¹David mustered the people who were with him, and put over them officials of thousands, and officials of hundreds.

²David sent out the third of the people in the hand of Joab, and the third in the hand of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, the brother of Joab, and the third in the hand of Ittai the Gittite. And the king said to the people, "I will surely go out with you, I myself also."

³And the people said, "You must not go out; for if we flee, they will not set their heart on us, and if half of us die, they will not set their heart on us; for now you are like ten thousand of us; and now it is good that you be for us from the city to help."

⁴And the king said to them, "What is good in your eyes I will do." And the king stood at the side of the gate, and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands.

⁵And the king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, "Deal gently, for my sake, with the boy, with Absalom." And all the people heard when the king commanded all the officials concerning the word about Absalom.

⁶The people went out into the field to encounter Israel, and the war was in the forest of Ephraim.

⁷There the people of Israel were struck down before David's servants, and the slaughter was great there that day: twenty thousand.

⁸The battle was scattered there over the face of all the land, and the forest increased in consuming among the people more than the sword consumed on that day.

⁹Absalom chanced to meet David's servants. Absalom was riding on the mule, and the mule went in under the interlaced branches of the great terebinth, and his head held fast in the terebinth, and he was set between the skies and the land, while the mule that was under him passed on.

¹⁰One man saw it and told Joab, and he said, "Look, I saw Absalom hanging in a terebinth."

¹¹Joab said to the man who told him, "Look, you saw! And why did you not strike him down there to the land? And it would have been on me to give you ten pieces of silver and one belt."

¹²The man said to Joab, "Even if I were weighing a thousand pieces of silver on my palms, I would not stretch out my hand against the king's son; for in our ears the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, 'Protect, whoever you are, the boy Absalom.'

¹³Or if I had done falsehood against my being — and no word is hidden from the king — then you yourself would stand off opposite me."

¹⁴Joab said, "I will not wait like this before you." And he took three rods in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absalom, while he was still alive in the heart of the terebinth.

¹⁵And ten boys, the carriers of Joab's weapons, surrounded and struck Absalom, and put him to death.

¹⁶Joab blew the horn, and the people turned back from pursuing after Israel, for Joab held back the people.

¹⁷They took Absalom and threw him in the forest into the great pit, and they set up over him a very great heap of stones; and all Israel fled, each man to his tents.

¹⁸Now Absalom, in his lifetime, had taken and set up for himself the pillar that is in the Vale of the King, for he said, "I have no son, in order to cause my name to be remembered." And he called the pillar after his own name, and it is called Absalom's Hand to this day.

¹⁹Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, "Please let me run and carry the news to the king that Yahweh has vindicated him from the hand of his enemies."

²⁰Joab said to him, "You are not a man of news this day. You may carry news on another day, but this day you will not carry news, because the king's son has died."

²¹Joab said to the Cushite, "Go, tell the king what you have seen." And the Cushite bowed down to Joab and ran.

²²Ahimaaz son of Zadok said again to Joab, "Come what may, please let me also run after the Cushite." And Joab said, "Why is it that you run, my son, when you have no reward for news to attain?"

²³"Come what may, I will run." And he said to him, "Run." So Ahimaaz ran the way of the Jordan valley and passed the Cushite.

²⁴Now David was sitting between the two gates, and the watchman went to the roof of the gate, to the wall, and lifted up his eyes and saw, and look, a man running alone.

²⁵The watchman called out and told the king. And the king said, "If he is alone, there is news in his mouth." And he kept coming, drawing near.

²⁶The watchman saw another man running, and the watchman called out to the gatekeeper and said, "Look, a man running alone!" And the king said, "This one also is bearing news."

²⁷The watchman said, "I see that the running of the first is like the running of Ahimaaz son of Zadok." And the king said, "This is a good man, and he comes with good news."

²⁸Ahimaaz called out and said to the king, "Wholeness!" Then he bowed down to the king, his face to the land, and said, "Blessed be Yahweh your God, who has delivered up the men who lifted up their hand against my lord the king."

²⁹The king said, "Is there wholeness for the boy Absalom?" And Ahimaaz said, "I saw the great tumult when Joab, the king's servant, was sending your servant, and I did not know what it was."

³⁰The king said, "Turn aside and take your stand here." So he turned aside and stood.

³¹And look, the Cushite came, and the Cushite said, "Let my lord the king receive good news! For Yahweh has vindicated you this day from the hand of all who rose up against you."

³²The king said to the Cushite, "Is there wholeness for the boy Absalom?" And the Cushite said, "May the enemies of my lord the king be like the boy, and all who have risen up against you for evil."

³³The king trembled and went up to the roof-chamber of the gate and wept; and thus he said as he went: "My son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! If only I had died in your place, Absalom, my son, my son!"