2 Samuel 4:10

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2 Samuel 4:8–12 · Berean Standard Bible

8 They brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David at Hebron and said to the king, “Here is the head of Ish-bosheth son of Saul, your enemy who sought your life. Today the LORD has granted vengeance to my lord the king against Saul and his offspring.”

9 But David answered Rechab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, “As surely as the LORD lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress,

10 when someone told me, ‘Look, Saul is dead,’ and thought he was a bearer of good news, I seized him and put him to death at Ziklag. That was his reward for his news!

11 How much more, when wicked men kill a righteous man in his own house and on his own bed, shall I not now require his blood from your hands and remove you from the earth!”

12 So David commanded his young men, and they killed Rechab and Baanah. They cut off their hands and feet and hung their bodies by the pool in Hebron, but they took the head of Ish-bosheth and buried it in Abner’s tomb in Hebron.

Hebrew words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

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Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

2 Samuel 1:2

On the third day a man with torn clothes and dust on his head arrived from Saul’s camp. When he came to David, he fell to the ground to pay him homage.

2 Samuel 1:3

“Where have you come from?” David asked. “I have escaped from the Israelite camp,” he replied.

2 Samuel 1:4

“What was the outcome?” David asked. “Please tell me.” “The troops fled from the battle,” he replied. “Many of them fell and died. And Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead.”

2 Samuel 1:5

Then David asked the young man who had brought him the report, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?”

2 Samuel 1:6

“I happened to be on Mount Gilboa,” he replied, “and there was Saul, leaning on his spear, with the chariots and the cavalry closing in on him.

2 Samuel 1:7

When he turned around and saw me, he called out and I answered, ‘Here I am!’

2 Samuel 1:8

‘Who are you?’ he asked. So I told him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’

2 Samuel 1:9

Then he begged me, ‘Stand over me and kill me, for agony has seized me, but my life still lingers.’

2 Samuel 1:10

So I stood over him and killed him, because I knew that after he had fallen he could not survive. And I took the crown that was on his head and the band that was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord.”

2 Samuel 1:11

Then David took hold of his own clothes and tore them, and all the men who were with him did the same.

2 Samuel 1:12

They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the people of the LORD and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.

2 Samuel 1:13

And David inquired of the young man who had brought him the report, “Where are you from?” “I am the son of a foreigner,” he answered. “I am an Amalekite.”

2 Samuel 1:14

So David asked him, “Why were you not afraid to lift your hand to destroy the LORD’s anointed?”

2 Samuel 1:15

Then David summoned one of the young men and said, “Go, execute him!” So the young man struck him down, and he died.

2 Samuel 1:16

For David had said to the Amalekite, “Your blood be on your own head because your own mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I killed the LORD’s anointed.’”