2 Samuel 18:1-18

Contemporary English Version

David Gets Ready for Battle

18 David divided his soldiers into groups of 100 and groups of 1,000. Then he chose officers to be in command of each group. ² He sent out one third of his army under the command of Joab, another third under the command of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, and the rest under the command of Ittai from Gath. He told the soldiers, “I'm going into battle with you.”

³ But the soldiers said, “No, don't go into battle with us! It won't matter to our enemies if they make us all run away, or even if they kill half of us. But you are worth 10,000 of us. It would be better for you to stay in town and send help if we need it.”

^4-6 David said, “All right, if you think I should.”

Then in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, he said, “Joab! Abishai! Ittai! For my sake, be sure that Absalom comes back unharmed.”

David stood beside the town gate as his army marched past in groups of 100 and in groups of 1,000.

Joab Kills Absalom

The war with Israel took place in Ephraim Forest. ^7-8 Battles were being fought all over the forest, and David's soldiers were winning. Twenty thousand soldiers were killed^[a] that day, and more of them died from the dangers of the forest than from the fighting itself.

⁹ Absalom was riding his mule under a huge tree when his head^[b] caught in the branches. The mule ran off and left Absalom hanging in midair. Some of David's soldiers happened by, ¹⁰ and one of them went and told Joab, “I saw Absalom hanging in a tree!”

¹¹ Joab said, “You saw Absalom? Why didn't you kill him? I would have given you ten pieces of silver and a special belt.”

¹² The man answered, “Even if you paid me 1,000 pieces of silver here and now, I still wouldn't touch the king's son. We all heard King David tell you and Abishai and Ittai not to harm Absalom. ¹³ He always finds out what's going on. I would have been risking my life to kill Absalom, because you would have let me take the blame.”

¹⁴ Joab said, “I'm not going to waste any more time on you!”

Absalom was still alive, so Joab took three spears and stuck them through Absalom's chest. ¹⁵ Ten of Joab's bodyguards came over and finished him off. ¹⁶ Then Joab blew a trumpet to signal his troops to stop chasing Israel's soldiers. ¹⁷ They threw Absalom's body into a deep pit in the forest and put a big pile of rocks over it.

Meanwhile, the people of Israel had all run back to their own homes.

¹⁸ When Absalom was alive, he had set up a stone monument for himself in King's Valley. He explained, “I don't have any sons^[c] to keep my name alive.” He called it Absalom's Monument, and that is the name it still has today.^[d]