2 Samuel 4:2

Saul's son had two men captains of bands. The bands mentioned were light-armed troops, used in forays, such as that mentioned in 2 Samuel 3:22 . Their captains would be men of importance with Ishbosheth, who is here described somewhat contemptuously, not as king, nor by his own name, but as "Saul's son." Beeroth . This place, literally the Wells , was one of the four towns reserved for the Gibeonites ( Joshua 9:17 ), though nominally belonging to Benjamin ( Joshua 18:25 ). The note, that it was reckoned to Benjamin, suggests that it had until quite lately been occupied by the Canaanites, whose flight to Gittaim had no doubt been caused by Saul's cruel attack upon them referred to in 2 Samuel 21:1 , 2 Samuel 21:2 . It was thus remarkable that the destruction of Saul's dynasty was the work of the Gibeonites of Beeroth. As we find another of these Beerothites, Naharai, holding the office of armour bearer to Joab ( 1 Chronicles 11:39 ), it seems probable that many of them saved themselves from expulsion by becoming soldiers. But among David's worthies a large number were strangers, and some even men of foreign extraction. Beeroth, however, was probably seized in Saul's reign by the Benjamites, by force, and occupied by them, as its citizens returned in large numbers from the exile ( Ezra 2:25 ), and are counted as genuine Israelites. Moreover, by thus dispossessing the natives, Saul was able to give his tribesmen "fields and vineyards" ( 1 Samuel 22:7 ), which otherwise would have been in violation of the Mosaic Law.