2 Samuel 4:6

6 And they came till to the midst of the house, and took wheat; and Rechab, and Baanah, his brother, smote Ishbosheth in the share-bone, and fled. (And they came into the midst of the house, carrying wheat; and Rechab, and his brother Baanah, struck, or stabbed, Ishbosheth in the belly, and then fled.)

2 Samuel 4:6 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 4:6

And they came thither into the midst of the house
They not only came unto it, but entered into it, and went into the inmost part of it; the guards being asleep also perhaps, or not on duty, so that there were none to obstruct them; or if there were, they deceived them, since they went in

[as though] they would have fetched wheat;
out of the king's granaries, for the payment and support of the soldiers under them, who in those days were paid in corn, as were the Roman soldiers ^F25 in later times; and these granaries might not only be in the king's house, but near his bedchamber; for in those ancient ages of simplicity there was not such grandeur in the courts of princes as now; the Targum is,

``as sellers of wheat,''

in the guise and habit of such persons, pretending they came to sell wheat to the king's purveyors, who were at the granaries; or, as others interpret it, they went in along with the wheat merchants as if they belonged to them, and so found their way to the king's bedchamber:

and smote him under the fifth [rib]; (See Gill on 2 Samuel 2:23);

and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped;
they got out of the palace after they had committed the murder undiscovered and unsuspected.

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 Vid. Valtrinum de re militar. Roman. l. 3. c. 15. p. 236.

2 Samuel 4:6 In-Context

4 And a son feeble in his feet was to Jonathan, the son of Saul; and he was five years eld, when the messenger came from Saul and Jonathan, from Jezreel, telling that they were dead (and he was five years old, when a message came from Jezreel about Saul and Jonathan, saying that they were dead). Therefore his nurse took him, and fled; and when she hasted to flee, she felled down, and the child was made lame; and the name of the child was Mephibosheth.

5 Therefore Rechab and Baanah, the sons of Rimmon of Beeroth, came, and entered in the hot (of the) day into the house of Ishbosheth, that slept upon his bed at midday; and the woman that kept the doors of the house, (who had been) purging wheat, (now also) slept fast. (And so Rechab and Baanah, the sons of Rimmon of Beeroth, came, and in the heat of the day entered into Ishbosheth's house, while he slept on his bed at midday; and the woman who kept the doors of the house, had been purging wheat, but now she was also asleep.)

6 And they came till to the midst of the house, and took wheat; and Rechab, and Baanah, his brother, smote Ishbosheth in the share-bone, and fled. (And they came into the midst of the house, carrying wheat; and Rechab, and his brother Baanah, struck, or stabbed, Ishbosheth in the belly, and then fled.)

7 Soothly when they had entered into the house, he slept on his bed in a (bed-)closet; and they smited and killed him; and when they had taken [off] his head, they went by the way of desert in all that night. (Yea, when they entered into the house, he slept on his bed in the bed-chamber; and they struck, or stabbed, him and killed him; and when they had cut off his head, they left, and went by the way of the wilderness all that night.)

8 And they brought the head of Ishbosheth to David, in Hebron, and they said to the king, Lo! the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, thine enemy, that sought thy life; and the Lord hath given today to our lord the king vengeance of Saul, and of his seed (yea, today the Lord hath avenged our lord the king upon Saul, and upon his descendants, or his family).