Search Illustrations

²David sent forth the people, a third part under the hand of Joab, and a third part under the hand of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab`s brother, and a third part under the hand of Ittai the Gittite. The king said to the people, I will surely go forth with you myself also.

³But the people said, You shall not go forth: for if we flee away, they will not care for us; neither if half of us die, will they care for us: but you are worth ten thousand of us; therefore now it is better that you be ready to help us out of the city.

⁴The king said to them, What seems you best I will do. The king stood by the gate-side, and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands.

⁵The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom. All the people heard when the king gave all the captains charge concerning Absalom.

⁶So the people went out into the field against Israel: and the battle was in the forest of Ephraim.

⁷The people of Israel were struck there before the servants of David, and there was a great slaughter there that day of twenty thousand men.

⁸For the battle was there spread over the surface of all the country; and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.

⁹Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding on his 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 sky and earth; and the mule that was under him went on.

¹⁰A certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.

¹¹Joab said to the man who told him, Behold, you saw it, and why didn`t you strike him there to the ground? and I would have given you ten [pieces of] silver, and a sash.

¹²The man said to Joab, Though I should receive a thousand [pieces of] silver in my hand, I still wouldn`t put forth my hand against the king`s son; for in our hearing the king charged you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Beware that none touch the young man Absalom.

¹³Otherwise if I had dealt falsely against his life (and there is no matter hid from the king), then you yourself would have set yourself against [me].

¹⁴Then said Joab, I may not wait thus with you. He took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak.

¹⁵Ten young men who bore Joab`s armor compassed about and struck Absalom, and killed him.

¹⁶Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing after Israel; for Joab held back the people.

¹⁷They took Absalom, and cast him into the great pit in the forest, and raised over him a very great heap of stones: and all Israel fled everyone to his tent.

¹⁸Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself the pillar, which is in the king`s dale; for he said, I have no son to keep my name in memory: and he called the pillar after his own name; and it is called Absalom`s monument, to this day.

¹⁹Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok, Let me now run, and bear the king news, how that Yahweh has avenged him of his enemies.