2 Samuel 18:16

16 Yo'av sounded the shofar, and the people returned from pursuing Isra'el, because Yo'av held back the troops.

2 Samuel 18:16 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 18:16

And Joab blew the trumpet
As the sign of a retreat:

and the people returned from pursuing after Israel;
upon the sound of the trumpet, the meaning of which they understood:

for Joab held back the people:
from shedding any more blood; the head of the conspiracy being removed, the thing would be crushed at once; and Joab neither chose to slay any more, nor take any prisoners, to be tried as traitors, being unawares, without thought, drawn into this rebellion.

2 Samuel 18:16 In-Context

14 Yo'av said, "I can't waste time arguing with you!" He took three darts in his hand and rammed them through Avshalom's heart while he was still alive, hanging from the terebinth.

15 Then Yo'av's ten young armor-bearers surrounded Avshalom, struck him and killed him.

16 Yo'av sounded the shofar, and the people returned from pursuing Isra'el, because Yo'av held back the troops.

17 They took Avshalom and threw him into a big pit in the forest and piled a big heap of stones over him. All Isra'el fled, each one to his tent.

18 In his own lifetime Avshalom had taken and raised for himself the pillar which stands in the King's Valley; because he said, "I don't have a son to preserve the memory of my name." So he named the pillar after himself, and it's called Avshalom's Monument to this day.