Some one hurried to Joab and told him, and Joab, disregarding the earnest entreaty the king had given him, took three darts and thrust them through Absalom's heart.
So he died, and they put his body in a pit in the wood and threw a great heap of stones upon it.
Absalom had built himself a great tomb in the King's Dale, but he was never laid in it. Oh, the sorrow of that ending!
When the messengers came in from the battle, as David sat near the gate and watched, his first question to each runner was: "Is the young man Absalom safe?" And when they broke it to him, that Absalom had died and the victory had been complete, David turned from them, and made his way up, weeping, to the chamber over the gate, and as he went, he said:
"O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!"
[XXV. THE DISOBEDIENT PROPHET]
1 KINGS 13
LONG ago, soon after the Children of Israel came out of Egypt, they asked Aaron to make a Golden Calf for them to worship, which could be carried in front of them, and would, they hoped, lead them into the Promised Land. But we know how dreadfully they sinned in this.