10:018:004 And the king said unto them, What seemeth you best I will do. And the king stood by the gate side, and all the people came out by hundreds and by thousands.
10:018:005 And the king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom. And all the people heard when the king gave all the captains charge concerning Absalom.
10:018:006 So the people went out into the field against Israel: and the battle was in the wood of Ephraim;
10:018:007 Where the people of Israel were slain before the servants of David, and there was there a great slaughter that day of twenty thousand men.
10:018:008 For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.
10:018:009 And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away.
10:018:010 And a certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, Behold, I saw Absalom hanged in an oak.
10:018:011 And Joab said unto the man that told him, And, behold, thou sawest him, and why didst thou not smite him there to the ground? and I would have given thee ten shekels of silver, and a girdle.
10:018:012 And the man said unto Joab, Though I should receive a thousand shekels of silver in mine hand, yet would I not put forth mine hand against the king's son: for in our hearing the king charged thee and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Beware that none touch the young man Absalom.
10:018:013 Otherwise I should have wrought falsehood against mine own life: for there is no matter hid from the king, and thou thyself wouldest have set thyself against me.