Ishbosheth's Murderers Seek Reward and Die

They kill Ishbosheth on his bed and call it the LORD's vengeance

Rechab and Baanah come to Ishbosheth's house in the heat of the day, while he lies on a bed at noon. They enter as though to fetch wheat, smite him under the fifth rib, and escape. They bring the head to David in Hebron and say, Behold the head of Ishbosheth the son of Saul your enemy, which sought your life; and the LORD has avenged my lord the king this day of Saul and of his seed.

The murder is in a man's own house, on his bed, by captains who expect a reward. They wrap the killing in providence language. David will not accept the wrapping.

David calls the dead man righteous and executes the killers

David answers, as the LORD lives, who has redeemed my soul out of all adversity: when one told me, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him and slew him in Ziklag, who thought I would have given him a reward for his tidings. How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed? Shall I not therefore now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth?

He commands the young men. They kill them, cut off their hands and feet, and hang them over the pool in Hebron. They take Ishbosheth's head and bury it in the sepulchre of Abner in Hebron. David names Ishbosheth tsaddiq, a righteous person, in relation to this bedroom murder. The hanging of the killers is a public refusal of assassination-for-hire. It is also another display of bodies. The unit judges opportunistic killing. It does not offer mutilation and hanging as a standing criminal code.