2 Samuel 18:9-18

Evangelical Heritage Version

⁹ Absalom encountered the forces of David. As Absalom was riding on his mule, the mule went under the thick branches of a large terebinth tree, and Absalom’s head caught in the terebinth. He was caught between heaven and earth, and the mule he was riding kept going.

¹⁰ A man noticed Absalom and told Joab, “Listen! I saw Absalom hanging in a terebinth tree!” ¹¹ Joab said to the man who had told him, “What! You saw him! Why didn’t you strike him to the ground right there? Then I would have given you ten shekels of silver and a belt.”

¹² But the man said to Joab, “Even if I had one thousand shekels of silver weighed out into my hands, I would not reach my hand out against the king’s son. We heard the king command you, Abishai, and Ittai, ‘Watch out for the young man Absalom for me.’ ¹³ If I had acted irresponsibly with my life^[a]—and nothing is hidden from the king—you would not have stood by me.”

¹⁴ Joab said, “I will not waste time with you like this.” He took three small spears in his hand, and he hurled them into Absalom’s heart while he was still alive in the middle of the terebinth tree. ¹⁵ Ten young men, the ones carrying Joab’s armor and weapons, surrounded Absalom and struck and killed him.

¹⁶ Then Joab blew the ram’s horn, and the people turned back from pursuing Israel, because Joab restrained them. ¹⁷ They took Absalom and threw him into a large pit in the forest. They raised a huge pile of stones over him.

All Israel fled, everyone to his own tent.^[b]

¹⁸ During his lifetime Absalom had set up a monument for himself in the Valley of the King, because he said, “I do not have a son to keep my name alive in people’s memory.” He named the monument after himself, and it is called Absalom’s Monument to this day.