2 Samuel 18:1-8 ▼

1 And David inspects the people who [are] with him, and sets over them heads of thousands and heads of hundreds,

2 and David sends the third of the people by the hand of Joab, and the third by the hand of Abishai, son of Zeruiah, brother of Joab, and the third by the hand of Ittai the Gittite, and the king says to the people, “I certainly go out—I also—with you.”

3 And the people say, “You do not go out, for if we utterly flee, they do not set [their] heart on us; and if half of us die, they do not set [their] heart to us—for [you are] now like ten thousand of us; and now, [it is] better that you are for a helper to us from the city.”

4 And the king says to them, “That which is good in your eyes I do”; and the king stands at the side of the gate, and all the people have gone out by hundreds and by thousands,

5 and the king charges Joab, and Abishai, and Ittai, saying, “[Deal] gently—for me, for the youth, for Absalom”; and all the people heard in the king’s charging all the heads concerning Absalom.

6 And the people go out into the field to meet Israel, and the battle is in a forest of Ephraim;

7 and the people of Israel are struck there before the servants of David, and the striking there is great on that day—twenty thousand;

8 and the battle there is scattered over the face of all the land, and the forest multiplies to devour among the people more than those whom the sword has devoured in that day.