3
But the people said, You shall not go forth: for if we flee away, they will not care for us; neither if half of us die, will they care for us: but you are worth ten thousand of us; therefore now it is better that you are ready to help us out of the city.
4
The king said to them, What seems you best I will do. The king stood by the gate-side, and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands.
5
The king commanded Yo'av and Avishai and Ittai, saying, Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Avshalom. All the people heard when the king gave all the captains charge concerning Avshalom.
6
So the people went out into the field against Yisra'el: and the battle was in the forest of Efrayim.
7
The people of Yisra'el were struck there before the servants of David, and there was a great slaughter there that day of twenty thousand men.
8
For the battle was there spread over the surface of all the country; and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.
9
Avshalom happened to meet the servants of David. Avshalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the sky and eretz; and the mule that was under him went on.
10
A certain man saw it, and told Yo'av, and said, Behold, I saw Avshalom hanging in an oak.
11
Yo'av said to the man who told him, Behold, you saw it, and why didn't you strike him there to the ground? and I would have given you ten [pieces of] silver, and a sash.
12
The man said to Yo'av, Though I should receive a thousand [pieces of] silver in my hand, I still wouldn't put forth my hand against the king's son; for in our hearing the king charged you and Avishai and Ittai, saying, Beware that none touch the young man Avshalom.
13
Otherwise if I had dealt falsely against his life (and there is no matter hid from the king), then you yourself would have set yourself against [me].