2 Samuel 4:10
8 They brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David at Hebron and said to the king, “Here is the head of Ish-bosheth son of Saul, your enemy who sought your life. Today the LORD has granted vengeance to my lord the king against Saul and his offspring.”
9 But David answered Rechab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, “As surely as the LORD lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress,
when someone told me, ‘Look, Saul is dead,’ and thought he was a bearer of good news, I seized him and put him to death at Ziklag. That was his reward for his news!
11 How much more, when wicked men kill a righteous man in his own house and on his own bed, shall I not now require his blood from your hands and remove you from the earth!”
12 So David commanded his young men, and they killed Rechab and Baanah. They cut off their hands and feet and hung their bodies by the pool in Hebron, but they took the head of Ish-bosheth and buried it in Abner’s tomb in Hebron.
Here the Bible tells a story about someone else. Ask yourself what it can say to us today. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- when someone told me, ‘Look, Saul is dead,’ and thought he was a bearer of good news, I seized him and put him to death at Ziklag. That was his reward for his news!
- KJV
- When one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag, who thought that I would have given him a reward for his tidings:
- WEB
- when 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.
- ASV
- when one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his tidings.
- DARBY
- 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:
- BLB
- when it was declared to me, saying, ‘Behold, Saul is dead,’ and he was as a bearer of tidings in his own eyes, I arrested him and I killed him at Ziklag, which [was] instead of my giving to him for [his] news;
- ÅB
- Den som kom til meg med tidende om at Saul var død, og som selv mente at han kom med en god tidende, ham grep jeg og lot ham drepe i Siklag - ham som jeg skulle ha gitt lønn for god tidende,
- OTB
- da en kom og fortalte meg, og sa: 'Se, Saul er død,' og trodde han brakte gode nyheter, grep jeg ham og drepte ham i Siklag—dette var belønningen jeg ga ham for hans nyhet.
- B1930
- Den som kom til mig med tidende om at Saul var død, og som selv mente at han kom med en god tidende, ham grep jeg og lot ham drepe i Siklag - ham som jeg skulde ha gitt lønn for god tidende,
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
2 Samuel 1:2–16
On the third day a man with torn clothes and dust on his head arrived from Saul’s camp. When he came to David, he fell to the ground to pay him homage.
Read in context