Since Ish-bosheth’s house would have included servants and other military men, Rechab and Baanah needed an excuse to allow them entrance and access to where Ish-bosheth was sleeping. Pretending to get some wheat, they used the opportunity to kill Ish-bosheth, who is presented in the narrative as a helpless victim.1
6 And they came into the midst of the house as if to get wheat, and they stabbed him in the stomach. Then Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.