Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Rechab and Baanah secretly murder Ish-bosheth. They tell David about their deed and he has them both put to death. Ish-bosheth’s head is buried in Abner’s grave.

II. Photo
Rechab and Baanah sneak up on Ish-bosheth: “Rechab and Baanah, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, started out, and they reached the home of Ish-bosheth at the heat of the day, when he was taking his midday rest.” (v. 5)

III. Important Verses
1: When Ish-bosheth son of Saul heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost heart and all Israel was alarmed.
4: Jonathan son of Saul had a son whose feet were crippled. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse picked him up and fled; but as she was fleeing in haste, he fell and was lamed. His name was Mephibosheth.
5-8: Rechab and Baanah, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, started out, and they reached the home of Ish-bosheth at the heat of the day, when he was taking his midday rest. So they went inside the house, as though fetching wheat, and struck him in the belly. Rechab and his brother Baanah slipped by, and entered the house while he was asleep on his bed in his bedchamber; and they stabbed him to death. They cut off his head and took his head and made their way all night through the Arabah. They brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David in Hebron. “Here,” they said to the king, “is the head of your enemy, Ish-bosheth son of Saul, who sought your life. This day the LORD has avenged my lord the king upon Saul and his offspring.”
11-12: [David said:] “How much more, then, when wicked men have killed a blameless man in bed in his own house! I will certainly avenge his blood on you, and I will rid the earth of you.” David gave orders to the young men, who killed them; they cut off their hands and feet and hung them up by the pool in Hebron. And they took the head of Ish-bosheth and buried it in the grave of Abner at Hebron.

IV. Outline
1. Ish-bosheth is overwrought
2-7. Rechab and Baanah kill Ish-bosheth; Saul’s son Mephibosheth
8. Rechab and Baanah bring David Ish-bosheth’s head
9-12a. David avenges Ish-bosheth’s death
12b. Ish-bosheth’s head is buried in Abner’s grave

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Anderson, A. A. “2 Samuel” Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 11 (Waco Texas: Wordbooks, 1989).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Photo taken from http://www.bvallc.com/pensionblog/uploaded_images/Hammock-748808.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
After having a falling-out with Ish-bosheth, Abner and his forces join David’s side. Joab avenges his brother’s death by killing Abner. David mourns for Abner and protests his own innocence.

II. Photo
Abner joins David’s forces: “When Abner came to David in Hebron, accompanied by twenty men, David made a feast for Abner and the men with him.” (v. 20)

III. Important Verses
1: The war between the House of Saul and the House of David was long-drawn-out; but David kept growing stronger, while the House of Saul grew weaker.
6-11: During the war between the House of Saul and the House of David, Abner supported the House of Saul. Now Saul had a concubine named Rizpah, daughter of Aiah; and [Ish-bosheth] said to Abner, “Why have you lain with my father’s concubine?” Abner was very upset by what Ish-bosheth said, and he replied, “Am I a dog’s head from Judah? Here I have been loyally serving the House of your father Saul and his kinsfolk and friends, and I have not betrayed you into the hands of David; yet this day you reproach me over a woman! May God do thus and more to Abner if I do not do for David as the LORD swore to him — to transfer the kingship from the House of Saul, and to establish the throne of David over Israel and Judah from Dan to Beer-sheba.” [Ish-bosheth] could say nothing more in reply to Abner, because he was afraid of him.
31-34: David then ordered Joab and all the troops with him to rend their clothes, gird on sackcloth, and make lament before Abner; and King David himself walked behind the bier. And so they buried Abner at Hebron; the king wept aloud by Abner’s grave, and all the troops wept. And the king intoned this dirge over Abner, “Should Abner have died the death of a churl? Your hands were not bound, Your feet were not put in fetters; But you fell as one falls Before treacherous men!” And all the troops continued to weep over him.
37: That day all the troops and all Israel knew that it was not by the king’s will that Abner son of Ner was killed.

IV. Outline
1. David grows stronger; Ish-bosheth grows weaker
2-5. David’s family in Hebron
6-11. Abner and Ish-bosheth have a falling-out over Saul’s concubine
12-16. Abner contacts David; David demands Michal as a wife
17-19. Abner rallies support for David
20-21. David and Abner make a pact over a meal
22-27. Joab kills Abner
28-29. David protests his innocence
30. The guilty party
31-32. Abner is buried
33-34. David laments Abner’s death
35-39. David makes it clear that he is innocent

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Anderson, A. A. “2 Samuel” Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 11 (Waco Texas: Wordbooks, 1989).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Photo taken from http://images.ohioeventfinder.com/60491/WineToast_RGB-medium.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
David moves to Hebron and is anointed king of Judah. Saul’s son Ish-bosheth is anointed king of the other tribes. The generals of the two sides lead their armies into an internecine battle.

II. Photo
One of David’s soldiers is quick: “Asahel was swift of foot, like a gazelle in the open field.” (v. 18b)

III. Important Verses
1: Sometime afterward, David inquired of the LORD, “Shall I go up to one of the towns of Judah?” The LORD answered, “Yes.” David further asked, “Which one shall I go up to?” And the LORD replied, “To Hebron.”
4a: The men of Judah came and there they anointed David king over the House of Judah.
8-9: But Abner son of Ner, Saul’s army commander, had taken Ish-bosheth son of Saul and brought him across to Mahanaim and made him king over Gilead, the Ashurites, Jezreel, Ephraim, and Benjamin — over all Israel.
12-16: Once Abner son of Ner and the soldiers of Ish-bosheth son of Saul marched out from Mahanaim to Gibeon, and Joab son of Zeruiah and the soldiers of David [also] came out. They confronted one another at the pool of Gibeon: one group sat on one side of the pool, and the other group on the other side of the pool. Abner said to Joab, “Let the young men come forward and sport before us.” “Yes, let them,” Joab answered. They came forward and were counted off, twelve for Benjamin and Ish-bosheth son of Saul, and twelve of David’s soldiers. Each one grasped his opponent’s head [and thrust] his dagger into his opponent’s side; thus they fell together. That place, which is in Gibeon, was called Helkath-hazzurim.
25-28: The Benjaminites rallied behind Abner, forming a single company; and they took up a position on the top of a hill. Abner then called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour forever? You know how bitterly it’s going to end! How long will you delay ordering your troops to stop the pursuit of their kinsmen?”  And Joab replied, “As God lives, if you hadn’t spoken up, the troops would have given up the pursuit of their kinsmen only the next morning.” Joab then sounded the horn, and all the troops halted; they ceased their pursuit of Israel and stopped the fighting.

IV. Outline
1-3. David moves to Hebron
4a. David is anointed king over the House of Judah
4-7. David enlists the men of Jabesh-gilead
8-10. Abner anoints Ish-bosheth king of Benjamin and Israel
11. Chronology
12-16. A deadly wrestling match
17. David’s men defeat Ish-bosheth’s men in battle
18-23. Abner kills Asahel, brother of Joab
24-28. The fighting stops
29-31. Assessment of the battle
32a. Asahel is buried
32b. Joab returns to Hebron

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Klein, Ralph W. “1 Samuel” Word Biblical Commentary vol. 10 (Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1983).
Photo taken from http://www.reverberate.org/gazelle/gazelle.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
An Amalekite tells David how he killed Saul to end his suffering. David kills the Amalekite and composes a lament for Saul and Jonathan.

II. Photo
David is distraught: “I grieve for you, My brother Jonathan, You were most dear to me. Your love was wonderful to me More than the love of women!” (v. 26)

III. Important Verses
5-10:  “How do you know,” David asked the young man who brought him the news, “that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?” The young man who brought him the news answered, “I happened to be at Mount Gilboa, and I saw Saul leaning on his spear, and the chariots and horsemen closing in on him. He looked around and saw me, and he called to me. When I responded, ‘At your service,’ he asked me, ‘Who are you?’ And I told him that I was an Amalekite. Then he said to me, ‘Stand over me, and finish me off, for I am in agony and am barely alive.’ So I stood over him and finished him off, for I knew that he would never rise from where he was lying. Then I took the crown from his head and the armlet from his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord.”
11-12: David took hold of his clothes and rent them, and so did all the men with him. They lamented and wept, and they fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the soldiers of the LORD and the House of Israel who had fallen by the sword.
16: And David said to him, “Your blood be on your own head! Your own mouth testified against you when you said, ‘I put the LORD’s anointed to death.’”
17-18: And David intoned this dirge over Saul and his son Jonathan — He ordered the Judites to be taught [The Song of the] Bow. It is recorded in the Book of Jashar.
26-27: I grieve for you, My brother Jonathan, You were most dear to me. Your love was wonderful to me More than the love of women. How have the mighty fallen, The weapons of war perished!

IV. Outline
1-10. An Amalekite informs David of Saul’s death
11-12. David mourns
13-16. David kills the Amalekite for killing Saul
17-18. Introduction to David’s Lament
19-27. David’s lament: “How the mighty have fallen!”

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Campbell, Antony F. “1 Samuel” The Forms of Old Testament Literature vol. 7 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2003).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Klein, Ralph W. “1 Samuel” Word Biblical Commentary vol. 10 (Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1983).
Photo taken from http://www.sonvo.net/english/images/stories/love/loneliness.jpg