2 Samuel 4:12

12 Therefore David commanded to his servants, and they killed them; and they cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them over the cistern in Hebron (and hung them up near the pool in Hebron). Forsooth they took the head of Ishbosheth, and they buried it in the sepulchre of Abner, in Hebron.

2 Samuel 4:12 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 4:12

And David commanded his young men, and they slew them
He ordered some of his guards about him to fall on them, and put them to death; and they accordingly did:

and cut off their hands and their feet;
their hands, which had smote Ishbosheth, and cut off his head; and their feet, which had been swift to shed his blood, and made haste to bring his head so many miles to David; this was what the Jews call measure for measure:

and hanged [them] up over the pool in Hebron;
not their hands and their feet, but the trunks of their bodies, thus mutilated; so Theodoret; though others think their hands and their feet were hung up, and not their bodies, because dead bodies were not to hang upon the tree more than a day; they were hung up over the fish pool in Hebron, because a public place, and where they were the more exposed to their shame, and the terror of others:

but they took the head of Ishbosheth, and buried [it] in the sepulchre
of Abner in Hebron;
by order of David no doubt, who it seems had made, or ordered to be made, a sepulchre, for Abner, see ( 2 Samuel 3:38 ) ; all which David did to show his regard to the family of Saul, his abhorrence of such execrable murders, and to remove all suspicion of his being concerned in them, and to conciliate the minds of the Israelites to him.

2 Samuel 4:12 In-Context

10 for I held him that told to me, and said, Saul is dead, which man guessed himself to tell prosperities, and I killed him in Ziklag, to whom (he thought) it behooved me (to) give meed for (his) message; (for I took hold of him who told me, and said, Saul is dead, which man thought that he told good news, and I killed him in Ziklag, yea, he who thought it behooved me to give him a reward for his message;)

11 how much more now, when wicked men have slain a guiltless man in his house upon his bed, shall I not seek his blood of your hand, and shall not I do away you from the earth? (how much more now, when you wicked men have killed an innocent man in his own house on his own bed, will I not avenge his blood upon you, and shall I not do you away from the face of the earth?)

12 Therefore David commanded to his servants, and they killed them; and they cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them over the cistern in Hebron (and hung them up near the pool in Hebron). Forsooth they took the head of Ishbosheth, and they buried it in the sepulchre of Abner, in Hebron.