Joab Takes Javelins After Hearing Absalom Has Been Found

10One man saw it and told Joab, and said, “Look, I saw Absalom hanging in the terebinth tree.”

11Then Joab said to the man who had told him, “Look, you saw him; why then did you not strike him there to the ground? And I would have been obliged to give you ten pieces of silver and one belt.”

12But the man said to Joab, “Even if I were weighing out a thousand pieces of silver on my palms, I would not put out my hand against the king’s son; for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, ‘Guard for me the young man Absalom.’”

13Or if I had dealt falsely against his life, and no matter is hidden from the king, then you yourself would have stood aside.

14Joab said, “Not so; I will not wait before you.” Then he took three spears in his hand and drove them into the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the heart of the terebinth.

15Then ten young men, Joab’s armor-bearers, surrounded Absalom and struck him and killed him.

16Then Joab blew the trumpet, and the people turned back from pursuing Israel, because Joab restrained the people.

17And they took Absalom and threw him into the great pit in the forest, and they set up over him a very large heap of stones. And all Israel fled, each man to his tent.

18Absalom had taken and set up for himself in his lifetime the pillar that is in the Valley of the King, for he said, “I have no son to keep my name in remembrance.” So he called the pillar by his own name, and it is called Absalom’s Monument to this day.