oriented, in combination with the verb נתן, as it is here (and in 2 Sam. 22 & Psa. 18), where, “Yahweh gives nachams to me from my enemies”⁵ - reliefs.
- This follows the two directions of meaning in the two verbal forms of nacham found in Isaiah 1:24 “Therefore, declares the Lord... ‘I will be relieved from my enemies and be avenged from my foes.’" (NAW) – Yahweh brings vengeance upon enemies and relief to His people.
God did indeed bring “vengeance” upon Saul and his house with the murder of Ish Bosheth, but these Benjamite brothers were mistaken to think that this retribution should have come through their lawless actions.
- Vengeance is never to be taken into our own hands. “Vengeance is mine declares the LORD” (Rom. 12:19) let Him repay.
- If they had trusted God and waited on His timing, God would have brought the demise of Ishbosheth in some other way.
- David understood this principle, which is why he was trusting God and waiting on God’s timing and not out trying to kill Ishbosheth.
- And so it was David who experienced “relief” when the actions of these crooked brothers fulfilled God’s plan of “retribution” against Saul’s dynasty.
There are a lot of connections between this account and David’s commentary at the end of Psalm 18, where he wrote, “[L]et the God of my salvation be exalted! This God is the One who deals out retributions for me and decrees peoples to be under me, delivering me from my enemies. Yes, You exalt me apart from the one who rises up [against] me. You cause me to escape from a man of violence. Therefore I respond with the nations to Yahweh and play music to Your name. He causes to increase the salvations of His king and makes loving-kindness for His anointed one – to David and to his seed for ever.” (Ps. 18:46-50, NAW)
In 2 Samuel 4:9, David testifies to these two brothers that Yahweh is still alive-and-well (“The LORD lives”), and He was perfectly capable of taking-out Ishbosheth – without their resorting to murder – just as Yahweh has always been alive-and-well to intervene in crises throughout David’s life to save Him.
- David had seen God bring an end to Saul without the need for an assasination. He had seen God bring an end to Nabal without the need for vigilante-ism. (Now, where David actually had authority to bring justice, he used that authority to put criminals to death, as we’ll see in a moment, but) David knew from experience that he could wait for God to bring about justice in matters where he did not have the authority to act himself. David had not yet been given the authority of kingship over the northern tribes of Israel, so he did not have the authority to act against Ish Bosheth, so he waited on God for that.
- Jesus, on the other hand, has “all authority in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18)! His hands are not tied; He’s never been AWOL, and He’s never missed a delivery. It’s insane, therefore, to take matters into our own hands and try to control what is outside of our control when, all the time, our problems are under the jurisdiction of God who is all-powerful and who loves us!
So, as king – and therefore as the magistrate in charge of his nation’s justice system, David explains to Rechab and Baanah
- what was wrong with what they did: “You murderd an upstanding man [the Hebrew word tsadiq is usually translated “righteous” but, like most Hebrew words, it has a range of meaning, and in this case, David is not asserting that Ish Bosheth was perfectly righteous morally, but rather that he was an upstanding citizen of Israel who had not committed any crime worthy of death] an upstanding man in his own house, on his bed!” That’s first-degree murder!
- Then he explains what God’s age-old law prescribes for murder: “Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning... from the hand of man. From the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed.” That verse from Genesis 9 is back of what David says in v.11 about “requiring blood from your hand.”
- He says, “You’re going to have to shed blood for this,” and he orders their execution.
Then, to make a further point, he has their hands and feet chopped off of their dead bodies and hung in a public place.
- Part of justice is warning those who might do evil of the consequences of doing evil so that they might not do it. Since this was the second time somebody had thought David would reward them for assasinating and Israelite, David wanted to do what he could to keep there from being a third time.
- The Hebrew wording is actually not clear on whether it was the bodies of the two men that were hung or just their hands and feet⁶ that were hung,
- but, either way, it was a curse from the law code of Deut. 21:22-23 "If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.”
- By the way, it was not at a “swimming pool” that these body parts were hung; rather, this was the community’s source of drinking water. Somebody from every home in Hebron showed up at that watering hole at least once a day to get water for their household,
  - so there wasn’t a soul in town who wouldn’t hear about those hands and feet hanging over the water hole – and what David did that day.
  - And you can bet the word spread throughout the country that, under King David, any further assasinations would be a really bad idea!
Finally, David gives Ish Bosheth’s head an honorable burial beside Abner, thus doing a kindness to his ungodly rival.

Conclusion

So God removed the opposition to David’s kingship through the unrelated actions of evil men, while David waited on the LORD and did the job that he had been called to do at that point as a civil magistrate over Judah. David bolstered his faith by remembering how the LORD had redeemed him from every crisis thus far, and he trusted that the LORD would continue to redeem him as long as he kept trusting and obeying God. God blesses those who do His will and wait on His timing.
It takes faith to believe that, I know. We all face circumstances at times where we are tempted to achieve a good goal by doing wrong things, like Rechab and Baanah who had a good goal of David being king but used sinful means of murder to achieve that end. Satan usually isn’t that blatant in his temptations; there are usually more subtle ways Satan tempts us to compromise on trusting and obeying God completely by just partially trusting and obeying God.
- It may seem very innocent, such as driving faster than the speed limit, running a red light, and not stopping at stop signs, in order to get to your destination on-time instead of late. That’s easy to rationalize because, driving a certain number of miles per hour is not intrinsically morally right or wrong, and it makes an objective difference to other people whether you are late or on-time, so what’s the big deal? It’s just a little seed of rebellion against the authorities God has allowed to have jurisdiction over us. Are you willing to trust God with how long the drive will take and with what other people will think of you if you’re late?
- Maybe a husband might try to scare his wife into submitting to him and rationalize that the resulting unity is worth the relationship-destroying sin. Husband, are you willing to obey God by speaking only edifying, grace-imparting words and wait on the Lord to work on your wife’s heart and your heart to bring you together in unity?
- Or maybe a wife might resort to emotional manipulation to get her husband to accomplish duties that he should be fulfilling, because she doesn’t believe God’s way of appealing to him respectfully will work. Will you trust and obey the word of God and give it time, or will you trust the voice in your head that says, “He’ll never listen,” and take matters into your own hands?
- Or in sibling relationships, maybe you’re trying to get your sister to pull her nose out of her book and help you with something, but she just isn’t paying attention, so you say something that’s not quite true like, “Mama says if you don’t stop reading now and help me right this instant, she’s going to spank you!” if Mama didn’t actually say that. Or maybe Mama told you to clean a room, and you didn’t quite straighten everything in the room, but when she asks if you’re done and ready for a snack you say, “Yes,” because you’re tired of working and you want to quit and get a snack. Are you willing to put away deception and speak the truth and trust God with the outcome?
- Or in business, you might need to make a sale to provide for your family (which is a good thing), but you are tempted to exaggerate the benefits of your product or your idea in order to make the sale, or conversely, you know you can make a sale, but it won’t be what is best for your client, but you are tempted to do it anyway because it’s easier. Can you trust God to provide for you and then live in obedience to Him and do your work wholeheartedly as unto Him?
- As Andrew Willett, the early Puritan commentator on 1 Samuel put it, “[U]nlawfull means must not be used to hasten the Lord’s work... we must with patience wait upon God...”
- Trust God. 2 Peter 2:9 says, “[T]he Lord knows how to deliver the godly... and to reserve the unjust under punishment…” Let Him handle the justice department, just as He did for David. Then you can pray like David did in Psalm 25:20-21, “Keep my soul, and deliver me; Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, For I wait for You.”

2 Samuel 4- Side-by side comparison of versions^{^A}

LXX	Brenton	DRB	KJV	NAW	MT
1 Καὶ ἤκουσεν [Μεμφιβοσθε] υἱὸς Σαουλ ὅτι τέθνηκεν Αβεννηρ ἐν Χεβρων, καὶ ἐξελύθησαν αἱ χεῖρες αὐτοῦ, καὶ πάντες [οἱ ἄνδρες] Ισραηλ παρείθησαν.	1 And [Jebosthe] the son of Saul heard that Abenner [the son of Ner^B] had died in Chebron; and his hands were paralyzed, and all [the men] of Israel grew faint.	1 And [Isboseth] the son of Saul heard that Abner was slain in Hebron: and his hands were weakened, and all Israel was troubled.	1 And when Saul's son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands were feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled.	1 Presently, {Ishbosheth}, son of Saul, heard that Abner had died in Hebron, and his hands went limp; then all Israel was panicked.^C	1 וַיִּשְׁמַע^D בֶּן-שָׁאוּל כִּי מֵת אַבְנֵר בְּחֶבְרוֹן וַיִּרְפּוּ יָדָיו וְכָל- יִשְׂרָאֵל נִבְהָלוּ:
2 καὶ δύο ἄνδρες ἡγούμενοι συστρεμμάτων τῷ ~~Μεμφιβοσθε~~ υἱῷ Σαουλ, ὄνομα τῷ ἑνὶ Βαανα καὶ ὄνομα τῷ δευτέρῳ Ρηχαβ, υἱοὶ Ρεμμων τοῦ Βηρωθαίου ἐκ τῶν υἱῶν Βενιαμιν· ὅτι X Βηρωθ ἐλογίζετο τοῖς [υἱοῖς] Βενιαμιν,	2 And ~~Jebos~~^E the the son of Saul ~~had~~ two men that were captains of bands: the name of the one was Baana, and the name of the ~~other~~ Rechab, sons of Remmon the Berothite of the children of Benjamin; for Beroth was X reckoned to [the children of] Benjamin.	2 Now the son of Saul had two men captains of [his] bands, the name of the one was Baana, and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Remmon a Berothite of the children of Benjamin: for Beroth also was reckoned in Benjamin.	2 And Saul's son had^F two men that were captains of bands: the name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the ~~other~~ Rechab, the sons of Rimmon a Beerothite, of the children of Benjamin: (for Beeroth also was reckoned to Benjamin:	2 Now there were two men who were officers of troops {belonging to Ishbosheth}, son of Saul. The name of the first man was Baanah and the name of the second was Recab. They were sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, from the descendents of Benjamin (for Beeroth is also considered to be in Benjamin,	2 וּשְׁנֵי אֲנָשִׁים שָׂרֵי-גְדוּדִים הָיוּ^G בֶן-שָׁאוּל שֵׁם הָאֶחָד בַּעֲנָה וְשֵׁם הַשֵּׁנִי רֵכָב בְּנֵי רִמּוֹן^H הַבְּאֶרֹתִי מִבְּנֵי בִנְיָמִן כִּי גַּם- בְּאֵרוֹת^I תֵּחָשֵׁב עַל-בִּנְיָמִן:
3 καὶ ἀπέδρασαν οἱ Βηρωθαῖοι εἰς Γεθθαιμ καὶ ἦσαν ἐκεῖ παροικοῦντες ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ταύτης. --	3 And the Berothites ran away to Gethaim, and were sojourners there until this day.	3 And the Berothites fled into Gethaim, and were sojourners there until that time.	3 And the Beerothites fled to Gittaim, and were sojourners there until this day.)	3 since the Beerothites fled to Gittaim and have been tenants there to this day).	3 וַיִּבְרְחוּ הַבְּאֵרֹתִים גִּתָּיְמָה^J וַיִּהְיוּ- שָׁם גָּרִים עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה: ס
4 καὶ τῷ Ιωναθαν υἱῷ Σαουλ υἱὸς πεπληγὼς τοὺς πόδας· υἱὸς ἐτῶν πέντε ~~οὗτος~~ ἐν τῷ ἐλθεῖν τὴν ἀγγελίαν Σαουλ καὶ Ιωναθαν [τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ] ἐξ Ιεζραελ, καὶ ἦρεν αὐτὸν ἡ τιθηνὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ ἔφυγεν, καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ σπεύδειν αὐτὴν καὶ ἀναχωρεῖν καὶ ἔπεσεν καὶ ἐχωλάνθη, καὶ ὄνομα αὐτῷ Μεμφιβοσθε. --	4 And Jonathan Saul's son had a son ~~lame~~ of his feet, five years old, [and^K] he was in the way when the news of Saul and Jonathan [his son] came from Jezrael, and his nurse took him up, and fled; and it came to pass as he^L hasted and retreated, that he fell, and was lamed. And his name was Memphibosthe.	4 And Jonathan the son of Saul had a son that was ~~lame~~ of his feet: [for^M] he was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan from Jezrahel. And his nurse took him up and fled: and as she made haste to flee, he fell and became lame: and his name was Miphiboseth.	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.	4 Meanwhile there belonged to Saul’s son Jonathan a son who had been injured in both feet. Five years old he was when hearsay about Saul and {his son} Jonathan came from Jezreel, so his nurse had picked him up and fled, but it happened in her mad dash to escape that he fell and became crippled. Anyway, his hame was Mephibosheth.	4 וְלִיהוֹנָתָן בֶּן-שָׁאוּל בֵּן נְכֵה רַגְלָיִם בֶּן-חָמֵשׁ שָׁנִים ^Nהָיָה בְּבֹא שְׁמֻעַת שָׁאוּל וִיהוֹנָתָן^O מִיִּזְרְעֶאל וַתִּשָּׂאֵהוּ ^Pאֹמַנְתּוֹ וַתָּנֹס וַיְהִי בְּחָפְזָהּ לָנוּס וַיִּפֹּל וַיִּפָּסֵחַ^Q וּשְׁמוֹ מְפִיבֹשֶׁת:
5 καὶ ἐπορεύθησαν υἱοὶ Ρεμμων τοῦ Βηρωθαίου Ρεκχα καὶ Βαανα καὶ εἰσῆλθον ἐν τῷ καύματι τῆς ἡμέρας εἰς οἶκον Μεμφιβοσθε, καὶ αὐτὸς ἐκάθευδεν ἐν [τῇ] κοίτῃ τῆς μεσημβρίας,	5 And Rechab and Baana the sons of Remmon the Berothite went, and they came in the heat of the day into the house of Jebosthe; and he was sleeping on a bed at noon.	5 And the sons of Remmon the Berothite, Rechab and Baana coming, went into the house of Isboseth in the heat of the day: and he was sleeping ~~upon~~ [his] bed at noon.	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, X who lay on a bed at noon.	5 Now the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite – Rechab and Baanah – went walking and arrived around the hottest part of the day at the house of Ish Bosheth. Now he was lying in a recliner that midday.	5 וַיֵּלְכוּ בְּנֵי- רִמּוֹן הַבְּאֵרֹתִי רֵכָב וּבַעֲנָה וַיָּבֹאוּ כְּחֹם^R הַיּוֹם אֶל-בֵּית אִישׁ בֹּשֶׁת וְהוּא שֹׁכֵב אֵת מִשְׁכַּב הַצָּהֳרָיִם:
6 καὶ ἰδοὺ ~~ἡ θυρωρὸς~~ X X τοῦ οἴκου ~~ἐκάθαιρεν~~ πυροὺς καὶ ~~ἐνύσταξεν~~ ~~καὶ~~ ~~ἐκάθευδεν~~, καὶ Ρεκχα καὶ Βαανα οἱ ἀδελφοὶ διέλαθον	6 And, behold, ~~the porter~~ X X of the house ~~winnowed~~ wheat, and ~~he slumbered and~~ ~~slept~~: and X ~~the~~ brother[s] Rechab and Baana went	[And the doorkeeper of the house, who was cleansing wheat, was fallen asleep.] 6 And X they entered into the house ~~secretly~~ taking ears of corn, and Rechab and Baana his brother ~~stabbed~~ him in the groin, and fled away.	6 And they came thither into the midst of the house, as though they would have fetched wheat; and they smote him under the fifth rib: and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.	6 {The housekeeper meanwhile was processing wheat.} So there they came right into the middle of the house to get some wheat. Then they struck him through the abdomen, and Rechab and his brother Baanah made their escape.	6 וְהֵנָּה^S בָּאוּ עַד-תּוֹךְ הַבַּיִת לֹקְחֵי חִטִּים וַיַּכֻּהוּ אֶל-הַחֹמֶשׁ וְרֵכָב וּבַעֲנָה אָחִיו נִמְלָטוּ:
7 καὶ εἰσῆλθον εἰς τὸν οἶκον, καὶ Μεμφιβοσθε ἐκάθευδεν ἐπὶ τῆς κλίνης αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ κοιτῶνι αὐτοῦ, καὶ τύπτουσιν αὐτὸν καὶ θανατοῦσιν καὶ ἀφαιροῦσιν τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἔλαβον τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀπῆλθον ὁδὸν τὴν [κατὰ] δυσμὰς ὅλην τὴν νύκτα.	X X privily into the house: 7 And Jebosthe^T was sleeping on his bed in his chamber: and they smite him, and slay him, and take off his head: and they took his head, and went all the night [by] the western road.	7 For when they came into the house, he was sleeping upon his bed in a X parlour, and they struck him and killed him and taking away his head X X X X^U X they went off [by] the way of the wilderness, [walking] all night.	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 gat them ~~away~~ [through] the plain all night.	7 (Now, when they had come into the house, {Ishbosheth} had been lying on his bed in his sleeping room, and they had struck and killed him and removed his head. Then they took his head and walked the Arabah road all that night.)	7 וַיָּבֹאוּ הַבַּיִת וְהוּא-שֹׁכֵב עַל- מִטָּתוֹ בַּחֲדַר מִשְׁכָּבוֹ וַיַּכֻּהוּ וַיְמִתֻהוּ וַיָּסִירוּ אֶת-רֹאשׁוֹ וַיִּקְחוּ אֶת- רֹאשׁוֹ וַיֵּלְכוּ דֶּרֶךְ הָעֲרָבָה כָּל-הַלָּיְלָה:
8 καὶ ἤνεγκαν τὴν κεφαλὴν Μεμφιβοσθε τῷ Δαυιδ εἰς Χεβρων καὶ εἶπαν πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα Ἰδοὺ ἡ κεφαλὴ Μεμφιβοσθε υἱοῦ Σαουλ τοῦ ἐχθροῦ σου, ὃς ἐζήτει τὴν ψυχήν σου, καὶ ἔδωκεν κύριος τῷ κυρίῳ βασιλεῖ ἐκδίκησιν [τῶν ἐχθρῶν αὐτοῦ ὡς] ἡ ἡμέρα αὕτη, ἐκ Σαουλ [τοῦ ἐχθροῦ σου] καὶ ἐκ τοῦ σπέρματος αὐτοῦ.	8 And they brought the head of Jebosthe to David to Chebron, and they said to the king, Behold the head of Jebosthe the son of Saul thy enemy, who sought thy life; and the Lord has ~~executed~~ for my lord the king vengeance [on his enemies, as it is] this day: even on Saul [thy enemy], and on his seed.	8 And they brought the head of Isboseth to David to Hebron: and they said to the king: Behold the head of Isboseth the son of Saul thy enemy who sought thy life: and the Lord hath X revenged X my lord the king this day of Saul, and of his seed.	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 thine enemy, which sought thy life; and the LORD hath X avenged X my lord the king this day of Saul, and of his seed.	8 And so they brought the head of Ish Bosheth to David at Hebron, and they said to the king, “Here is the head of Ish-Bosheth, son of Saul, your enemy who tried to take your life! Now Yahweh has given to my lord the king reliefs this day from Saul and from his offspring!”	8 וַיָּבִאוּ אֶת- רֹאשׁ אִישׁ- בֹּשֶׁת אֶל-דָּוִד חֶבְרוֹן וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֶל-הַמֶּלֶךְ הִנֵּה- רֹאשׁ אִישׁ- בֹּשֶׁת בֶּן-שָׁאוּל אֹיִבְךָ אֲשֶׁר בִּקֵּשׁ אֶת-נַפְשֶׁךָ וַיִּתֵּן יְהוָה לַאדֹנִי הַמֶּלֶךְ נְקָמוֹת^V הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה מִשָּׁאוּל וּמִזַּרְעוֹ: ס
9 καὶ ἀπεκρίθη Δαυιδ τῷ Ρεκχα καὶ τῷ Βαανα ἀδελφῷ αὐτοῦ υἱοῖς Ρεμμων τοῦ Βηρωθαίου καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς Ζῇ κύριος, ὃς ἐλυτρώσατο τὴν ψυχήν μου ἐκ πάσης θλίψεως,	9 And David answered Rechab and Baana his brother, the sons of Remmon the Berothite, and said to them, [As] the Lord lives, who has redeemed my soul out of all affliction;	9 But David answered Rechab, and Baana his brother, the sons of Remmon the Berothite, and said to them: [As] the Lord liveth, who hath delivered my soul out of all distress,	9 And David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said unto them, As the LORD liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity,	9 But David answered Recab and his brother Baanah – the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite – and said to them, “Yahweh is alive who has redeemed my life out of every crisis.	9 וַיַּעַן דָּוִד אֶת- רֵכָב וְאֶת-בַּעֲנָה אָחִיו בְּנֵי רִמּוֹן הַבְּאֵרֹתִי וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם חַי-יְהוָה אֲשֶׁר-פָּדָה אֶת- נַפְשִׁי מִכָּל- צָרָה:
10 ὅτι ὁ ἀπαγγείλας μοι X ὅτι τέθνηκεν Σαουλ--καὶ αὐτὸς ἦν ὡς εὐαγγελιζόμενος ἐνώπιόν ~~μου~~^W--καὶ κατέσχον αὐτὸν καὶ ἀπέκτεινα ἐν Σεκελακ, ᾧ [ἔδει] με δοῦναι εὐαγγέλια·	10 X he that reported to me X that Saul was dead, even he was as one bringing glad tidings before X me: but I seized him and slew him in Sekelac, to whom I [ought, as he thought,] to have given [a reward] for [his] tidings.	10 X The man that told me, and said: X Saul is dead, X who X ~~thought~~ X he brought X good tidings, I apprehended, and slew him in Siceleg, who X should have been rewarded for his news.	10 When one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, X X X ~~thinking~~ to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag, who thought that I would have given him [a reward] for [his] tidings:	10 Now, when the one who communicated it to me said, ‘{}Saul is dead,’ and, in his eyes, it was like bringing good-news, I seized him and killed him in Ziqlag. That’s what I gave him for ‘good-news’!	10 כִּי הַמַּגִּיד לִי לֵאמֹר ^Xהִנֵּה-מֵת שָׁאוּל וְהוּא-הָיָה כִמְבַשֵּׂר בְּעֵינָיו וָאֹחֲזָה בוֹ וָאֶהְרְגֵהוּ בְּצִקְלָג אֲשֶׁר לְתִתִּי-לוֹ בְּשֹׂרָה^Y:
11 ~~καὶ νῦν~~ ἄνδρες πονηροὶ ἀπεκτάγκασιν ἄνδρα δίκαιον ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τῆς κοίτης αὐτοῦ· καὶ νῦν X X ἐκζητήσω τὸ αἷμα αὐτοῦ ἐκ χειρὸς ὑμῶν καὶ ἐξολεθρεύσω ὑμᾶς ἐκ τῆς γῆς.	11 ~~And now~~ evil men have slain a righteous men in his house on his bed: now then X X I will require his blood of your hand, and I will destroy you from off the earth.	11 [How much] more now when wicked men have slain an innocent man in his own house, upon his bed, shall I not require his blood at your hand, and take you away from the earth?	11 [How much] more, when wicked men have slain a righteous ~~person~~ in his own house upon his bed? shall I not therefore now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth?	11 Moreover if wicked men have murderd an upstanding man in his own house, upon his recliner, wouldn’t I also now seek blood from y’all personally for him and burn y’all off the earth?”	11 אַף כִּי- אֲנָשִׁים רְשָׁעִים הָרְגוּ אֶת^Z- אִישׁ-צַדִּיק בְּבֵיתוֹ עַל- מִשְׁכָּבוֹ וְעַתָּה הֲלוֹא אֲבַקֵּשׁ אֶת-דָּמוֹ מִיֶּדְכֶם וּבִעַרְתִּי אֶתְכֶם מִן-הָאָרֶץ:
12 καὶ ἐνετείλατο Δαυιδ τοῖς παιδαρίοις αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀποκτέννουσιν αὐτοὺς καὶ κολοβοῦσιν τὰς χεῖρας αὐτῶν καὶ τοὺς πόδας αὐτῶν καὶ ἐκρέμασαν αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ τῆς κρήνης ἐν Χεβρων· καὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν Μεμφιβοσθε X ἔθαψαν ἐν τῷ τάφῳ Αβεννηρ [υἱοῦ Νηρ].	12 And David commanded his young men, and they slay them, and cut off their hands and their feet; and they hung them up at the fountain in Chebron: X and they buried the head of Jebosthe in the tomb of Aben[ez^AA]er [the son of Ner].	12 And David commanded his ~~servants~~ and they slew them: and cutting off their hands and feet, hanged them up over the pool in Hebron: but the head of Isboseth they took and buried in the sepulchre of Abner in Hebron.	12 And David commanded his young men, and they slew them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up over the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth, and buried it in the sepulchre of Abner in Hebron.	12 So David commanded his guys and they killed them. Then they chopped off their hands and their feet and hung {them} over the fountain in Hebron. As for the head of Ish Bosheth, they took it and buried it in Abner’s grave in Hebron.	12 וַיְצַו דָּוִד אֶת-הַנְּעָרִים וַיַּהַרְגוּם וַיְקַצְּצוּ אֶת- יְדֵיהֶם וְאֶת- רַגְלֵיהֶם וַיִּתְלוּ^AB עַל-הַבְּרֵכָה בְּחֶבְרוֹן וְאֵת רֹאשׁ אִישׁ- בֹּשֶׁת^AC לָקָחוּ וַיִּקְבְּרוּ^AD בְקֶבֶר-אַבְנֵר^AE בְּחֶבְרוֹן: פ

1According to Hammond’s Bible Atlas, but according to Tsumura, it was Gath-rimmon, 30 miles NE within Philistia.

2Including Willett, Henry, Gill, and K&D, but Goldman and Tsumura supported the theory that the Beerothites were fleeing from Saul.

3The suggestion, anciently by Abarbinel and recently by Mastéy that it describes two successive attacks on Ish Bosheth is intriguing but not plausible.

4Or “deliver wheat” as per Willett.

5Ps. 94:1 is the only other passage: “Yahweh is a god of nachams…”

6NIV followed Martyr, John Gill, and Keil & Delitzsch in making “bodies” the object. On the other hand, “Borr.” (cited by Willett), Matthew Henry, Robert Jamieson, and Albert Barnes opted for the “hands and feet” being what was hung.

AMy original chart includes the NASB, NIV, and ESV, but their copyright restrictions have forced me to remove them from the publicly-available edition of this chart. (NAW is my translation.) When a translation adds words not in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done so by the use of italics (or greyed-out text), I put the added words in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is different from all the other translations, I underline it. When a version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far from the grammar form of the original text, I use ~~strikeout~~. And when a version omits a word which is in the original text, I insert an X. (I also place an X at the end of a word if the original word is plural but the English translation is singular.) I occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between the various editions and versions when there are more than two different translations of a given word. The only known Dead Sea Scroll containing 2 Samuel 4 is 4Q51Samuel^a, which contains fragments of vs. 1-4 and 9-12, which has been dated between 50-25 B.C. Where the DSS is legible and matches the MT, the MT has been colored purple. Where the DSS and/or ancient versions support the LXX with omissions or text not in the MT, I have highlighted with yellow the LXX and its translation into English, and where I have accepted that into my NAW translation, I have marked it with {pointed brackets}.

BVaticanus inserts “son of Ner,” but it’s not in the majority text of the LXX, nor is it in the MT or Vulgate. It doesn’t change the meaning, however, to add the surname, for it is still naming the same man.

Ccf. Matthew 2:3 “Now, after hearing [this], Herod the King was agitated and all Jerusalem with him” (NAW) Goldman commented that all Israel was afraid of getting enmired in a pointlessly drawn-out war under an incompetent commander.

DDSS adds t?bypm “Mephiboseth,” which is also what the LXX reads. The name apparantly referrs to the same person as Ishbosheth, so most English versions write Ishbosheth’s name in, although it is not in the Greek or Hebrew.

ELXX reads “Mephibosheth;” Vaticanus reads “Ishbosheth”

FThe MT’s verb is actually plural (“they were”), which doesn’t work, further supporting the likelihood that the MT is corrupted from the DSS and LXX.

GInstead of this word, the DSS reads t?bypml, “to Mephiboseth,” matching the LXX.

HNeither this father nor these sons are mentioned in the Bible outside of this chapter.

IBeeroth, like Gibeon and Kiriath Jearim was inhabited by Hivites when Joshua entered Canaan and was given to the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 9:17, 18:25).

JVersions have translated the locative he suffix with the preposition “into.” Gittaim is only mentioned one other place in the Bible, in Nehemiah 11:33, in a list of towns where Benjamites lived, incidentally confirming the Samuel account. Why the Beerothites fled to Gittaim is not explained, but it is usually conjectured that it was due to displacement from Philistine war bands. Beeroth would have been along the path (perhaps in a lower pass between the hills of Gibeon to the North and Kiriath-Jearim to the South) that the Philistines took to invade Israel in 1 Samuel 13-15. (Or it could also have been subsequent to the fall of Israel to the Philistines in 1 Samuel 31.) I am intrigued, however, by a theory that these were Gibeonites threatened by Saul’s massacre mentioned in 2 Sam 21 who fled to a Philistine town to escape. “Gittaim” is thought to be a long form of “Gath,” not the Philistine city David sojourned in but rather a town almost due West of Gibeon and Beeroth, on the border between Benjamite and Philistine territory. (Strangely, JFB and K&D seem to get it backwards, claiming that the Beerothites fled from Gittaim to Beeroth.)

KThe LXX doesn’t have this conjunction, but the Vulgate and the DSS do.

LVaticanus reads “he” but the LXX and MT and Vulgate read “she.”

MThere isn’t actually a conjunction here in the Vulgate, it was just added to make the English smoother.

NDSS adds a vav (“and”) before this verb. The LXX and Vulgate do not indicate that there was a conjunction in the Hebrew text they translated, but the Vaticanus does, matching the DSS. Curiously, the LXX reads as though the Hebrew were הזה (“this”) rather than היה (“he was”).

ODSS is obliterated at this point, but there is too much space between legible sections of this verse to support the shorter text in the MT. There is plenty of room for the extra phrase in the LXX at this point, “his son” (בנו), to fit this space.

PThis word for “nurse” only occurs one other place in the Hebrew Bible, and that is in Ruth 4:16, when Ruth cares for her grandson. The root is the same as the Hebrew word for “faithful/trustworthy,” and other forms of this root are occasionally used to indicate childcare, including the masters of Ahab’s sons (2 Kings 10:1), Mordecai raising Esther (Esther 2:7), the foreign nurturers of Israel (Isa. 49:23, 60:4), and Jeremiah’s nobility who had been reared in purple (Lam. 4:5).

QThis is the sole Niphal form of this verb in the Hebrew Bible and the only time it means “lame.” Its adjectival form ‎ פִסֵּחַ is the more common way of denoting lameness.

Rcf. the “heat” of the day in 1 Sam. 11:9-11

SThe ancient Greek and Latin versions of this passage both add the detail that Ishbosheth’s housekeeper was cleaning wheat at the time. This provides an explanation for why it would not be suspicious for Rechab and Baanah to arrive with the seeming intent to pick up some wheat. Perhaps it was expected that they would grind and bake it for bread for the evening meal at the palace. The Syriac and Targums do not support this addition, however, and unfortunately, there is no known DSS of this verse for comparison. This verse and the following are unusually garbled in their sequencing of events, so a different original reading that is more clear, such as that of the LXX would not be surprising.

TVaticanus reads “Ishbosheth;” LXX reads “Mephiboseth,” but they are talking about the same person.

UThe Syriac keeps the third verb omitted by the Vulgate, but omits the second “his head” as the Vulgate did.

VGod did indeed bring retribution upon Saul and his house, but these Benjamite brothers were mistaken to think that this retribution should have come through their actions. Vengeance is never to be taken into our own hands. If they had trusted God, God would have brought the demise of Ishbosheth in some other way to fulfill His word. David understood this principle, which is why he was trusting God and waiting on God’s timing and not out fighting Ishbosheth. And so it was David who experienced relief when the actions of these crooked brothers fulfilled God’s plan. This matches several key words in Psalm 18(||2 Sam. 22). “46 Life is Yahweh, so let my landmark-Rock be blessed, and let the God of my salvation be exalted! 47 This God is the One who deals out retributions for me and decrees peoples to be under me, 48 delivering me from my enemies. Yes, You exalt me apart from the one who rises up [against] me. You cause me to escape from a man of violence. 49 Therefore I respond with the nations to Yahweh and play music to Your name. 50 He causes to increase the salvations of His king and makes loving-kindness for His anointed one – to David and to his seed until forever.” (NAW) This noun only occurs a few other times in the plural: Two patterns seem to emerge: One “Yahweh executes [עשה] nachams on enemies” (Judges 11:36, Ezek. 25:17) and the other “Yahweh gives [נתן] nacham's to me from my enemies.” (2 Sam 4 & 22) (Ps. 94:1 is the only other passage “Yahweh is a god of nachams…”) This follows the two directions of meaning in the verbal form, both found in Isaiah 1:24 “Therefore, declares the Lord Yahweh of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, ‘Oh, I will be relieved from my enemies and be avenged from my foes.’" (NAW) David testifies to these two brothers that Yahweh is still alive and well and perfectly capable of taking out Ishbosheth without their help just as Yahweh has always been alive and well to intervene in crises throughout David’s life to save Him. God’s hands have never been tied; He’s never been AWOL, He’s never missed a delivery; why take matters into your own hands now?!

WLXX (and Syriac) read as though the vav suffix were missing from the Hebrew word, which would change the meaning from “his eyes” to “my eyes.” The DSS is obliterated here and spacing is inconclusive. This does not substantially change the story because either way the messenger thought that David would consider the news to be good.

XThe DSS is obliterated here, but there is not enough room between legible sections of this verse to contain all the words in the MT. This is corraborated by the fact that the LXX dropped one word out of the MT here (“saying”), as did the Syriac, and Vulgate (which omitted “Behold”). The omission of these words, however, does not change the meaning.

YThis is the noun form of the same root used in the middle of the verse as a participle translated “bringing good news. It is only found in two other passages in the Hebrew OT: 2 Sam. 18:20-27 and 2 Ki. 7:9. Neither the Greek nor the Hebrew contain the word “reward,” nor do they contain a possessive pronoun (such as “his”) to go with the word “news,” so it seems strange that all the English versions add those words in.

ZDSS reads oddly grh <ta <yu?r “since they are wicked men he slew a righteous man,” but it’s not supported by the LXX or Vulgate.

AABrenton slipped and added a “z” in his English transliteration that isn’t there in the Vaticanus.

ABLXX & Vulgate add (“them”). The DSS is obliterated at this point, but there is space for a mem suffix which would spell (“them”). Syriac and Targums, however, agree with the simpler reading of the MT. As for the meaning of the verb, it means both “hanged” as a mode of execution, as well as “hung” as a common action of suspending anything. If the former, it could be done post-mortem as a sort of curse, but such a carcass could not be left hanging overnight (Deut. 21:22-23).

ACAgain, the LXX (except for Vaticanus) and DSS spell the name as “Mephiboseth,” but it’s talking about the same person as Ishbosheth.

ADThere is some question whether DSS, Syriac, Targums, and other manuscripts support a singular subject (“he took and he carried”) with or without a pronomial prefix (“it” = the head). It doesn’t change the story, however, for the plurality of guys carrying it out were doing the bidding of the singular David, and Ishboseth’s head is obviously the object either way.