This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
View text chunked by:
[46]
WHEN Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, had heard of the death of Abner,
he took it to heart to be deprived of a man that was of his kindred, and
had indeed given him the kingdom, but was greatly afflicted, and
Abner's death very much troubled him; nor did he himself outlive any long
time, but was treacherously set upon by the sons of Rimmon, (Baanah and
Rechab were their names,) and was slain by them; for these being of a family
of the Benjamites, and of the first rank among them, thought that if they
should slay Ishbosheth, they should obtain large presents from David, and
be made commanders by him, or, however, should have some other trust committed
to them. So when they once found him alone, and asleep at noon, in an upper
room, when none of his guards were there, and when the woman that kept
the door was not watching, but was fallen asleep also, partly on account
of the labor she had undergone, and partly on account of the heat of the
day, these men went into the room in which Ishbosheth, Saul's son, lay
asleep, and slew him; they also cut off his head, and took their journey
all that night, and the next day, as supposing themselves flying away from
those they had injured, to one that would accept of this action as a favor,
and would afford them security. So they came to Hebron, and showed David
the head of Ishbosheth, and presented themselves to him as his well-wishers,
and such as had killed one that was his enemy and antagonist. Yet David
did not relish what they had done as they expected, but said to them, "You
vile wretches, you shall immediately receive the punishment you deserve.
Did not you know what vengeance I executed on him that murdered Saul, and
brought me his crown of gold, and this while he who made this slaughter
did it as a favor to him, that he might not be caught by his enemies? Or
do you imagine that I am altered in my disposition, and suppose that I
am not the same man I then was, but am pleased with men that are wicked
doers, and esteem your vile actions, when you are become murderers of your
master, as grateful to me, when you have slain a righteous man upon his
bed, who never did evil to any body, and treated you with great good-will
and respect? Wherefore you shall suffer the punishment due on his account,
and the vengeance I ought to inflict upon you for killing Ishbosheth, and
for supposing that I should take his death kindly at your hands; for you
could not lay a greater blot on my honor, than by making such a supposal."
When David had said this, he tormented them with all sorts of torments,
and then put them to death; and he bestowed all accustomed rites on the
burial of the head of Ishbosheth, and laid it in the grave of Abner.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.