Who was Eshbaal?

As you may be aware Israeli archaeologists found an inscription dating back to between 1000-900 BC. It read "Eshbaal Ben Beda". There was a Eshbaal who was one of the sons of King Saul of Israel, but it's clearly not the same guy as the one in the Bible. How do we know this? Well it's rather easy; in Hebrew Ben means "son of". So when translated it means Eshbaal son of Beda, while the Prince would have been called Eshbaal son of Saul. The find is still significant because it proves the name was being used around the time of King Saul.

However, this is still a great opportunity to discuss who Eshbaal was and why he was one of the more significant figures of the Bible though he is rarely ever discussed. 

Eshbaal was born in about 1050 BC as a member of the tribe of Benjamin; his father Saul became King of the twelve tribes, his mother was named Ahinoam. He had three brothers, one of which was the well-known Johnathan (the beloved friend of David.) In 1010 BC he lost his father and three of his brothers during a battle between the Philistines and his own people, the Israelites. Which can be read about here.


As David was accepted as the King of the tribe of Judah, Eshbaal was accepted as King over the other eleven tribes at age forty. This bought a conflict between the Hebrew people. The two sides came together to settle the dispute for who should rightfully reign over the twelve tribes. 

The two sides sat across from each other at a pool in the city of Gibeon. Then Abner (the military commander of the eleven tribes) said to Joab (Judah's commander) "Let’s have some of the young men get up and fight hand to hand in front of us." Joab agreed. They brought out twelve men from both sides and lined them up facing each other. During the melee that followed all men drew their daggers, plunged it into their enemies sides and died. 

The conflict quickly exalted to an all out war which became one of the most dramatically told wars in the entire Bible. It begins here. 

Eshbaal's life ended two years after becoming King; he was struck in the stomach by two assassins named Rechab and Baanah. When David heard of this he deemed it totally unacceptable (Eshbaal's father had tried to kill David many times, but David thought it was to vile to murder his own King. Now these two dared to kill their own King while being heads of assault teams--to David it was a disgusting act of betrayal.) David had the two assassins killed; he had their hands cut off along with their feet then he had them hung in Hebron where he had been made King over Judah. Some time later David would become King over all of the tribes while King Eshbaal would hardly be known compared to David, his father and brother Johnathan.
Still he played a significant role in shaping Israel's history and thus the history of all Hebrews today.