2 Samuel 2 Footnotes

2:8 First Ch 10:6, which states that Saul’s “whole house died together” while doing battle with the Philistines, yet here Ish-bosheth is still living. The term house is used several ways in the Hebrew OT: it can refer to a human residence (Jdg 19:21), a sacred temple (Is 56:7), or a family line (1Kg 12:19). Here it means the employees of a powerful individual. A comparison of 1Ch 10:6 with its parallel passage in 1Sm 31:6 makes it clear that the writer intended the phrase “his whole house” (1Ch 10:6) to refer to “his armor-bearer, and all his men” (1Sm 31:6)—that is, men close to Saul who were under his authority.

Two, or possibly three, different names appear in the Bible for the son of Saul who became a rival to David. Throughout 2 Samuel he is called Ish-bosheth, but in 1Ch 8:33 and 9:39, he is referred to as Esh-baal. Since Esh-baal means “Man of Baal” or “Fire of Baal,” the writer of 2 Samuel apparently substituted bosheth (“shame” or “abomination”) for ba‘al in his name to avoid mentioning the title of the pagan god (Ex 23:13; Jos 23:7). A third name applied to this son may be Ishvi (1Sm 14:49). The Hebrew word ba‘al means “husband” or “lord,” hence it could have applied to Yahweh (see Hs 2:16). Saul need not have been honoring a Canaanite divinity in giving the name to his son. But because the title was so closely associated with pagan worship, the biblical narrator was led to make a substitution.