⁹ Now Absalom happened to meet David’s men. He was riding his mule, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom’s hair^(A) got caught in the tree. He was left hanging in midair, while the mule he was riding kept on going.

¹⁰ When one of the men saw what had happened, he told Joab, “I just saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree.”

¹¹ Joab said to the man who had told him this, “What! You saw him? Why didn’t you strike^(B) him to the ground right there? Then I would have had to give you ten shekels^[a] of silver and a warrior’s belt.^(C)”

¹² But the man replied, “Even if a thousand shekels^[b] were weighed out into my hands, I would not lay a hand on the king’s son. In our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘Protect the young man Absalom for my sake.^[c]’ ¹³ And if I had put my life in jeopardy^[d]—and nothing is hidden from the king^(D)—you would have kept your distance from me.”

¹⁴ Joab^(E) said, “I’m not going to wait like this for you.” So he took three javelins in his hand and plunged them into Absalom’s heart while Absalom was still alive in the oak tree. ¹⁵ And ten of Joab’s armor-bearers surrounded Absalom, struck him and killed him.^(F)

¹⁶ Then Joab^(G) sounded the trumpet, and the troops stopped pursuing Israel, for Joab halted them. ¹⁷ They took Absalom, threw him into a big pit in the forest and piled up^(H) a large heap of rocks^(I) over him. Meanwhile, all the Israelites fled to their homes.

¹⁸ During his lifetime Absalom had taken a pillar and erected it in the King’s Valley^(J) as a monument^(K) to himself, for he thought, “I have no son^(L) to carry on the memory of my name.” He named the pillar after himself, and it is called Absalom’s Monument to this day.