Baanah and Rekab, two of Ishbosheth’s supporters, hear the news about Abner’s assassination in Judea and panic over their own fate. They murder Ishbosheth and bring his head to David in Hebron. Just as David did not spare the life of the man who helped Saul kill himself, he will not spare the life of Ishbosheth’s assassins, either. In David’s eyes, Saul and his sons are God’s emissaries and their honor should not be tainted. He therefore sentences Baanah and Rekab to death. Respect for monarchy and nobility must be preserved. David attempts to enact positive change and move beyond past conflicts. Unity and peace surpass convenience and profit.
“When one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag, who thought that I would have given him a reward for his tidings” (2 Samuel 4:10)
Sensitivity is the ability to take note of and respond to others’ needs and suffering.
