⁹ Then Absalom met the servants of David. Absalom rode on a mule. The mule went under the thick boughs of a great terebinth tree, and ^(A)his head caught in the terebinth; so he was left hanging between heaven and earth. And the mule which was under him went on. ¹⁰ Now a certain man saw it and told Joab, and said, “I just saw Absalom hanging in a terebinth tree!”

¹¹ So Joab said to the man who told him, “You just saw him! And why did you not strike him there to the ground? I would have given you ten shekels of silver and a belt.”

¹² But the man said to Joab, “Though I were to receive a thousand shekels of silver in my hand, I would not raise my hand against the king’s son. ^(B)For in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, ^[a]‘Beware lest anyone touch the young man Absalom!’ ¹³ Otherwise I would have dealt falsely against my own life. For there is nothing hidden from the king, and you yourself would have set yourself against me.”

¹⁴ Then Joab said, “I cannot linger with you.” And he took three spears in his hand and thrust them through Absalom’s heart, while he was still alive in the midst of the terebinth tree. ¹⁵ And ten young men who bore Joab’s armor surrounded Absalom, and struck and killed him.

¹⁶ So Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing Israel. For Joab held back the people. ¹⁷ And they took Absalom and cast him into a large pit in the woods, and ^(C)laid a very large heap of stones over him. Then all Israel ^(D)fled, everyone to his tent.

¹⁸ Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up a ^[b]pillar for himself, which is in ^(E)the King’s Valley. For he said, ^(F)“I have no son to keep my name in remembrance.” He called the pillar after his own name. And to this day it is called Absalom’s Monument.