Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708)

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S E C O N D   S A M U E L

CHAP. IV.

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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,

ver. 1-8.

II. David, instead of rewarding them, put them to death for what they

had done,

ver. 9-12.

Ish-bosheth Slain by His Servants.	B. C. 1048.

     

1 And when Saul’s son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his

hands were feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled.

  2 And Saul’s son had two men that were captains of bands: the

name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab,

the sons of Rimmon a Beerothite, of the children of Benjamin:

(for Beeroth also was reckoned to Benjamin:

  3 And the Beerothites fled to Gittaim, and were sojourners

there until this day.)

  4 And Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son that was lame of his

feet. He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and

Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse took him up, and fled: and

it came to pass, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and

became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.

  5 And the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah,

went, and came about the heat of the day to the house of

Ishbosheth, who lay on a bed at noon.

  6 And they came thither into the midst of the house, as

though they would have fetched wheat; and they smote him under

the fifth rib: and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.

  7 For when they came into the house, he lay on his bed in his

bedchamber, and they smote him, and slew him, and beheaded him,

and took his head, and gat them away through the plain all night.

  8 And they brought the head of Ishbosheth unto David to Hebron,

and said to the king, Behold the head of Ishbosheth the son of

Saul thine enemy, which sought thy life; and the LORD hath

avenged my lord the king this day of Saul, and of his seed.

     

Here is,

I. The weakness of Saul’s house. Still it grew weaker and weaker.

1. As for Ishbosheth, who was in possession of the throne, his hands

were feeble,

v. 1.

All the strength they ever had was from Abner’s support, and now that

he was dead he had no spirit left in him. Though Abner had, in a

passion, deserted his interest, yet he hoped, by his means, to make

good terms with David; but now even this hope fails him, and he sees

himself forsaken by his friends and at the mercy of his enemies. All

the Israelites that adhered to him were troubled and at a loss what to

do, whether to proceed in their treaty with David or no.

2. As for Mephibosheth, who in the right of his father Jonathan had a

prior title, his feet were lame, and he was unfit for any service,

v. 4.

He was but five years old when his father and grandfather were killed.

His nurse, hearing of the Philistines’ victory, was apprehensive that,

in pursuit of it, they would immediately send a party to Saul’s house,

to cut off all that pertained to it, and would especially aim at her

young master, who was now next heir to the crown. Under the

apprehension of this, she fled with the child in her arms, to secure it

either in some secret place where he could not be found, or in some

strong place where he could not be got at; and, making more haste than

good speed, she fell with the child, and by the fall some bone was

broken or put out, and not well set, so that he was lame of it as long

as he lived, and unfit either for court or camp. See what sad accidents

children are liable to in their infancy, the effect of which may be

felt by them, to their great uneasiness, all their days. Even the

children of princes and great men, the children of good men, for such a

one Jonathan was, children that are well tended, and have nurses of

their own to take care of them, yet are not always safe. What reason

have we to be thankful to God for the preservation of our limbs and

senses to us, through the many perils of the weak and helpless state of

infancy, and to own his goodness in giving his angels a charge

concerning us, to bear us up in their arms, out of which there is no

danger of falling,

Ps. xci. 12.

     

II. The murder of Saul’s son. We are here told,

     

1. Who were the murderers: Baanah and Rechab,
v. 2, 3.

They were own brothers, as Simeon and Levi, and partners in iniquity.

They were or had been Ish-bosheth’s own servants, employed under him,

so much the more base and treacherous was it in them to do him a

mischief. They were Benjamites, of his own tribe. They were of the city

of Beeroth; for some reason which we cannot now account for care is

here taken to let us know (in a parenthesis) that that city belonged to

the lot of Benjamin, so we find

(Josh. xviii. 25),

but that the inhabitants, upon some occasion or other, perhaps upon the

death of Saul, retired to Gittaim, another city which lay not far off

in the same tribe, and was better fortified by nature, being situate

(if we may depend upon Mr. Fuller’s map) between the two rocks Bozez

and Seneh. There the Beerothites were when this was written, and

probably took root there, and never returned to Beeroth again, which

made Beeroth, that had been one of the cities of the Gibeonites

(Josh. ix. 17),

to be forgotten, and Gittaim to be famous long after, as we find,

Neh. xi. 33.

     

2. How the murder was committed,

v. 5-7.

See here,

(1.) The slothfulness of Ish-bosheth. He lay upon his bed at noon. It

does not appear that the country was at any time of the year so hot as

to oblige the inhabitants to retire at noon, as we are told they do in

Spain in the heat of summer; but Ishbosheth was a sluggish man, loved

his ease and hated business: and when he should have been, at this

critical juncture, at the head of his forces in the field, or at the

head of his counsels in a treaty with David, he was lying upon his bed

and sleeping, for his hands were feeble

(v. 1),

and so were his head and heart. When those difficulties dispirit us

which should rather invigorate us and sharpen our endeavours we betray

both our crowns and lives. Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty

and ruin. The idle soul is an easy prey to the destroyer.

(2.) The treachery of Baanah and Rechab. They came into the house,

under pretence of fetching wheat for the victualling of their

regiments; and such was the plainness of those times that the king’s

corn-chamber and his bed-chamber lay near together, which gave them an

opportunity, when they were fetching wheat, to murder him as he lay on

the bed. We know not when and where death will meet us. When we lie

down to sleep we are not sure but that we may sleep the sleep of death

before we awake; nor do we know from what unsuspected hand a fatal

stroke may come. Ish-bosheth’s own men, who should have protected his

life, took it away.

     

3. The murderers triumphed in what they had done. As if they had

performed some very glorious action, and the doing of it for David’s

advantage was enough not only to justify it, but to sanctify it, they

made a present of Ish-bosheth’s head to David

(v. 8):

Behold the head of thy enemy, than which they thought nothing

could be more acceptable to him; yea, and they made themselves

instruments of God’s justice, ministers to bear his sword, though they

had no commission: The Lord hath avenged thee this day of Saul and

of his seed. Not that they had any regard either to God or to

David’s honour; they aimed at nothing but to make their own fortunes

(as we say) and to get preferment in David’s court; but, to ingratiate

themselves with him, they pretended a concern for his life, a

conviction of his title, and a zealous desire to see him in full

possession of the throne. Jehu pretended zeal for the Lord of

hosts when an ambition to set up himself and his own family was the

spring of his actions.

Ish-bosheth’s Murderers Punished.	B. C. 1048.

     

9 And David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of

Rimmon the Beerothite, and said unto them, As the LORD liveth,

who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity,

  10 When one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to

have brought good tidings, I took hold of him, and slew him in

Ziklag, who thought that I would have given him a reward for

his tidings:

  11 How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person

in his own house upon his bed? shall I not therefore now require

his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth?

  12 And David commanded his young men, and they slew them, and

cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up over the

pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth, and buried

it in the sepulchre of Abner in Hebron.

     

We have here justice done upon the murderers of Ish-bosheth.

     

I. Sentence passed upon them. There needed no evidence, their own

tongues witnessed against them; they were so far from denying the fact

that they gloried in it. David therefore shows them the heinousness of

the crime, and that blood called for blood from his hand, who was now

the chief magistrate, and was by office the avenger of blood. And,

perhaps, he was the more vigorous in the prosecution because for

reasons of state he had spared Joab: “Shall I not require the blood

of the slain at the hand of the slayers, and, since they cannot

make restitution, take theirs instead of it?” Observe,

1. How he aggravates the crime,

v. 11.

Ish-bosheth was a righteous person, he had done them no wrong, nor

designed them any. As to himself, David was satisfied that what

opposition he gave him was not from malice, but mistake, from an idea

he had of his own title to the crown, and the influence of others upon

him, who urged him to put in for it. Note, Charity teaches us to make

the best, not only of our friends, but of our enemies, and to think

those may be righteous persons who yet, in some instances, do us wrong.

I must not presently judge a man a bad man because I think him so to

me. David owns Ish-bosheth an honest man, though he had created him a

great deal of trouble unjustly. The manner of it much aggravated the

crime. To slay him in his own house, which should have been his castle,

and upon his bed, when he was in no capacity of making any opposition,

this is treacherous and barbarous, and all that is base, and that which

the heart of every man who is not perfectly lost to all honour and

humanity will rise with indignation at the thought of. Assassinating is

confessedly the most odious and villainous way of murdering. Cursed

is he that smiteth his neighbour secretly.

2. He quotes a precedent

(v. 10):

he had put him to death who had brought him the tidings of the death of

Saul, because he thought it would be good tidings to David. Nothing is

here said of that Amalekite’s helping Saul to kill himself, only of his

bringing the tidings of his death, by which it should seem that the

story he told was upon enquiry found to be false, and that he lied

against his own head. “Now” (says David) “did I treat him as a

criminal, and not a favourite” (as he expected), “who brought me Saul’s

crown, and shall those be held guiltless that bring me Ish-bosheth’s

head?”

3. He ratifies the sentence with an oath

(v. 9):

As the Lord liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all

adversity. He expresses himself thus resolutely, to prevent the

making of any intercession for the criminals by those about him, and

thus piously to intimate that his dependence was upon God for the

putting of him in possession of the promised throne, and that he would

not be beholden to any man to help him to it by any indirect or

unlawful practices. God had redeemed him from all adversity hitherto,

helped him over many a difficulty and through many a danger, and

therefore he would depend upon him to crown and complete his own work.

He speaks of his redemption from all adversity as a thing done, though

he had many a storm yet before him, because he knew that he who had

delivered would deliver.

4. Hereupon he signs a warrant for the execution of these men,

v. 12.

This may seem severe, when they intended him a kindness in what they

did; but,

(1.) He would thus show his detestation of the villany. When he heard

that the Lord smote Nabal, he gave thanks

(1 Sam. xxv. 38, 39),

for he is the God to whom vengeance belongeth; but, if wicked

men smite Ish-bosheth, they deserve to die for taking God’s work out of

his hand.

(2.) He would thus show his resentment of the great affront they put

upon him in expecting that he should patronize and reward it; they

could scarcely have done him a greater injury than thus to think him

altogether such a one as themselves, one that cared not what blood he

waded through to the crown.

     

II. Execution done. The murderers were put to death according to law,

and their hands and feet were hung up; not their whole bodies, the law

forbade that; but only their hands and feet, in terrorem–to frighten

others, to be monuments of David’s justice, and to make that to be

taken notice of which would recommend him to the esteem of the people,

as a man fit to rule, and that aimed not at his own preferment, nor had

any enmity to the house of Saul, but only and sincerely designed the

public welfare. But what a confusion was this to the two murderers!

What a horrid disappointment! And such those will meet with who think

to serve the interests of the Son of David by any immoral practices, by

war and persecution, fraud and rapine, who, under colour of religion,

murder princes, break solemn contracts, lay countries waste, hate

their brethren, and cast them out, and say, Let the Lord be glorified,

kill them, and think they do God good service. However men may

canonize such methods of serving the church and the catholic cause,

Christ will let them know, another day, that Christianity was not

intended to destroy humanity; and those who thus think to merit heaven

shall not escape the damnation of hell.

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708)

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