9
Avshalom happened to meet some of David's servants. Avshalom was riding his mule, and as the mule walked under the thick branches of a big terebinth tree, his head got caught in the terebinth, so that he was left hanging between earth and sky, as the mule went on from under him.
10
Someone saw it and told Yo'av, "I saw Avshalom hanging in a terebinth."
11
Yo'av asked the man who told him, "Here now, you saw it; so why didn't you strike him to the ground then and there? I would have had to give you ten pieces of silver and a belt besides."
12
The man replied to Yo'av, "Even if I were to get a thousand pieces of silver, I still wouldn't raise my hand against the son of the king! After all, while we were listening, the king ordered you, Avishai and Ittai, 'Be careful that no one touches young Avshalom.'
13
Or, if I had pretended that I didn't know, the king would have known otherwise anyway; and you wouldn't have interceded for me either."
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.
19
Then Achima'atz the son of Tzadok said, "Let me run now and bring news to the king that ADONAI has judged in his favor by releasing him from his enemies."