2. Samuel 4:11 Kommentar

When Abner was slain David was at a loss for a friend to perfect the reduction of those tribes that were yet in Ish-bosheth's interest. Which way to adopt for the accomplishment of it he could not tell; but here Providence brings it about by the removal of Ish-bosheth. I. Two of his own servants slew him, and brought his head to David (Sa2 4:1-8). II. David, instead of rewarding them, put them to death for what they had done (Sa2 4:9-12).

INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 4 This chapter relates the concern the death of Abner gave to Ishbosheth, and the men of Israel, Sa2 4:1; the murder of Ishbosheth by two of his captains, who cut off his head, and brought it to David, Sa2 4:2; by whom they were rewarded according to their deserts, he putting them to death, and exposing their bodies to shame and ignominy, Sa2 4:9.

And David commanded his young men, and they slew them,.... He ordered some of his guards about him to fall on them, and put them to death; and they accordingly did: and cut off their hands and their feet; their hands, which had smote Ishbosheth, and cut off his head; and their feet, which had been swift to shed his blood, and made haste to bring his head so many miles to David; this was what the Jews call measure for measure: and hanged them up over the pool in Hebron; not their hands and their feet, but the trunks of their bodies, thus mutilated; so Theodoret; though others think their hands and their feet were hung up, and not their bodies, because dead bodies were not to hang upon the tree more than a day; they were hung up over the fish pool in Hebron, because a public place, and where they were the more exposed to their shame, and the terror of others: but they took the head of Ishbosheth, and buried it in the sepulchre of Abner in Hebron; by order of David no doubt, who it seems had made, or ordered to be made, a sepulchre, for Abner, see Sa2 3:38; all which David did to show his regard to the family of Saul, his abhorrence of such execrable murders, and to remove all suspicion of his being concerned in them, and to conciliate the minds of the Israelites to him. Next: 2 Samuel Chapter 5

Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, is killed through a ruse at the hands of Rechab and Baanah, the sons of Rimmon, the Beerothite. And, when they announced the news to David and showed him the head of his enemy, they were killed by David, who said, “Wicked men have slain a just man in his own house upon his bed.” Ish-bosheth was certainly not a just man, and yet he is called a just man because he was innocently killed.

Some account of Rechab and Baanah, two of Ish-bosheth's captains, and of Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, Sa2 4:1-4. Rechab and Baanah murder Ish-bosheth, and escape; and bring his head to David, Sa2 4:5-8. David is greatly irritated, and commands them to be slain, Sa2 4:9-12.

How much more - Here are several things which aggravated the guilt of those wicked men. 1. Ish-bosheth was an innocent man, and therefore none could have any ground of quarrel against him. 2. He was in his own house, which was his sanctuary, and none but the worst of men would disturb him there. 3. He was upon his bed, resting in the heat of the day, and so free from suspicion that he was not even attended by his guards, nor had he his doors secured. To take away the life of such a man, in such circumstances, whom also they professed to hold as their sovereign, was the most abandoned treachery.

BAANAH AND RECHAB SLAY ISH-BOSHETH, AND BRING HIS HEAD TO HEBRON. (Sa2 4:1-2) Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son that was lame of his feet--This is mentioned as a reason why, according to Oriental notions, he was considered unfit for exercising the duties of sovereignty.