2 Samuel 4:11

11 How much more, when criminals have killed an innocent man in his own house on his own bed, shouldn't I hold you responsible for his death and rid the earth of you?"

2 Samuel 4:11 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 4:11

How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person,
&c.] As Ishbosheth was in comparison of the wicked men that slew him; though not with respect to David, if he knew of his divine designation to the throne; nor with respect to Mephibosheth his eldest brother's son, whose right to the throne was prior to his, which he must know; though with respect to his conduct towards David, in assuming the throne of Israel, it might not be owing to any bad principles of malice and injustice, but to his ignorance of David's having a right to the throne upon his father's death, and by the advice of his friends he took it: the sin of these men in murdering him is aggravated, in that they slew him

in his own palace, upon his bed?
in cold blood, and not in the field of battle, not being engaged in war with him; in his own palace, where he might justly think himself in safety; on his bed asleep, and so at an unawares, when insensible of danger, and not in a posture of defence; and now David argues from the lesser to the greater, that if the man that brought him the tidings of Saul's death had no reward given him for bringing what he thought would be reckoned good tidings, then much less would any be given them who had actually slain their master, and that in such a base and barbarous way; and if the above person, who only was a bringer of tidings, was taken and slain, then how much more did they deserve to die, who had been guilty of such a cruel and barbarous murder?

shall I not therefore now require his blood of your hands, and take
you away from the earth?
avenge his blood on them, by putting them to death, out of the world, and from the land of the living, as men that deserved to live no longer on it.

2 Samuel 4:11 In-Context

9 But David answered Rekhav and Ba'anah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Be'eroti, "As ADONAI lives, who has rescued me from every kind of difficulty,

10 when someone told me, 'Here, Sha'ul is dead,' thinking to himself that he was bringing good news, I didn't reward him for his news but seized him and killed him in Ziklag.

11 How much more, when criminals have killed an innocent man in his own house on his own bed, shouldn't I hold you responsible for his death and rid the earth of you?"

12 David then gave the order to his men, and they put them to death, cutting off their hands and feet and hanging them up next to the pool at Hevron. But they took the head of Ish-Boshet and buried it in Avner's grave at Hevron.