II Samuel 4
שמואל ב׳ פרק ד׳
Section: נביאים · נביאים ראשונים | Book: II Samuel | Chapter: 4 of 24 | Day: 80 of 742
Date: May 2, 2026
קלאוד על הנ״ך
Chapter 4 closes the long civil war between the houses of Shaul and David with one of the most morally uncomfortable scenes in the book. The chapter has the architecture of a tragedy in three movements: the political vacuum left by the death of Avner (verses 1-3), a parenthetical genealogical aside about Yehonatan’s crippled son Mefivoshet (verse 4), and the assassination of Ish Boshet by two of his own military commanders, followed by David’s furious repudiation and execution of the murderers (verses 5-12). The narrative is taut and almost cinematic, oscillating between the bedchamber where Ish Boshet is killed at his midday rest and the public pool at Chevron where the heads of his killers are eventually displayed.
The opening note that “his hands grew weak and all Yisrael was alarmed” (וירפו ידיו וכל ישראל נבהלו) is more than a statement of personal fear. The Metzudat David explains that the people had grasped that Avner’s heart had turned toward David, and they suspected — wrongly — that David had been behind Avner’s murder. The northern tribes therefore froze in their political deliberations: they would not crown David until they had seen with their own eyes how he treated those who killed for his benefit. The whole chapter is, in that sense, a public test of David’s hands. The narrator then introduces Re’chav and Ba’anah, two company commanders (שָׂרֵי גְדוּדִים) from the Binyaminite town of Be’erot, with the strange parenthetical that Be’erot is reckoned with Binyamin and that the Be’erotim had once fled to Gittayim and remained there as sojourners (גרים). This compressed background is essential: these are not foreign assassins but men who once served in Shaul’s tribal infrastructure and now seek to ingratiate themselves with the rising king.
Verse 4 interrupts the assassination plot with a sudden, almost mournful aside about Mefivoshet, the five-year-old son of Yehonatan whose nurse dropped him in the panicked flight from Yizre’el after the news of Shaul and Yehonatan’s deaths. He becomes נְכֵה רַגְלָיִם, lame in both feet, and the narrator notes that this subject will be resumed later (chapter 9). The Radak captures the deeper purpose of the insertion: the chronicler is signaling that with Ish Boshet’s impending death, the house of Shaul has effectively run out of viable heirs. Mefivoshet is a child, physically broken, and politically impossible. The throne of Yisrael now lies open. The intercutting of the Mefivoshet aside between Ish Boshet’s panic and his murder is a deliberate literary device: it forecloses any future claim before the murder is even narrated.
The killing itself is rendered with deliberate physical detail. Re’chav and Ba’anah enter the house at the heat of the day, when, as the Targum on verse 5 notes, kings habitually sleep. They penetrate “as those fetching wheat” — disguised, the Rashi and Metzudat David explain, as grain merchants — strike Ish Boshet under the fifth rib, behead him, and travel all night through the Aravah to deliver the head to David at Chevron. Their speech upon presenting the head is chilling in its theological pretension: “Hashem has given my lord the king vengeance this day on Shaul and on his seed” (ויתן ה’ לאדני המלך נקמות היום הזה משאול ומזרעו). They have invoked divine sanction for an act of cold political murder, and they have miscalculated David catastrophically.
David’s response is one of the great moral set-pieces of the book. He invokes the formula חי ה’ אשר פדה את נפשי מכל צרה — “as Hashem lives, who has redeemed my soul from every trouble” — and then constructs a kal vachomer that doubles as autobiography. The Amalekite who claimed to have killed Shaul at Shaul’s own request, on the battlefield, fatally wounded already (chapter 1) — even he was put to death by David. How much more so men who murdered an innocent man (איש צדיק) in his own house, on his own bed. The phrase איש צדיק applied to Ish Boshet is striking; it does not necessarily mean righteous in a moral-religious sense but innocent of any capital offense against the assassins. David has them killed, their hands and feet — the very limbs that performed and traveled to perform the murder — cut off, and the bodies hung at the public pool of Chevron as a deterrent and as a public statement. The Radak notes the political point of the display: so that everyone would see and know that David, in the uprightness of his heart, avenged the house of Shaul even though they had been his enemies. Ish Boshet’s head is given honorable burial in Avner’s grave, the two protagonists of the failed northern monarchy joined in death. The chapter that began with weakened hands ends with severed hands suspended above water — and with the throne of Yisrael at last unobstructed before David.
פרק ד׳ · Chapter 4
פסוק א׳ · Verse 1
Hebrew:
וַיִּשְׁמַ֣ע בֶּן־שָׁא֗וּל כִּ֣י מֵ֤ת אַבְנֵר֙ בְּחֶבְר֔וֹן וַיִּרְפּ֖וּ יָדָ֑יו וְכׇל־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל נִבְהָֽלוּ׃
English:
When [Ish-bosheth] son of Saul heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost heartahe lost heart Lit. “his hands weakened”; and so frequently. and all Israel was alarmed.
פסוק ב׳ · Verse 2
Hebrew:
וּשְׁנֵ֣י אֲנָשִׁ֣ים שָׂרֵֽי־גְדוּדִ֣ים הָי֪וּ בֶן־שָׁא֟ו��ל שֵׁם֩ הָאֶחָ֨ד בַּעֲנָ֜ה וְשֵׁ֧ם הַשֵּׁנִ֣י רֵכָ֗ב בְּנֵ֛י רִמּ֥וֹן הַבְּאֵרֹתִ֖י מִבְּנֵ֣י בִנְיָמִ֑ן כִּ֚י גַּם־בְּאֵר֔וֹת תֵּחָשֵׁ֖ב עַל־בִּנְיָמִֽן׃
English:
The son of Saul [had] two company commanders, one named Baanah and the other Rechab, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite—Benjaminites, since Beeroth too was considered part of Benjamin.
▶Commentaries (1)
פסוק ג׳ · Verse 3
Hebrew:
וַיִּבְרְח֥וּ הַבְּאֵרֹתִ֖ים גִּתָּ֑יְמָה וַיִּהְיוּ־שָׁ֣ם גָּרִ֔ים עַ֖ד הַיּ֥וֹם הַזֶּֽה׃ {ס}
English:
The Beerothites had fled to Gittaim,bGittaim Gittaim was likewise in Benjamin; cf. Neh. 11.31ff. where they have sojourned to this day.
▶Commentaries (1)
פסוק ד׳ · Verse 4
Hebrew:
וְלִיהֽוֹנָתָן֙ בֶּן־שָׁא֔וּל בֵּ֖ן נְכֵ֣ה רַגְלָ֑יִם בֶּן־חָמֵ֣שׁ שָׁנִ֣ים הָיָ֡ה בְּבֹ֣א שְׁמֻעַת֩ שָׁא֨וּל וִיהוֹנָתָ֜ן מִֽיִּזְרְעֶ֗אל וַתִּשָּׂאֵ֤הוּ אֹֽמַנְתּוֹ֙ וַתָּנֹ֔ס וַיְהִ֞י בְּחׇפְזָ֥הּ לָנ֛וּס וַיִּפֹּ֥ל וַיִּפָּסֵ֖חַ וּשְׁמ֥וֹ מְפִיבֹֽשֶׁת׃
English:
(Jonathan son of Saul had a son whose feet were crippled. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse picked him up and fled; but as she was fleeing in haste, he fell and was lamed. His name was Mephibosheth.cMephibosheth The original form of the name, Merib-baal, is preserved in 1 Chron. 8.34; 9.40. Cf. note at 2.8 on Ish-bosheth. This subject is resumed in chapter 9.)
▶Commentaries (1)
פסוק ה׳ · Verse 5
Hebrew:
וַיֵּ֨לְכ֜וּ בְּנֵֽי־רִמּ֤וֹן הַבְּאֵֽרֹתִי֙ רֵכָ֣ב וּבַעֲנָ֔ה וַיָּבֹ֙אוּ֙ כְּחֹ֣ם הַיּ֔וֹם אֶל־בֵּ֖ית אִ֣ישׁ בֹּ֑שֶׁת וְה֣וּא שֹׁכֵ֔ב אֵ֖ת מִשְׁכַּ֥ב הַֽצׇּה��רָֽיִם׃
English:
Rechab and Baanah, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, started out, and they reached the home of Ish-bosheth at the heat of the day, when he was taking his midday rest.
פסוק ו׳ · Verse 6
Hebrew:
וְ֠הֵנָּ֠ה בָּ֜אוּ עַד־תּ֤וֹךְ הַבַּ֙יִת֙ לֹקְחֵ֣י חִטִּ֔ים וַיַּכֻּ֖הוּ אֶל־הַחֹ֑מֶשׁ וְרֵכָ֛ב וּבַעֲנָ֥ה אָחִ֖יו נִמְלָֽטוּ׃
English:
So they went inside the house, as though fetching wheat, and struck him in the belly.dSo they went inside … in the belly Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Septuagint reads, “And behold, the woman who kept the door of the house was cleaning wheat. She became drowsy and fell asleep.” Rechab and his brother Baanah slipped by,
▶Commentaries (1)
פסוק ז׳ · Verse 7
Hebrew:
וַיָּבֹ֣אוּ הַבַּ֗יִת וְהֽוּא־שֹׁכֵ֤ב עַל־מִטָּתוֹ֙ בַּחֲדַ֣ר מִשְׁכָּב֔וֹ וַיַּכֻּ֙הוּ֙ וַיְמִתֻ֔הוּ וַיָּסִ֖ירוּ אֶת־רֹאשׁ֑וֹ וַיִּקְחוּ֙ אֶת־רֹאשׁ֔וֹ וַיֵּ֥לְכ֛וּ דֶּ֥רֶךְ הָעֲרָבָ֖ה כׇּל־הַלָּֽיְלָה׃
English:
and entered the house while he was asleep on his bed in his bedchamber; and they stabbed him to death. They cut off his head and took his head and made their way all night through the Arabah.
פסוק ח׳ · Verse 8
Hebrew:
וַ֠יָּבִ֠אוּ אֶת־רֹ֨אשׁ אִֽישׁ־בֹּ֥שֶׁת אֶל־דָּוִד֮ חֶבְרוֹן֒ וַיֹּֽאמְרוּ֙ אֶל־הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ הִנֵּה־רֹ֣אשׁ אִֽישׁ־בֹּ֗שֶׁת בֶּן־שָׁאוּל֙ אֹֽיִבְךָ֔ אֲשֶׁ֥ר בִּקֵּ֖שׁ אֶת־נַפְשֶׁ֑ךָ וַיִּתֵּ֣ן יְ֠הֹוָ֠ה לַאדֹנִ֨י הַמֶּ֤לֶךְ נְקָמוֹת֙ הַיּ֣וֹם הַזֶּ֔ה מִשָּׁא֖וּל וּמִזַּרְעֽוֹ׃
English:
They brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David in Hebron. “Here,” they said to the king, “is the head of your enemy, Ish-bosheth son of Saul, who sought your life. This day GOD has avenged my lord the king upon Saul and his offspring.”
פסוק ט׳ · Verse 9
Hebrew:
וַיַּ֨עַן דָּוִ֜ד אֶת־רֵכָ֣ב ׀ וְאֶת־בַּעֲנָ֣ה אָחִ֗יו בְּנֵ֛י רִמּ֥וֹן הַבְּאֵרֹתִ֖י ו��יֹּ֣אמֶר לָהֶ֑ם חַי־יְהֹוָ֕ה אֲשֶׁר־פָּדָ֥ה אֶת־נַפְשִׁ֖י מִכׇּל־צָרָֽה׃
English:
But David answered Rechab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, “As GOD lives, who has rescued me from every trouble:
פסוק י״ · Verse 10
Hebrew:
כִּ֣י הַמַּגִּיד֩ לִ֨י לֵאמֹ֜ר הִנֵּה־מֵ֣ת שָׁא֗וּל וְהֽוּא־הָיָ֤ה כִמְבַשֵּׂר֙ בְּעֵינָ֔יו וָאֹחֲזָ֣ה ב֔וֹ וָאֶהְרְגֵ֖הוּ בְּצִֽקְלָ֑ג אֲשֶׁ֥ר לְתִתִּי־ל֖וֹ בְּשֹׂרָֽה׃
English:
The one who told me in Ziklag that Saul was dead thought he was bringing good news. But instead of rewarding him for the news, I seized and killed him.
▶Commentaries (1)
פסוק י״א · Verse 11
Hebrew:
אַ֞ף כִּֽי־אֲנָשִׁ֣ים רְשָׁעִ֗ים הָרְג֧וּ אֶת־אִישׁ־צַדִּ֛יק בְּבֵית֖וֹ עַל־מִשְׁכָּב֑וֹ וְעַתָּ֗ה הֲל֨וֹא אֲבַקֵּ֤שׁ אֶת־דָּמוֹ֙ מִיֶּדְכֶ֔ם וּבִעַרְתִּ֥י אֶתְכֶ֖ם מִן־הָאָֽרֶץ׃
English:
How much more, then, when wicked men have killed an innocent man in bed in his own house! I will certainly avenge his blood on you, and I will rid the earth of you.”
פסוק י״ב · Verse 12
Hebrew:
וַיְצַו֩ דָּוִ֨ד אֶת־הַנְּעָרִ֜ים וַיַּהַרְג֗וּם וַֽיְקַצְּצ֤וּ אֶת־יְדֵיהֶם֙ וְאֶת־רַגְלֵיהֶ֔ם וַיִּתְל֥וּ עַל־הַבְּרֵכָ֖ה בְּחֶבְר֑וֹן וְאֵ֨ת רֹ֤אשׁ אִֽישׁ־בֹּ֙שֶׁת֙ לָקָ֔חוּ וַיִּקְבְּר֥וּ בְקֶבֶר־אַבְנֵ֖ר בְּחֶבְרֽוֹן׃ {פ}
English:
David gave orders to the young men, who killed them; they cut off their hands and feet and hung them up by the pool in Hebron. And they took the head of Ish-bosheth and buried it in the grave of Abner at Hebron.
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