According to the Hebrew Bible, Ish-bosheth (אִֽישְׁבֹּ֫שֶׁת; Standard: Ishbóshet; Tiberian: ʼΚbṓšeṯ) also called Eshbaal (אֶשְׁבַּ֫עַל; Standard: Eshbáʻal; Tiberian: ʼEšbáʻal), Ashbaal or Ishbaal, was one of the four sons of King Saul, born c. 1047 BC. Ish-bosheth was chosen as the second king over the Kingdom of Israel, which then consisted of all the twelve tribes of the Israelites, after the death of his father and three brothers at the Battle of Mount Gilboa.

Reign and death[link]

In the Biblical story, Ish-bosheth was proclaimed king over Israel in 1007 BCE by Abner, the captain of Saul's army, at Mahanaim in Transjordan (2 Samuel 2:8), after his father and brothers were slain in the battle of Gilboa (1 Samuel 31:1). Ish-bosheth was 40 years old at this time and reigned for two years. (2 Samuel 2:10)

However, after the death of King Saul, the tribe of Judah seceded from the rule of the House of Saul by proclaiming David as its king, and war ensued. (2 Samuel 2:12) David's faction eventually prevailed against Ish-bosheth's (2 Samuel 3:1), but the war did not come to a close until Abner joined David. (2 Samuel 3:6) David's terms for peace required that Michal (Saul's daughter and Ish-bosheth's sister who had been David's wife before David and Saul fell out with each other) be returned to him, which Ish-bosheth fulfilled. (2 Samuel 3:14) After Abner's death Ish-bosheth seems to have given up hope of retaining power. (2 Samuel 4:1)

Ish-bosheth was assassinated in c 1005 BCE by two of his own army-captains, Rechab and Baanah (2 Samuel 4:5), who expected a reward from David because of this. David, however, refused to give any commendation for high treason; he had both killers stoned to death. Ish-bosheth was buried in Abner's grave at Hebron. (2 Samuel 4:12)

There is a void in the Biblical account as to what happened to the kingship of the non-Judah tribes of the Israelites during the five years following the murder of Ish-bosheth, as the united kingship of David is dated as 1000 BCE.

The names[link]

The names Ish-bosheth and Ashba'al are unusual in some ways, as they have ambiguous meanings in the original Hebrew that are puzzling. In Hebrew, for Ish-bosheth, "ish" means "[great] man" and "boshet" means "[given to] bashfulness [or humility]" or "[sensitive to] shame", but it could also mean "shameful (or shamed) person". He is also called Ashba'al, in Hebrew meaning "[person of] master[y]" (and the "esh" may be connected to the Hebrew word for "fire"). "Ba'al" may also allude to the name of the ancient deity Baal mentioned elsewhere in the Bible.

Critical scholarship suggests that Bosheth was a substitute for Ba'al, beginning when Ba'al became an unspeakable word; as (in the opposite direction) Adonai became substituted for the ineffable Tetragrammaton (see taboo deformation).

The name Ish-bosheth[link]

He is almost exclusively called Ish-bosheth in the Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible:

"...Now Abner the son of Ner, captain of Saul's host, had taken Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim; and he made him king over Gilead, and over the Ashurites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all Israel. Ish-bosheth, Saul's son was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years..." [1] (2 Samuel 2:8-10)

When he was prematurely assassinated and King David punished the killers:

"...Rechab and Baanah, went, and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ish-bosheth, as he took his rest at noon, and they came into the house, as though they would have fetched wheat; and they struck him in the groin; and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped ...And they brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David in Hebron, and said to the king: 'Behold the head of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul your enemy, who sought your life; and the Lord has avenged my lord the king this day of Saul, and of his seed' ...And David answered ... '...shall I not now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth?' ...But they took the head of Ish-bosheth, and buried it in the grave of Abner in Hebron." [2] (2 Samuel 4:5-12)

The other name: Ashba'al[link]

Ish-bosheth's name is changed to Ashba'al or Eshba'al in the Book of Chronicles (1 Chronicles 8:33; 9:39). The rabbinic commentator, Meir Loeb ben Jehiel Michael (1809–1879) known as the Malbim, basing himself on the commentary of Rabbi David ben Joseph Kimhi (the Radak, 13th century) says:

"Ashba'al is Ish-bosheth, as bosheth and ba'al is one, as in the Book of Jeremiah :'...like the number of streets in Jerusalem have you made altars to the shameful (la-bosheth) idol, altars to sacrifice to the Baal (la-ba'al)'." [3] (Jeremiah 11:13). Thus, "the shameful idol" ("la-bosheth") and the "Baal" are one and the same in terms of the words in this verse from Jeremiah.

The Radak emphasizes that what the correlation was between the names of bosheth and ba'al is unclear, while it may have been clear to the people of that time it is not really known or understood at the present time. The Malbim asserts that the name Ish-bosheth is utilized as a "cover" for Ashba'al to deliberately differentiate itself from the Baal, so that the Baal not be mentioned explicitly, and that even the name Ashba'al not to be directly associated with the actual idol of the similar sounding Baal name, even though linguistically they all have shared meanings. Hence the continuing mystery about why the name was given to him (Ish-bosheth) in the first place.

Identification with Mutbaal[link]

Egyptologist David Rohl identified Ishbaal with Mutbaal of the Amarna Letters. Both names have the same meaning, "Man of Baal." Both fathers (Saul, Labaya) had their capitals west of the Jordan, but their sons had their center of power in Transjordan. Rohl's chronology is controversial.

External links[link]

• Ish-bosheth (Article by: Emil G. Hirsch and M. Seligsohn in Jewish Encyclopedia)
• King Ishbosheth - Biography (Christian view)
• Easton's Bible Dictionary (Ish-bosheth)