04.22.2015 Old Testament: 2Sa 4.5–8

To read the Bible in a year, read Second Samuel 4–6 on April 22, In the year of our Lord 2015

By Don Ruhl

David was now the king of Israel, but one of the sons of Saul still hoped to be king. Ishbosheth reigned for two years over the non-Judah tribes of Israel, but two men saw an opportunity to get in good with the new and actual king, David, or so they thought,

Then the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, set out and came at about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, who was lying on his bed at noon. And they came there, all the way into the house, as though to get wheat, and they stabbed him in the stomach. Then Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped. For when they came into the house, he was lying on his bed in his bedroom; then they struck him and killed him, beheaded him and took his head, and were all night escaping through the plain. And they brought the head of Ishbosheth to David at Hebron, and said to the king, “Here is the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul your enemy, who sought your life; and the Lord has avenged my lord the king this day of Saul and his descendants” (2 Samuel 4.5–8). 

These two men believed they did a good thing, stabbing a man in the stomach while he slept. They cut off his head as a trophy to give to David, but he considered them cowards and he punished them as such.