4. The king said to them, “I will do what you think best.” So the king stood by the gate as all the soldiers marched out in units of a hundred and a thousand.
5. But the king gave this command to Joab, Abishai, and Ittai: “Be gentle with young Absalom for my sake.” All the soldiers heard as the king gave commands to the various leaders with regard to Absalom.
6. David’s army then took the field against Israel, and a battle was fought in the forest near Mahanaim.
7. The forces of Israel were defeated by David’s servants, and the casualties there that day were heavy—twenty thousand men.
8. The battle spread out over that entire region, and the forest consumed more combatants that day than did the sword.
9. Absalom unexpectedly came up against David’s servants. He was mounted on a mule, and, as the mule passed under the branches of a large oak tree, his hair caught fast in the tree. He hung between heaven and earth while the mule under him kept going.
10. Someone saw this and reported to Joab, “I saw Absalom hanging from an oak tree.”
11. Joab said to the man who told him this: “If you saw him, why did you not strike him to the ground on the spot? Then it would have been my duty to give you fifty pieces of silver and a belt.”
12. But the man replied to Joab: “Even if I already held a thousand pieces of silver in my two hands, I would not lay a hand on the king’s son, for in our hearing the king gave you and Abishai and Ittai a command: ‘Protect the youth Absalom for my sake.’
13. Had I been disloyal and killed him, it would all have come out before the king, and you would stand aloof.”
14. Joab replied, “I will not waste time with you in this way.” And taking three pikes in hand, he thrust for the heart of Absalom. He was still alive in the tree.
15. When ten of Joab’s young armor-bearers closed in on Absalom, and killed him with further blows,
16. Joab then sounded the horn, and the soldiers turned back from the pursuit of the Israelites, because Joab called them to halt.
17. They took Absalom and cast him into a deep pit in the forest, and built up a very large mound of stones over him. And all the Israelites fled to their own tents.