John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 6. And they came thither into the midst of the house , etc.] 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 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.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-7 - See how Ishbosheth was murdered! When those difficulties dispirit us which should sharpen our endeavours, we betray both our heavenly crown and our earthly lives. Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty an ruin. The idle soul is an easy prey to the destroyer. We know not when and where death will meet us. When we lie down to sleep, we are no sure that we may not sleep the sleep of death before we awake; nor d we know from what hand the death-blow may come.
Original Hebrew והנה2007 באו935 עד5704 תוך8432 הבית1004 לקחי3947 חטים2406 ויכהו5221 אל413 החמשׁ2570 ורכב7394 ובענה1196 אחיו251 נמלטו׃4422
