2 Samuel 4:10

10 "when someone told me Saul was dead back in Ziklag, thinking he was bringing good news, I grabbed him and killed him. That was the reward I gave him for his news!

2 Samuel 4:10 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 4:10

When one told me, saying, behold, Saul is dead
No more is related, not that he killed him, or assisted in killing him, only that he was dead; by which it appears, as Abarbinel thinks, that the Amalekite did not slay Saul, and that David did not put him to death on that account, but for what follows:

thinking to have brought good tidings;
which would have been very acceptable to David, that he would have rejoiced and exulted at it as he did; but he was mistaken; instead of that,

I took hold of him, and slew him at Ziklag;
that is, ordered one of his young men to lay hold on him, and slay him, as he did, ( 2 Samuel 1:15 ) ;

who [thought] that I would have given him a reward for his tidings;
a handsome present, as the Targum here, a gift, or raised him to some post of honour and profit.

2 Samuel 4:10 In-Context

8 They brought Ishbosheth's head to David at Hebron. "Here is the head of Ishbosheth," they told the king, "the son of Saul your enemy, who wanted you dead. Today the LORD has avenged our master the king on Saul and his descendants."

9 David answered Rechab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon from Beeroth, "As surely as the LORD lives, who has rescued me from all kinds of trouble," he told them,

10 "when someone told me Saul was dead back in Ziklag, thinking he was bringing good news, I grabbed him and killed him. That was the reward I gave him for his news!

11 What do you think I'll do when evil people kill a righteous person in his own house on his own bed? Why shouldn't I demand his blood from your hands and rid the earth of you both?"

12 So David gave the order to his servants, and they killed Rechab and Baanah, cutting off their hands and feet and hanging them up by the pool at Hebron. But they took Ishbosheth's head and buried it in the grave of Abner at Hebron.