God's Judgment Regarding King Ishbosheth

The Bible gives no clear statement as to whether Ishbosheth's actions were good or evil. As one reads his biography, told in 2 Samuel chapters 2, 3, and 4, one gets the impression of neither good nor evil, but merely of incompetence. Ishbosheth was a puppet king, placed in office by the very capable army commander Abner, who generally ran things. Abner seems to have hoped that Ishbosheth would rise to the job, but eventually gave up on him and turned his loyalty to David instead.