Consumed.... Viz., by pits and precipices.
18:9. And it happened that Absalom met the servants of David, riding on a mule: and as the mule went under a thick and large oak, his head stuck in the oak: and while he hung between the heaven and the earth, the mule on which he rode passed on.
18:10. And one saw this and told Joab, saying: I saw Absalom hanging upon an oak.
18:11. And Joab said to the man that told him: If thou sawest him, why didst thou not stab him to the ground, and I would have given thee ten sicles of silver, and a belt?
18:12. And he said to Joab: If thou wouldst have paid down in my hands a thousand pieces of silver, I would not lay my hands upon the king’s son for in our hearing the king charged thee, and Abisai, and Ethai, saying: Save me the boy Absalom.
18:13. Yea and if I should have acted boldly against my own life, this could not have been hid from the king, and wouldst thou have stood by me?
18:14. And Joab said: Not as thou wilt, but I will set upon him in thy sight. So he took three lances in his hand, and thrust them into the heart of Absalom: and whilst he yet panted for life, sticking on the oak,
18:15. Ten young men, armourbearers of Joab, ran up, and striking him slew him.
18:16. And Joab sounded the trumpet, and kept back the people from pursuing after Israel in their flight, being willing to spare the multitude.
18:17. And they took Absalom, and cast him into a great pit in the forest, and they laid an exceeding great heap of stones upon him: but all Israel fled to their own dwellings.