2 Samuel 18:9-15 ▼

9 And Absalom meets before the servants of David, and Absalom is riding on the mule, and the mule comes in under an entangled bough of the great oak, and his head takes hold on the oak, and he is placed between the heavens and the earth, and the mule that [is] under him has passed on.

10 And one man sees, and declares [it] to Joab, and says, “Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.”

11 And Joab says to the man who is declaring [it] to him, “And behold, you have seen—and why did you not strike him there to the earth—and [it would be] on me to give to you ten pieces of silver and one girdle?”

12 And the man says to Joab, “Indeed, though I am weighing on my hand one thousand pieces of silver, I do not put forth my hand to the son of the king; for in our ears the king has charged you, and Abishai, and Ittai, saying, Observe who [is] against the youth—against Absalom;

13 or I had done a vain thing against my soul, and no matter is hid from the king, and you would station yourself opposite from [me].”

14 And Joab says, “[It is] not right [that] I linger before you”; and he takes three darts in his hand, and strikes them into the heart of Absalom, while he [is] alive, in the midst of the oak.

15 And they go around—ten youths carrying weapons of Joab—and strike Absalom, and put him to death.