1 When Saul's son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, he lost heart, and all Israel was alarmed.
2 Saul's son had two men who were leaders of raiding bands, one named Baanah and the other Rechab, sons of Rimmon of Beeroth, from the children of Benjamin (Beeroth too is reckoned to Benjamin;
3 the people of Beeroth fled to Gittaim and have lived there as sojourners until this day).
4 Saul's son Jonathan had a son who was lame in both feet. He was five years old when the report about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel; his nurse picked him up and fled, and in her haste to get away he fell and was crippled. His name was Mephibosheth.
5 Rechab and Baanah, the sons of Rimmon of Beeroth, set out and arrived at Ish-bosheth's house in the heat of the day, while he was lying down for his noonday rest.
6 They went right into the house as though fetching wheat and stabbed him in the belly; then Rechab and his brother Baanah slipped away.
7 They had come into the house while he lay on his bed in his bedroom, and they struck him, killed him and beheaded him. Taking his head, they traveled all night by way of the Arabah.
8 They brought Ish-bosheth's head to David at Hebron and told the king, "Here is the head of Ish-bosheth, son of Saul your enemy, who sought your life. Today the LORD has avenged my lord the king on Saul and his offspring."
9 David answered Rechab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon of Beeroth: "As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my life from every trouble,
10 when a man told me, 'Saul is dead,' thinking he was bringing good news, I seized him and had him killed at Ziklag; that was what I gave him for his news.
11 How much more, when wicked men have killed an innocent man in his own house on his bed! Shall I not now demand his blood from your hand and rid the earth of you?"
12 David gave orders to the young men, and they killed them, cut off their hands and feet, and hung them up beside the pool at Hebron. Ish-bosheth's head they took and buried in Abner's tomb at Hebron.