Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Baanah and Rechab treacherously kill Ishbosheth, and bring his head to David, who repays them with death instead of a reward for good news.
Vulgate Text: 2 Kings 4:1-12
1. Now when Ishbosheth the son of Saul heard that Abner had fallen in Hebron, his hands became weak, and all Israel was troubled. 2. And two men, captains of raiding bands, were with the son of Saul, the name of one being Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the children of Benjamin; for Beeroth also was reckoned as part of Benjamin; 3. and the Beerothites had fled to Gittaim, and had been sojourners there until that time. 4. Now Jonathan the son of Saul had a son who was lame in his feet; for he was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel: and his nurse took him up and fled; and as she was hurrying to flee, he fell and became lame, and his name was Mephibosheth. 5. So the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, came and entered the house of Ishbosheth in the heat of the day, and he was sleeping on his bed at noon. And the doorkeeper of the house, who was cleaning wheat, had fallen asleep. 6. And they entered the house secretly, taking sheaves of wheat, and they struck him in the groin — Rechab and Baanah his brother — and fled. 7. And when they had entered the house, he was sleeping on his bed in his chamber, and they struck and killed him; and taking his head, they went by the way of the desert all night, 8. and brought the head of Ishbosheth to David in Hebron; and they said to the king: Behold the head of Ishbosheth the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life; and the Lord has given my lord the king vengeance this day on Saul and on his seed. 9. But David answered Rechab, and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them: As the Lord lives, who has delivered my soul from all distress, 10. when the one who told me and said: Saul is dead — thinking he was bringing good news — I seized and killed him in Ziklag, to whom I should have given a reward for his news. 11. How much more now, when wicked men have killed an innocent man, in his own house, on his bed, shall I not require his blood from your hands, and remove you from the earth? 12. So David commanded his servants, and they killed them; and they cut off their hands and feet and hung them over the pool in Hebron; but the head of Ishbosheth they took and buried in the tomb of Abner in Hebron.
Verse 2: Captains of Raiding Bands
2. AND TWO MEN, CAPTAINS OF RAIDING BANDS, WERE WITH THE SON OF SAUL. — The Septuagint has: two men, captains of companies, were with Ishbosheth the son of Saul; the Chaldeans: two men, chief captains of two armies, were with the son of Saul; Vatablus: commanders of troops. Therefore they are called "raiders" here, meaning soldiers who are accustomed to go out here and there on plundering expeditions (for King Ishbosheth would not have tolerated raiders properly so-called): for in Hebrew they are called גדודים gedudim: so formerly the Romans by "latrones" understood mercenary soldiers, because like raiders they went out on ambushes to plunder, as say Varro, Festus, and Nonius Marcellus. So Jephthah is called a "chief of raiders," that is, of plundering soldiers, Judges 11:3. Perhaps these two were captains of the royal guard, namely the praetorian soldiers who attended and guarded Ishbosheth, as the Swiss Guard does today:
for thus it was easy for them to enter the house and to have secret access to Ishbosheth. So says Salianus.
3. AND THE BEEROTHITES FLED — namely Baanah and Rechab just mentioned; they fled from the face of Ishbosheth under whom they had served as soldiers, on account of some crime they had committed, which Ishbosheth wanted to punish. So say Rabanus, Abulensis, Serarius, and others. Therefore R. Solomon and Cajetan are wrong to take "Beerothites" as all the citizens and inhabitants of the city of Beeroth. For why would all the citizens have fled? And what does their flight have to do with the present history? For the claim of R. Solomon, and from him Lyranus, that they fled after Saul's death out of fear of the Philistines, because Beeroth was near them, is refuted by the fact that these two were captains of Ishbosheth's soldiers after Saul's death, as was said in verse 2.
Verse 4: Jonathan's Lame Son Mephibosheth
4. NOW JONATHAN THE SON OF SAUL HAD A SON WHO WAS LAME IN HIS FEET — named Mephibosheth, as follows. Why is Mephibosheth mentioned here? I answer, to indicate that from the line of Saul no male survived who was fit for the kingdom: for Mephibosheth, who alone survived, was lame and deformed, and unfit for waging the wars of Israel; therefore when Ishbosheth died (whose murder is narrated here), the kingdom necessarily had to be transferred from the line of Saul to David. So says Abulensis. Others respond differently — the Hebrews cited by St. Jerome in the Traditions, Rabanus, Cajetan, R. Solomon, and others — namely that Baanah and Rechab had served not under Ishbosheth but under Jonathan, and therefore favored his son Mephibosheth and wanted to make him king, and for this reason conspired to murder Ishbosheth: but Mephibosheth reported their conspiracy to Ishbosheth, and they, fearing his vengeance, fled, and returning secretly killed him in order to win David's favor. But this is a mere conjecture, having no foundation in Scripture.
Verse 5: Sleeping on His Bed at Noon
5. WHO WAS SLEEPING ON HIS BED AT NOON — as many in Italy and other hot regions take a siesta and a light midday sleep; for otherwise the medical prescription is: "Avoid the midday sleep." The Chaldean calls this "the sleep of kings," saying: and he (Ishbosheth) was sleeping the sleep of kings; for watchful kings, who at night are often compelled to keep watch and spend sleepless nights for the safety and affairs of the kingdom, take their sleep at midday. Just as Epaminondas, the commander of the Thebans, while others were celebrating feasts and banquets and then dozing, used to keep watch, saying: "I stand guard against the enemy so that you may feast securely" — a truly golden maxim for a prince. The same Epaminondas, when he had run through a sentinel who was sleeping, and was therefore accused of excessive severity, said: "I left him as I found him; for indeed the life of the living is watchfulness, and therefore the life of the sleeping is death rather than life." Hence Christ in the Gospel frequently commands us to watch.
AND THE DOORKEEPER OF THE HOUSE, WHO WAS CLEANING WHEAT (already threshed, removing pebbles, chaff, etc., and selecting individual grains, so that they would be perfectly clean for fine food) FELL ASLEEP — namely, exhausted from the labor of cleaning and from the heat, she fell into sleep. St. Gregory offers a beautiful and very useful tropology on this, book I Moralia chapter 18: "The doorkeeper," he says, "cleans the wheat when the mind's guardian, by discerning, separates virtues from vices. But if she falls asleep, she admits assassins to the death of her own lord; because when the solicitude of discernment has ceased, she opens the way for evil spirits to kill the soul. They enter and carry off the ears of grain; because immediately they take away the sprouts of good thoughts, and they strike in the groin; because they kill the virtue of the heart with the pleasure of the flesh. To strike in the groin is to pierce through the life of the mind with carnal pleasure." He then adds the harm caused by this guardian's slumber, saying: "By no means would Ishbosheth
have succumbed to this death, if he had not appointed at the entrance of his house a woman, that is, a soft guard at the doorway of his mind. For a strong and manly sense must be set before the doors of the heart, which neither the sleep of negligence may overcome nor the error of ignorance deceive. Hence Ishbosheth is rightly so named, who is laid bare to hostile swords by a female guard: for Ishbosheth means 'man of confusion.' And a man of confusion is one who is not fortified with a strong guard of the mind; because while he thinks he is practicing virtues, vices stealing in unawares kill him. Therefore the entrance of the mind must be fortified with all virtue, lest at any time lurking enemies penetrate it through the opening of neglected thought. Hence Solomon says: 'Guard your heart with all vigilance, for from it proceeds life.'"
Angelomus, Rupert, and Eucherius transcribed the same passage word for word from St. Gregory; from which it is clear that this Eucherius is not St. Eucherius, Bishop of Lyon, who preceded St. Gregory by a hundred years and more, but rather Bede or someone of that era.
Politically, let princes learn here to keep watch, either by themselves or through faithful friends, especially at those times when others sleep, such as at noon and at night; for enemies seize these times to attack and overwhelm the unwary. So Philip, king of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, when he had slept in his camp, upon waking said: "I slept in complete safety, for Antipater was keeping watch." So Plutarch in the Apophthegms. The same Philip, when he was sleeping during the day and Greeks gathering at his doors were criticizing him, Parmenio defended him: "Do not be surprised," he said, "if Philip sleeps now; for when you were sleeping, he was keeping watch." For true is the saying of Plato, which Laertius records in book III: "No one sleeping is worthy of anything, because he is like the dead." For sleep is the image of death, as Alexander the Great used to say, maintaining that from sleep he gathered that he was a mortal man and not the son of Jupiter, as some flatterers claimed, according to Plutarch.
Indeed, from sleep one often passes to death. Hence Gorgias of Leontini, feeling a deadly drowsiness creeping over him, when a friend asked how he was doing, replied: "Sleep is now beginning to commend me to his brother (death)." So says Aelian, book II.
Verse 6: They Entered the House Secretly
6. AND THEY ENTERED THE HOUSE SECRETLY, TAKING SHEAVES OF WHEAT — so that their deception and their plot to murder Ishbosheth would remain hidden, if they encountered any watchman; for they appeared to be wheat harvesters, or buyers and merchants, as the Chaldean, R. Solomon, and others translate; hence from the Hebrew you might translate: they entered into the midst of the house of those who were receiving grain, although the Hebrews cited by St. Jerome think they were carrying sheaves of wheat, pretending that they would offer them to King Ishbosheth as first fruits and gifts. Others say they used the sheaves to cover their faces, so as not to be recognized. Others think they brought green ears of grain to the doorkeeper, so that she, accustomed to cleaning wheat, would shell and thresh the ears; and thus make polenta, which in ancient times was
a delicacy; for this was a woman's work. Hence Abigail offered polenta to David, to appease his anger, book I, chapter 25, verse 18. So says Sanchez. This conjecture is apt and plausible.
AND THEY STRUCK HIM IN THE GROIN. — In Hebrew, under the fifth, namely rib, which is the last under which there is nothing bony, but soft belly, and therefore vulnerable to a lethal blow and perforation.
Verse 11: Wicked Men Have Killed an Innocent Man
11. HOW MUCH MORE NOW, WHEN WICKED MEN HAVE KILLED AN INNOCENT MAN, ETC. — Ishbosheth was hostile and harmful to David, contending with him for the kingdom; yet David calls him innocent, because he believed that Ishbosheth thought in good faith that the kingdom belonged to him, as the son of the deceased King Saul; for it was not clearly established to him that it had been transferred to David by God's gift: for although he may have heard that David had been anointed by Samuel as king, nevertheless David's right was not clear to him; for he could have objected and said that David had indeed been anointed as king, but only of his own tribe of Judah, and therefore the other tribes belonged to him; or that David had been anointed as king, but to reign only in the event that the royal line of Saul should fail, so that he might succeed it: but that this line had not yet failed, but continued in him, and therefore David could not invade his kingdom while the royal line was excluded.
Verse 12: David Executes the Murderers
12. AND THEY KILLED THEM. — David did this, first, to remove from himself the suspicion of the people, that he had been the secret author of or accomplice in the murder of Ishbosheth. Second, to show his love for Saul and Ishbosheth, even though they were his enemies; and thus to win for himself among all the tribes a reputation for clemency and generosity, which gains great goodwill and authority for a king among his subjects. Third, as king and judge to punish so great a crime and to avenge the wicked murder of a king. For the royal person must be inviolable to all.
Moreover, Theodoret and Abulensis think that David crucified these regicides. Josephus, book VII, chapter 2, says they were subjected to the most exquisite torments; but Scripture says no such thing, and implies that they were killed immediately, and therefore dispatched with sword or lance, and then their hands, with which they had committed the murder, and their feet, with which they had hastened to it, were cut off and hung up as a perpetual memorial and punishment of their crime.
AND THE HEAD OF ISHBOSHETH THEY TOOK AND BURIED IN THE TOMB OF ABNER IN HEBRON — because Hebron was a place, as it were, sacred, consecrated to the burial of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and as many hold, of Adam. See the comments on Joshua 14:15.
Moreover, David did not display for Ishbosheth the funeral pomp that he had shown for Abner, both because Abner had been killed within his territory near Hebron, while Ishbosheth had been killed outside the boundaries of his kingdom; and because Ishbosheth had perpetually opposed David, while Abner had defected from Ishbosheth to David, and was striving to bring the remaining tribes over to him. Finally, when Abner was killed, there was very strong suspicion among many that he had been killed by David's command or nod; therefore, to remove this suspicion from them, David needed to honor Abner most highly at his funeral. So say Abulensis, Salianus, and others.