Old Testament

New Testament

2 Samuel 4:4-12 Modern English Version (MEV)

4. Now Jonathan the son of Saul had a son with crippled feet. He was five years old when the report of Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but in her haste to escape, he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.

5. The sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rekab and Baanah, went out and came to the house of Ish-Bosheth in the heat of the day, as he was resting in his bed at midday.

6. They entered the house as if to get wheat and stabbed him in the abdomen. Then Rekab and his brother Baanah fled to safety.

7. When they entered the house, he was lying on his bed in his bedroom; they struck him, killed him, and beheaded him. Then they took his head and traveled by way of the Arabah all night.

8. They brought the head of Ish-Bosheth to David in Hebron and said to the king, “Here is the head of Ish-Bosheth the son of Saul, your enemy who sought your life. This day, the Lord has given retribution against Saul and his descendent to my lord the king.”

9. David answered Rekab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, “As the Lord, who has delivered my life from every distress, lives,

10. when one reported to me that Saul was dead, although he was a bearer of good news in his own eyes, I seized him and killed him at Ziklag, which was my reward for his message.

11. How much more so, when guilty men have slain an innocent man in his own house on his own bed, should I not now require his blood from your hand and wipe you from the earth?”

12. David then gave orders to the young men. They killed them, cut off their hands and feet, and hung them at the pool in Hebron, but they took the head of Ish-Bosheth and buried it in the grave of Abner at Hebron.

Read complete chapter 2 Samuel 4