4. And the king said unto them, What seems to you best I will do. And the king stood by the gate side, and all the people came out by hundreds and by thousands.
5. And the king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom. And all the people heard when the king gave all the captains the charge concerning Absalom.
6. So the people went out into the field against Israel: and the battle was in the forest of Ephraim;
7. Where the people of Israel were slain before the servants of David, and there was there a great slaughter that day of twenty thousand men.
8. For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.
9. And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught fast in the oak, and he was left hanging between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away.