Then David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, [As] Jehovah liveth, who has redeemed my soul out of all distress,
Two of Ish-bosheth's own captains murder him in his bed. They cut off his head and carry it to David at Hebron, sure he will pay well for it. David's reply does not start with a verdict on them. It starts with an oath about God, the living LORD who has redeemed him out of every adversity. That confession decides everything that follows.
They expected David to agree that God had used them. He answers with an oath naming the One who really rescued him.
They claimed to be instruments of God in carrying out this wicked deed, expecting David's approval and a reward. But the king received them in a different way. Here David's trust in the LORD breaks through the dark clouds and shows the King's heart. "As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my life out of every adversity." He acknowledges the Lord's gracious help in the past and his present confidence in Him. His case had rested in the LORD's hands. In the horrible deed of the two captains the King did not see the LORD stepping in for him. He looked on them as murderers.
The word "adversity" is not a throwaway. David had years of it, and the Psalms show what those years produced in him.
David could say, "I will be glad and rejoice in your steadfast love, for you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul" (Ps. 31:7). So his character was shaped on a divine pattern, one that the people around him did not always accept or understand (compare 2 Sam. 4:9-12 with 2 Sam. 19:16-23). Saul's great failure had been impulsiveness and disobedience. He could not wait.
If God has rescued him all along, David owes nothing to two murderers. The oath and the refusal belong together.
When the world offers me its services I refuse them, for I have to do with God. "As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my life out of every adversity…" Such is the One in whom I trust. I will receive nothing from the world because I depend on the Lord.
David had met this mistake before, and these two men had learned nothing from it.
How completely men mistook the heart of the king… How little unbelief ever learns! You might have thought that the men of Israel who heard how the king felt would remember the lesson the Amalekite was taught. But unbelief does not know God, and it cannot recognise those who are His. So it makes itself unable to value the ways of faith and of love… Here was a man who was a rival, and a rival with no cause and no right to the throne. But faith is more than upright. It can easily afford to be generous.
David's refusal cost him nothing in the end, because the crown was never his to seize.
The Lord had now removed these different obstacles by His open judgment. And it stood all the firmer for David because David had not done it. David never lifted his hand against Saul or Jonathan. David's hand never got rid of Abner or Ish-bosheth.
David's record through this whole period points beyond himself.
Through all the sad events since Abner had made Ish-bosheth king, David had maintained his integrity. In all the evil deeds, the bloodshed and cold-blooded murders, he had no part. He acted in justice. In this at least he is a picture of Him who will reign over the earth in righteousness.
- Redeemed. David's first word is not about the murderers but about God. The LORD has rescued him out of every adversity — past help and present confidence in one breath.
- Schooled. The adversity was not wasted; it shaped a character built on a divine pattern, unlike Saul, who could not wait.
- Refusing. He depends on the Lord, so he takes nothing from the world. That is why he turns down what these two men offer.
- Misjudged. Unbelief keeps misreading the king. These men judged David by themselves, and learned nothing from the Amalekite before them.
- Given. David never lifted a hand against Saul, Abner, or Ish-bosheth. God cleared the way, so the throne stood all the firmer under him.
when one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead! and he was in his own sight a messenger of good, I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag -- to whom forsooth I should give a reward for his good tidings
Two men have murdered Saul's son in his bed. They cut off his head and carried it to Hebron, hoping David would pay them for clearing his path to the throne. David does not thank them. He answers with a memory — the day at Ziklag, when another man brought news he was sure would make him rich.
The two men expected thanks. They got a verdict instead.
David saw through their hard-hearted deceit and greed at once. He had no room for friends like these. He knew they could turn on him the way they had turned on Ish-bosheth, if the chance came. He told them it was the living Lord who had redeemed his life out of every trouble — not man's deceitful wickedness. Then David told them about the man who had brought him news of Saul's death. That man thought David would count it good news and reward him for it. Instead, David had him killed.
The man at Ziklag came with proof in his hands and a reward in mind.
He clearly thinks he is bringing good news. He carries the crown and the signet as proof it is true, and he expects this to win him some special reward from David, maybe even a position of honour. He could only think it would be an occasion for rejoicing. He tells of his part in Saul's death — truthfully, it seems, and possibly boasting — only to find his news met with mourning.
Commentators differ on whether the Amalekite killed Saul or invented the story. Either way, his calculation is plain:
The man was an opportunist. One wonders whether he had gone to the battlefield looking for a chance like this, ready to take advantage of it. If he had found Saul dead and told the truth about it, his end might have been different, but his lie incriminated him.
This had happened before, and the outcome was public. These two men should have known.
How little unbelief ever learns! The men of Israel had heard how the king felt. You would suppose they would remember the lesson taught to the Amalekite. But unbelief does not know God, and it cannot recognise those who are His. So it makes itself unfit to appreciate the ways of faith and of love, and it was all lost on them.
Twice men held out a crown to David. His answer the second time matched his answer the first.
He had refused the crown from the hand of the Amalekite; he will refuse it from the hand of Ish-bosheth's murderers.
There is a second reason David will not take this help.
Here he understands two things. He cannot use the help these men are offering him. He must also refuse it, because Satan is the one offering it. This is what we must do too when the world offers to help us.
The Ziklag execution is the lesser case. David argues from it upward to what these two deserve.
"How much more," he adds, "when wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house on his bed." Their guilt was worse than the other man's. So David would rightly require Ish-bosheth's blood from them and take their life from the earth. His young men did more than kill them. They cut off their hands and feet and hung them up over the pool in Hebron. Their hands had been quick to shed blood. Their feet had been quick to finish the evil by carrying their master's head to David. David likely displayed them to show his horror at what they had done, and to warn off anyone tempted to use tactics like theirs.
David never seized the throne. No crime of his own opened the way to it.
David never lifted his hand against Saul or Jonathan. David's hand never got rid of Abner or of Ish-bosheth. But now God had worked in all these different ways. He worked through wicked men who were with David, through wicked men against him, and through the open enemies of the Lord. One after another, He disposed of the men who laid claim to the throne.
- Redeemed — David credits his rescue to the living Lord who brought him through every trouble. He does not credit the schemers in front of him.
- Remembered — He meets a new crime with an old verdict. The man at Ziklag expected a reward for his news. David had him killed instead.
- Refused — A crown from an Amalekite, then a crown from murderers. David turned both down, because Satan was behind the offer. We must do the same when the world offers to help us.
- Repaid — Ziklag was the lighter case. Killing a righteous man on his own bed brought a heavier sentence. David displayed their hands and feet as a warning.
- Received — David's hand never removed Saul, Abner, or Ish-bosheth. God cleared the throne Himself. So David could take it with clean hands.
how much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed? and should I not now demand his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth?
David's answer to the two men holding Ish-bosheth's head is not gratitude but a death sentence. His answer raises three questions: how could a king call his rival righteous, why refuse a throne handed to him for free, and what does it mean that God let a crime clear his path?
David's rival had no rightful claim to the throne. Yet David calls him a righteous man. One writer sees the measure of David's heart in that word:
What can be finer than this? Here was a man who was a rival, and that too without cause and without any title. But faith is more than upright, and can readily afford to be generous... It was not that David shut his eyes to anything that was wrong. He did not mean that Ish-bosheth was righteous in everything, least of all in disputing the throne God had given to David. But he did not forget his life and general character, despite the grave mistake that set him against David and proved fatal to Ish-bosheth himself.
Rechab and Baanah were Ish-bosheth's own officers. They misread the king, because they measured him by themselves:
Abner's death left Ish-bosheth helpless, and all Israel troubled and confused (v.1). But two men saw an attractive opportunity here. They were captains of troops in Ish-bosheth's army. They could see that David would come out on top, and they thought they could win David's favour by killing Ish-bosheth. But they acted on the false assumption that David was as wicked as they were.
The brothers claimed the Lord had avenged David that day. David's reply in verse 9 names his real Deliverer, and in doing so refuses their reading of events:
They claimed to be instruments of God in carrying out the wicked deed, expecting approval and a reward from David. But the king received them in a different way. Here David's trust in the LORD breaks through the dark clouds and reveals the king's heart: "As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my soul out of all adversity." He acknowledges the Lord's gracious help in the past, and his present confidence in Him. His case had rested in the LORD's hands. In the horrible deed of the two captains the king did not see the LORD stepping in for him. He looked on them as murderers.
Their crime handed David the whole kingdom at no cost. He would not take it that way:
Two wicked and criminal men murder Saul's son, whom David himself calls "a righteous man" (v. 11). Baanah and Rechab bring Ishbosheth's head to the king. By their crime they open the way for him to reign over all Israel... Instead of accepting their offer, David, holy in his ways, judges the evil, hates it, and separates himself from it.
David could have argued that since God's providence had removed his rival, he was free to accept what providence had handed him. The same writer separates what God does from what I am permitted to do:
This history shows us that God uses everything to carry out His plans of grace toward David: Abner, Joab, Rechab and Baanah. He disapproves of them, of course, but His providence makes even evil itself serve His ways. God will judge evil, but it will have served to advance His purposes. Is not the cross the supreme proof of the way He works?
And now, if God uses these means, do I have the right to use them? In no way, for God is sovereign and I am not. He may use evil, even Satan himself, as He wills. I am a creature, dependent on Him, and I must obey... When the world offers me its services I refuse them, for I have to do with God.
David weighs their guilt against an earlier case, and makes their punishment public:
"How much more," he adds, "when wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house on his bed." Their guilt was worse than that of the other man. So he would rightly require the blood of Ish-bosheth from them by taking their life from the earth. In this case the young men did not only kill them. They also cut off their hands and feet and hung them up over the pool in Hebron. Their hands had been swift to shed blood. Their feet had been swift to finish this evil by boldly carrying their master's head to David. They were likely hung up to declare David's horror at their evil act, and to warn anyone tempted to use tactics like theirs.
- Their hand — two officers killed a helpless man in his bed and expected thanks. They judged David by their own wickedness.
- God's hand — David credits the Lord who redeemed his soul out of all adversity, not a knife in the dark.
- The offered hand — crime opened the way to the whole kingdom, and David refused to take it from such hands.
- The refusing hand — God may use evil to advance His purposes. We are creatures under orders, and we must keep clear of it.
- The judging hand — David required blood from the men who shed it. He displayed their punishment in public, as horror at the crime and as a warning.
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.
Two men had just boasted to David that they killed Saul's son in his bed and brought his head to Hebron. The closing verse gives his answer, and it raises a hard question: why destroy the men who cleared his way to the throne?
The two killers were making a calculation, and all of it rested on a wrong reading of David.
Abner's death left Ish-bosheth helpless and all Israel confused and troubled. But two men, who were captains of bands in Ish-bosheth's army, saw an attractive opportunity. They could see that David would come out on top, and they thought they could win David's favour by killing Ish-bosheth. But they acted on the false assumption that David was as wicked as they were.
They were not the first to misread David. Israel had seen the same mistake punished before.
How little unbelief ever learns! You would think the men of Israel who heard how the king felt would have remembered the lesson taught to the Amalekite. But unbelief does not know God and cannot recognise those who are His. So it makes itself unfit to appreciate the ways of faith and of love.
David had called the murdered man righteous, even though Ish-bosheth had held the throne against him.
Faith is more than upright, and can easily afford to be generous. David did not mean that Ish-bosheth was righteous in everything, least of all in disputing the throne God had given to David himself. But he did not forget the man's life and general character just because of the grave mistake that set him against David and proved fatal to him.
The death sentence that followed was not a burst of temper. David held office, and the verse shows him using it.
David's act at the end of this chapter was according to God's mind. David had authority, and he was responsible to use it in holiness and righteousness, so that this terrible punishment would serve as an example.
The mutilation looks pointless until you see which body parts David chose, and what those parts had done.
Their hands had been quick to shed blood, and their feet had been quick to finish this evil by boldly carrying their master's head to David. They were probably hung up to declare how strongly David hated their evil act, and to warn anyone tempted to use tactics like theirs. Ish-bosheth's head was buried in Abner's grave.
The same verse that shames the guilty also honours the victim.
The crime cleared David's last rival. That made it a test, not a gift.
By murdering Ish-bosheth, Rechab and Baanah clear a path for David to the throne. Did he have the right to take advantage of the situation? ... Here he understands that he cannot use the human help being offered to him. He must also refuse it, because Satan is the one offering it. This is what we must do too when the world offers to help us.
Someone else's crime had removed every obstacle in David's way. That pattern says something about God, and something different about us.
This history shows us that God uses everything to carry out His purposes of grace toward David: Abner, Joab, Rechab and Baanah. He does disapprove of them, but His providence makes even evil itself help His ways forward. God will judge evil, yet it will have served to advance His purposes. Is not the cross the supreme proof of the way He works?
If God uses these means, do I have the right to use them? In no way. God is sovereign and I am not. He may use evil, even Satan himself, as He wills. I am a creature, dependent on Him, and I must obey.
David destroyed the men who cleared his path. So no one could say he bought the crown with blood he had spilled.
Now the Lord had clearly set aside these different obstacles by His judgment. He had made David's position all the more secure, because it was not done by David. David's hand was never lifted against Saul or Jonathan. David's hand never got rid of Abner or Ish-bosheth.
Commentators also read the story forward. Through a history full of murder, David's record stays clean:
In all the evil deeds, the bloodshed and cold-blooded murders he had no part. He acted in justice. In this at least he is a type of Him who will reign over the earth in righteousness.
- Misread. The brothers assumed David was as wicked as they were, and they died of that assumption.
- Refused. The crime opened his road to the throne, and he treated the help as coming from Satan, not from God.
- Judged. He held authority, so he had to use it in holiness and righteousness. He made the punishment public as a warning.
- Sovereign. God may use evil to advance His purposes, and the cross is the supreme proof. But He alone may. We must obey.
- Clean. Every rival fell without David's hand. The kingdom came to him by God's judgment — the mark of the King who will reign in righteousness.