2 Samuel 4

1 When Memphibosthe son of Saul heard that Abner had died in Hebron, his hands went limp, and all the men of Israel went weak. [a] 2 Memphibosthe son of Saul had two men who led raiding bands. The name of the one was Baanah and the name of the second Rechab, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, from the sons of Benjamin — for Beeroth was counted as belonging to the sons of Benjamin, [b] 3 and the Beerothites ran off to Gittaim and have been living there as foreigners to this day. [c]

4 Jonathan son of Saul had a son whose feet had been injured. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan his son came from Jezreel, and his nurse picked him up and fled; and as she hurried away and drew back, he fell and was left lame. His name was Memphibosthe. [d]

5 The sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, set out and came in the heat of the day to the house of Memphibosthe, while he was sleeping in his bed at noon. 6 The woman who kept the door of the house had been cleaning wheat, and she grew drowsy and slept; and Rechab and Baanah, the brothers, slipped past her unnoticed [e] 7 and came into the house. Memphibosthe was asleep on his bed in his bedroom, and they struck him and killed him and took off his head. Then they took his head and went by the western road the whole night.

8 They brought the head of Memphibosthe to David at Hebron, and they said to the king, “Look — the head of Memphibosthe son of Saul, your enemy, who was seeking your life. The Lord has given my lord the king vengeance on his enemies, as it is this day: on Saul your enemy and on his descendants.”

9 David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, “As the Lord lives, who has ransomed my life out of every affliction: 10 the man who reported to me that Saul was dead — and he stood in front of me as one bringing good news — I seized him and killed him at Ziklag, when what I owed him was a reward for his news. [f] 11 And now wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house, on his own bed. So now I will require his blood from your hand, and I will destroy you from the earth.”

12 And David gave the order to his young men, and they killed them and cut off their hands and their feet and hung them up by the spring in Hebron. And they buried the head of Memphibosthe in the tomb of Abner son of Ner. [g]