(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.
But, whatever the real character of Ish-bosheth might be, the conduct of those brothers we cannot be at a loss to gather. Wherefore the account of the city to which they belonged is inserted here, by way of a parenthesis, is not certain, unless it be to mark their atrocity still more in that being Benjamites, they ought to have had more love to the house of Saul, who was of that tribe. The account of Mephibosheth, which is given here, though short, is interesting. The lameness, induced by the event of the battle on the day of Saul's death, and Jonathan being the father of Mephibosheth, may serve to show how the sin of the parent involves the children in the consequent punishment. Alas! how evident is it, that the whole nature is fallen, when the whole nature groans from being universally implicated in the fall.