1Ketika Isboset mendengar bahwa Abner dibunuh di Hebron, dia dan seluruh orang Israel sangat ketakutan.2Isboset memiliki dua orang kepala regu yang bertugas menjarah daerah musuh. Mereka bernama Banah dan Rekab, anak Rimon dari kota Beerot, orang Benyamin. (Beerot berada di wilayah suku Benyamin.3Pada masa semua suku Israel masih mengambil dan menduduki tempat tinggal sesuai ketentuan Yosua, para penduduk asli Beerot sudah melarikan diri ke Gitaim, dan sampai penulisan kitab ini mereka masih tinggal di sana sebagai pendatang.)4Pada waktu Yonatan terbunuh bersama Saul dalam pertempuran, dia sudah memiliki seorang anak laki-laki berumur lima tahun, namanya Mefiboset. Ketika pengasuh anak itu mendengar berita tentang kematian Yonatan di Yisreel, dia membawa lari Mefiboset. Tetapi karena terburu-buru, anak itu terlepas dari tangannya sehingga jatuh dan menjadi lumpuh.5Rekab dan Banah pergi ke rumah Isboset pada tengah hari, saat Isboset sedang istirahat siang.6Waktu itu pembantu perempuan yang menjaga pintu rumah sedang membersihkan bulir-bulir gandum dari kerikil. Namun, siang itu dia mengantuk sekali sehingga tertidur. Jadi kedua bersaudara itu masuk ke rumah tanpa ada yang mengetahui. Sesampainya di ruang tidur Isboset, mereka menikam perutnya dan memenggal kepalanya, lalu melarikan diri. Sambil membawa kepala Isboset, mereka melewati jalan yang menuju ke Araba sepanjang malam itu.8Rekab dan Banah membawa kepala Isboset kepada Daud di Hebron serta berkata kepadanya, “Lihat! Ini kepala Isboset, anak musuh Tuanku, yaitu Saul— yang dulu berusaha membunuh engkau! Hari ini TUHAN sudah membalaskan dendam Tuanku Raja terhadap Saul dan keturunannya!”9Namun jawab Daud kepada mereka berdua, “Saya bersumpah di hadapan TUHAN yang hidup, yang sudah menyelamatkan hidup saya dari segala bahaya, bahwa yang saya katakan ini benar:10Ketika seseorang datang ke Ziklag memberitahukan kepada saya bahwa Saul sudah mati, dia pikir dirinya membawa kabar baik, tetapi saya menangkapnya dan membunuh dia. Itulah imbalan yang saya berikan atas kabar yang dibawanya!11Terlebih lagi ketika dua orang jahat membunuh seorang yang tidak bersalah saat sedang tidur di rumahnya sendiri! Pasti saya akan menuntut pembalasan atas nyawanya dan melenyapkan kalian dari muka bumi ini!”12Maka Daud langsung memerintahkan supaya Rekab dan Banah dibunuh. Tangan dan kaki mereka dipotong dan mayat mereka digantung dekat kolam di Hebron, sedangkan kepala Isboset yang dibawa kedua orang itu dikuburkan di kuburan Abner di Hebron.
World English Bible (dengan Deuterokanonika)
1When Saul’s son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands became feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled.2Saul’s son had two men who were captains of raiding bands. The name of one was Baanah and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the children of Benjamin (for Beeroth also is considered a part of Benjamin;3and the Beerothites fled to Gittaim, and have lived as foreigners there until today).4Now Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the news came about Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel; and his nurse picked him up and fled. As she hurried to flee, he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.5The sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went out and came at about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth as he took his rest at noon.6They came there into the middle of the house as though they would have fetched wheat, and they struck him in the body; and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.7Now when they came into the house as he lay on his bed in his bedroom, they struck him, killed him, beheaded him, and took his head, and went by the way of the Arabah all night.8They brought the head of Ishbosheth to David to Hebron, and said to the king, “Behold, the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life! Yahweh has avenged my lord the king today of Saul and of his offspring.”9David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, “As Yahweh lives, who has redeemed my soul out of all adversity,10when someone told me, ‘Behold, Saul is dead,’ thinking that he brought good news, I seized him and killed him in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news.11How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house on his bed, should I not now require his blood from your hand, and rid the earth of you?”12David commanded his young men, and they killed them, cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up beside the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth and buried it in Abner’s grave in Hebron.