⁶ Then he wrote to them a second letter, saying, “If you are on my side, and if you are ready to obey me, take the heads of your master's sons and come to me at Jezreel tomorrow at this time.” Now the king's sons, seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, ^(A)who were bringing them up. ⁷ And as soon as the letter came to them, they took the king's sons ^(B)and slaughtered them, seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel.

¹¹ And the men of his city, ^(A)the elders and the leaders who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent word to them. As it was written in the letters that she had sent to them, ^12 (B)they proclaimed a fast and set Naboth at the head of the people. ¹³ And the two worthless men came in and sat opposite him. And the worthless men brought a charge against Naboth in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king.” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones.

⁵ Now the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, set out, and about the heat of the day they came to the house of Ish-bosheth as he was taking his noonday rest. ⁶ And they came into the midst of the house as if to get wheat, and they stabbed him ^(A)in the stomach. Then Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.^{[a] 7} When they came into the house, as he lay on his bed in his bedroom, they struck him and put him to death and beheaded him. They took his head and went by the way of ^(B)the Arabah all night, ⁸ and brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David at Hebron. And they said to the king, “Here is the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, ^(C)who sought your life. The Lord has avenged my lord the king this day on Saul and on his offspring.” ⁹ But David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, ^(D)“As the Lord lives, ^(E)who has redeemed my life out of every adversity, ^10 (F)when one told me, ‘Behold, Saul is dead,’ and thought he was bringing good news, ^(G)I seized him and killed him at Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news. ¹¹ How much more, when wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house on his bed, shall I not now ^(H)require his blood at your hand and destroy you from the earth?” ¹² And David commanded his young men, and they killed them and cut off their hands and feet and hanged them beside the pool at Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth and buried it ^(I)in the tomb of Abner at Hebron.

⁷ Now Saul had a concubine whose name was ^(A)Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah. And Ish-bosheth said to Abner, ^(B)“Why have you gone in to my father's concubine?” ⁸ Then Abner was very angry over the words of Ish-bosheth and said, “Am I ^(C)a dog's head of Judah? To this day I keep showing steadfast love to the house of Saul your father, to his brothers, and to his friends, and have not given you into the hand of David. And yet you charge me today with a fault concerning a woman. ^9 (D)God do so to Abner and more also, if I do not accomplish for David ^(E)what the Lord has sworn to him, ¹⁰ to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, ^(F)from Dan to Beersheba.” ¹¹ And Ish-bosheth could not answer Abner another word, because he feared him.