1 David counted the troops who were with him and put commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds over them.
2 David sent out the troops, a third under Joab, a third under Joab's brother Abishai son of Zeruiah, and a third under Ittai the Gittite. The king told the troops, "I am going out with you myself."
3 But the troops said, "You must not go out. If we have to run, they will pay no attention to us; even if half of us die, they will pay no attention to us. But you are worth ten thousand of us. So it is better now for you to be ready to send us help from the city."
4 The king told them, "I will do whatever you think best." So the king stood beside the gate while all the troops marched out by hundreds and by thousands.
5 The king gave orders to Joab, Abishai and Ittai: "Go easy on the young man Absalom for my sake." All the troops heard the king giving all the commanders orders about Absalom.
6 The troops marched out into the field to meet Israel, and the battle took place in the forest of Ephraim.
7 There the army of Israel was beaten by David's servants, and the slaughter there that day was great: twenty thousand men.
8 The fighting spread out over the whole countryside, and the forest swallowed up more of the troops that day than the sword did.
9 Absalom came upon David's servants. Absalom was riding his mule, and the mule went under the tangled branches of a big oak; his head got caught in the oak, and he was left dangling between heaven and earth as the mule under him kept going.
10 A man saw it and told Joab, "I just saw Absalom hanging in an oak."
11 Joab said to the man who told him, "You saw him! Why did you not knock him to the ground right there? I would have had to give you ten pieces of silver and a belt."
12 The man answered Joab, "Even if I could feel a thousand pieces of silver weighed into my hands, I would not lift my hand against the king's son. We all heard the king command you, Abishai and Ittai, 'Protect, whoever you are, the young man Absalom.'
13 Otherwise, if I had acted treacherously against his life, since nothing is hidden from the king, you yourself would have kept your distance."
14 Joab said, "I will not hang around like this with you." He took three spears in his hand and drove them into Absalom's heart while he was still alive in the middle of the oak.
15 Ten young men who bore Joab's armor closed in, struck Absalom and finished him off.
16 Joab sounded the horn, and the troops came back from chasing Israel, because Joab held the troops back.
17 They took Absalom, flung him into a big pit in the forest, and piled a huge heap of stones over him. All Israel fled, each man to his tent.
18 During his lifetime Absalom had taken a pillar and set it up for himself in the King's Valley, for he thought, "I have no son to keep my name remembered." He named the pillar after himself, and it is called Absalom's Monument to this day.
19 Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, "Let me run and bring the king the good news that the LORD has vindicated him against his enemies."
20 Joab told him, "You are not the one to bring news today. You can bring news some other day, but not today, since the king's son is dead."
21 Joab told a Cushite, "Go, tell the king what you have seen." The Cushite bowed to Joab and ran off.
22 Ahimaaz son of Zadok spoke to Joab again: "Whatever happens, let me run too, after the Cushite." Joab said, "Why do you want to run, my son, when you have no news that will bring you a reward?"
23 "Whatever happens, I will run." "Then run," he told him. Ahimaaz ran by the road through the plain and passed the Cushite.
24 David was sitting between the two gates. The watchman went up to the roof of the gate on the wall, looked out, and saw a man running by himself.
25 The watchman called out and told the king. The king said, "If he is by himself, he has news to tell." He came nearer and nearer.
26 Then the watchman saw another man running, and the watchman called down to the gatekeeper, "There is another man running by himself!" The king said, "He too is bringing news."
27 The watchman said, "The way the first one runs looks to me like the way Ahimaaz son of Zadok runs." The king said, "He is a good man; he comes with good news."
28 Ahimaaz called out to the king, "All is well!" He bowed down before the king with his face to the ground and said, "Blessed is the LORD your God, who has handed over the men who lifted their hand against my lord the king!"
29 The king asked, "Is the young man Absalom all right?" Ahimaaz said, "When Joab sent the king's servant, your servant, I saw a great tumult, but I do not know what it was."
30 The king said, "Step aside and stand over here." He stepped aside and waited.
31 Then the Cushite arrived, and the Cushite said, "Good news for my lord the king! Today the LORD has vindicated you against all who rose up against you."
32 The king asked the Cushite, "Is the young man Absalom all right?" The Cushite said, "May the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up against you to do you harm, be as that young man is."
33 The king was shaken. He went up to the room over the gate and wept, and as he went he said, "My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died in your place! O Absalom, my son, my son!"