⁶ Then he wrote 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 leaders of the city, who were charged with their upbringing. ⁷ When the letter reached them, they took the king’s sons and killed them, seventy persons; they put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel.^(A)

¹¹ The men of his city, the elders and the nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent word to them. Just as it was written in the letters that she had sent to them, ¹² they proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth at the head of the assembly. ¹³ The two scoundrels came in and sat opposite him, and the scoundrels 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.^(A)

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 Ishbaal^[a] while he was taking his noonday rest.^{(A) 6} They came inside the house as though to take wheat,^[b] and they struck him in the stomach; then Rechab and his brother Baanah escaped.^{(B) 7} Now they had come into the house while he was lying on his couch in his bedchamber; they attacked him, killed him, and beheaded him. Then they took his head and traveled by way of the Arabah all night long. ⁸ They brought the head of Ishbaal^[c] to David at Hebron and said to the king, “Here is the head of Ishbaal^[d] son of Saul, your enemy who sought your life; the Lord has avenged my lord the king this day on Saul and on his offspring.”^(C)

⁹ David answered Rechab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, “As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life out of every adversity,^{(D) 10} when the one who told me, ‘See, Saul is dead,’ thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and killed him at Ziklag—this was the reward I gave him for his news.^{(E) 11} How much more, then, when wicked men have killed a righteous man on his bed in his own house! And now shall I not require his blood at your hand and destroy you from the earth?”^{(F) 12} So David commanded the young men, and they killed them; they cut off their hands and feet and hung their bodies beside the pool at Hebron. But the head of Ishbaal^[e] they took and buried in the tomb of Abner at Hebron.^(G)

⁷ Now Saul had a concubine whose name was Rizpah daughter of Aiah. And Ishbaal^[a] said to Abner, “Why have you gone in to my father’s concubine?”^{(A) 8} The words of Ishbaal^[b] made Abner very angry; he said, “Am I a dog’s head for Judah? Today I keep showing loyalty to the house of your father Saul, to his brothers, and to his friends and have not given you into the hand of David, yet you charge me now with a crime concerning this woman.^{(B) 9} So may God do to Abner and so may he add to it! For just what the Lord has sworn to David, that will I accomplish for him:^{(C) 10} to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan to Beer-sheba.”^{(D) 11} And Ishbaal^[c] could not answer Abner another word because he feared him.