David had hoped his alliance with Abner, the cousin and former army general of both King Saul and King Ish-Bosheth, would quickly bring about his ascension to the throne over all Israel. But Abner was deceived and murdered by David's nephew Joab in yesterday's study. Now everything seems to be up in the air with no clear path forward. Will the people Abner rallied behind David still stand up and do something for David? Or will they be too fainthearted without the powerful and persuasive Abner to cheer them on?
The most fainthearted of everyone in today's text is King Ish-Bosheth himself. "When Ish-Bosheth son of Saul heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost courage, and all Israel became alarmed." (2 Samuel 4:1) When he hears that the man who placed him on the throne has been killed, he loses his courage. It's true that he and Abner had a falling-out because he accused Abner of improprieties with one of the royal concubines but he probably hoped they would make peace with each other and Abner would come back to his side. Or maybe he thought Abner could arrange a peace treaty between David's kingdom of Judah and Ish-Bosheth's kingdom of the remainder of Israel, then Ish-Bosheth need not worry anymore about war between Israel and Judah. Ish-Bosheth is a weak man, too weak to have served as a commander in his father's army like his three older brothers. He is too weak to earn the loyalty of the elders of Israel (we were informed in Chapter 3 that they are all behind David). He is too weak to even stir up much enthusiasm for his administration within his own tribe of Benjamin (in Chapter 3 we found Abner convincing the "whole tribe of Benjamin"---meaning a large majority of its fighting men---to put their support behind David). Learning that Abner is dead takes all the wind out of Ish-Bosheth's sails because the people will not stand with him without Abner's influence.
It takes the wind out of the sails of most of the people too: "All Israel became alarmed," as verse 1 phrases it. They aren't sure what to do next. They don't know whether to move ahead with plans to depose Ish-Bosheth without the guidance of that shrewd political and military strategist Abner. If they don't take any action they will be stuck with Ish-Bosheth for who knows how many more years, maybe until he dies of natural causes as an old man. It's quite the conundrum but it's soon solved for them by a couple of mercenary fellows who are employed by Ish-Bosheth as raiders.
"Now Saul's son had two men who were leaders of raiding bands. One was named Baanah and the other Rekab; they were sons of Rimmon the Beerothite from the tribe of Benjamin---Beeroth is considered part of Benjamin, because the people of Beeroth fled to Gittaim and have resided as foreigners to this day." (2 Samuel 4:2-3) The author of 2 Samuel introduces us to these two men who have been working for Ish-Bosheth as raiders for an unknown period of time. They are referred to as Benjamites, which is Ish-Bosheth's own tribe, but they are not really Israelites. They are called Benjamites because their hometown of Beeroth, located within the territory of Gibeon, was incorporated into the territory of Benjamin in the book of Joshua.
This incorporation occurred because some men from Gibeon deceived the Israelites into making a treaty with them by pretending they were from a far-off country. (The Lord had commanded the Israelites to make no treaties with any of their neighboring tribes in the promised land.) Upon learning that the Gibeonites were actually their neighbors, the Israelites could not void their treaty because they made it in the name of the Lord, so instead they made the Gibeonites their subjects and incorporated Gibeon into the territory of Benjamin. We will be told later in 2 Samuel that during King Saul's reign he unlawfully violated Israel's treaty with the Gibeonites and attacked them. This may be why Baanah and Rekab harbor enough animosity toward the house of Saul to kill Ish-Bosheth in today's chapter. Or, if they aren't holding a grudge against the house of Saul, it could just be that they are the type of guys who are always looking out for themselves. They know David will soon be king and they want to perform what they think is a valuable service for him by assassinating his rival.
But before we get to the murderous scene of Chapter 4, the author of 2 Samuel provides us with some background information to explain why someone who should have been considered a likely candidate to take Ish-Bosheth's place as king---instead of David---was not considered. It also explains why this someone was not considered instead of Ish-Bosheth in the first place. "(Jonathan son of Saul had a son who was lame in both feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but as she hurried to leave, he fell and became disabled. His name was Mephibosheth.)" (2 Samuel 4:4)
When King Saul and his army lost a major battle with the Philistines, Mephibosheth's nurse fled Saul's capital city with the young child when she heard that the king and his heir-apparent, Jonathan, were dead. It was a common practice for an invading army to try to kill every male of the royal family and she was acting in haste to protect the one she assumed was next in line for the throne, though Mephibosheth would have had to have an adult co-regent until he became an adult. We will be learning more about this son of Jonathan's later in the book but in ancient times his being unable to walk would prevent him from being considered a viable candidate to wear the crown. No nation of those times wanted a king who wasn't whole in both body and mind and, sadly, it was often assumed that a person with a physical disability was lacking in mental ability as well. On top of that, in those days a king had to be able to ride out in battle ahead of his troops and he had to be able to throw a spear and wield a sword as well as any man in his army. A king had to make a strong and powerful impression on the leaders of other nations. Having a king that the other nations would have called a "cripple" would have encouraged those nations to mount an invasion.
The author now moves back to his narrative to tell us the circumstances of Ish-Bosheth's death. "Now Rekab and Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, set out for the house of Ish-Bosheth, and they arrived there in the heat of the day while he was taking his noonday rest. They went into the inner part of the house as if to get some wheat, and they stabbed him in the stomach. Then Rekab and his brother Baanah slipped away." (2 Samuel 4:5-6) Evidently these men were accustomed to getting supplies from the king's house and no one thought it the least bit suspicious when they stopped by to stock up on wheat. The king's bodyguards are almost certainly present somewhere on the property, either outside or inside the house, but Ish-Bosheth trusts these two men and they have been coming and going regularly from his house for a long time without any issues whatsoever. There's no reason for anyone to assume that this time they intend to assassinate the king.
In tomorrow's study we'll find them taking evidence of their kill to David, hoping to ingratiate themselves to the man they know will become the king of Israel. This encounter will not go the way they pictured it. They have committed a capital offense, and just because Ish-Bosheth was an enemy to David doesn't mean he won't follow the law of Israel and condemn these men to death for their crime.
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