1And the son of Sha’ul heard that Aḇnĕr had died in Ḥeḇron, and he lost heart, and all Yisra’ĕl was troubled.

2And the son of Sha’ul had two men, commanders of bands, and the name of one was Ba‛anah and the name of the other Rĕḵaḇ, sons of Rimmon the Be’ĕrothite, of the children of Binyamin. For Be’ĕroth was also reckoned to Binyamin,

3because the Be’ĕrothites fled to Gittayim and have been sojourners there until this day.

4Now Yehonathan, son of Sha’ul, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Sha’ul and Yehonathan came from Yizre‛ĕl, and his nurse took him up and fled. And it came to be, as she hurried to flee, that he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephiḇosheth.

5So the sons of Rimmon the Be’ĕrothite, Rĕḵaḇ and Ba‛anah, went and came at about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, who was lying on his bed at noon.

6And they came into the midst of the house, to fetch wheat, and they struck him in the stomach, and Rĕḵaḇ and Ba‛anah his brother escaped.

7Thus they came into the house when he was lying on his bed in his bedroom, and they smote him, and slew him, and beheaded him. And they took his head, and went the way of the desert plain all night,

8and brought the head of Ishbosheth to Dawiḏ at Ḥeḇron, and said to the sovereign, “See, the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Sha’ul your enemy, who sought your life. So יהוה has given my master the sovereign vengeance on Sha’ul and his seed this day.”

9And Dawiḏ answered Rĕḵaḇ and Ba‛anah his brother, sons of Rimmon the Be’ĕrothite, and said to them, “As יהוה lives, who has redeemed my life out of all distress,

10when someone reported to me, saying, ‘See, Sha’ul is dead,’ and he was a bearer of good news in his own eyes, I then took hold of him and slew him in Tsiqlag̅, which was the reward I gave him for his news.

11“How much more, when wrong men have slain a righteous man in his own house on his bed, should I not now require his blood at your hand and remove you from the earth?”

12And Dawiḏ commanded his young men, and they slew them, and cut off their hands and feet, and hanged them by the pool in Ḥeḇron. And they took the head of Ishbosheth and buried it in the tomb of Aḇnĕr in Ḥeḇron.