2 Samuel 4:2

captains of bands Leaders of predatory troops. See note on ch. 2 Samuel 3:22.

of the children of Benjamin The historian calls special attention to the fact that Ish-bosheth's murderers belonged to his own tribe.

for Beeroth also, &c. The object of this parenthesis is to explain how these Beerothites came to be Benjamites. Beeroth was one of the four Gibeonite cities, retained by their original Canaanite inhabitants in virtue of the treaty made with Joshua (Joshua 9:17). It was however reckoned to belong to the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18:25), and had been occupied by Benjamites when its original inhabitants deserted it. When and why they did so is unknown, but it has been plausibly conjectured that they fled from Saul's massacre of the Gibeonites (2 Samuel 21:1-2).

The site of Beeroth (wells) is probably marked by the modern village of El-Bireh(the well), about 9 miles N. of Jerusalem. "It is remarkable as the first halting-place of caravans on the northern road from Jerusalem, and therefore not improbably the scene of the event to which its monastic tradition lays claim the place where the parents of Jesus sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance, and when they found him not, turned back again to Jerusalem." Stanley, Sinai and Pal.p. 213.