Ishbosheth’s Ignoble End

The house of Saul has been growing weaker throughout its civil war with David (3:1). Now we get some concrete indications of just how weak it has become. We’re told that the death of Abner causes Saul’s son Ishbosheth to lose heart, for Abner was the strongman propping up his kingdom. The only other hope for the preservation of Saul’s dynasty is Jonathan’s young son Mephibosheth, but he is crippled as a result of being dropped by his panicked nurse on the day his father was killed. Thus, the house of Saul is essentially leaderless and powerless. This state of affairs causes all Israel to be troubled (that is, terrified), perhaps because they fear that David will launch a bloody war of conquest now that Abner is gone.

We now meet two of Ishbosheth’s captains, Baanah and Rechab by name. These men are Benjamites, of the same tribe as Saul. Given that fact, we would expect them to be loyal to Ishbosheth. However, the father of these men is from the Benjamite city of Beeroth. When Israel took Canaan, this city was held by the Gibeonites, who secured a peace treaty with Joshua on false pretenses (Josh. 9:3–17). But Saul violated Joshua’s treaty and tried to exterminate the Gibeonites (2 Sam. 21:1–2). His attack apparently uprooted the Benjamites who had settled in Beeroth with the Gibeonites, forcing them to flee to Gittaim. That may well have created ill-will against Saul, and in the present state of disarray, Baanah and Rechab see a chance to gain revenge, or at least to advance themselves. Therefore, they enter the house where Ishbosheth is sleeping, kill him, and take his head to David. Portraying themselves as instruments of God’s justice, they almost gleefully announce that God has avenged David against Saul and his line.

David rightly rejects this theological proposition and puts these two in their place. Emphasizing his words with an oath, he declares that he needs no men to deliver him, for God has preserved him through all his adversity. Then, declaring that he executed the one who claimed to have killed Saul, he asks what he should do with ” ‘wicked men’ ” who kill a righteous man in his sleep. The answer: He will require Ishbosheth’s blood from them. Therefore, David has Baanah and Rechab executed, and hangs their bodies by the pool in Hebron. But Ishbosheth’s head he buries in Abner’s tomb.