2
Samuel
18
- David mustered the men who were with him
and appointed over them commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds.
- David sent the troops out -- a third under
the command of Joab, a third under Joab's brother Abishai son of Zeruiah,
and a third under Ittai the Gittite. The king told the troops, "I myself
will surely march out with you."
- But the men said, "You must not go
out; if we are forced to flee, they won't care about us. Even if half of us
die, they won't care; but you are worth ten thousand of us. It would be better
now for you to give us support from the city."
- The king answered, "I will do whatever
seems best to you." So the king stood beside the gate while all the men
marched out in units of hundreds and of thousands.
- The king commanded Joab, Abishai and Ittai,
"Be gentle with the young man Absalom for my sake." And all the
troops heard the king giving orders concerning Absalom to each of the commanders.
- The army marched into the field to fight
Israel, and the battle took place in the forest of Ephraim.
- There the army of Israel was defeated by
David's men, and the casualties that day were great -- twenty thousand men.
- The battle spread out over the whole countryside,
and the forest claimed more lives that day than the sword.
- Now Absalom happened to meet David's men.
He was riding his mule, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a
large oak, Absalom's head got caught in the tree. He was left hanging in midair,
while the mule he was riding kept on going.
- When one of the men saw this, he told Joab,
"I just saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree."
- Joab said to the man who had told him this,
"What! You saw him? Why didn't you strike him to the ground right there?
Then I would have had to give you ten shekels of silver and a warrior's belt."
- But the man replied, "Even if a thousand
shekels were weighed out into my hands, I would not lift my hand against the
king's son. In our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, 'Protect
the young man Absalom for my sake.'
- And if I had put my life in jeopardy --
and nothing is hidden from the king--you would have kept your distance from
me."
- Joab said, "I'm not going to wait like
this for you." So he took three javelins in his hand and plunged them
into Absalom's heart while Absalom was still alive in the oak tree.
- And ten of Joab's armor-bearers surrounded
Absalom, struck him and killed him.
- Then Joab sounded the trumpet, and the troops
stopped pursuing Israel, for Joab halted them.
- They took Absalom, threw him into a big
pit in the forest and piled up a large heap of rocks over him. Meanwhile,
all the Israelites fled to their homes.
- During his lifetime Absalom had taken a
pillar and erected it in the King's Valley as a monument to himself, for he
thought, "I have no son to carry on the memory of my name." He named
the pillar after himself, and it is called Absalom's Monument to this day.
- Now Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, "Let
me run and take the news to the king that the LORD has delivered him from
the hand of his enemies."
- "You are not the one to take the news
today," Joab told him. "You may take the news another time, but
you must not do so today, because the king's son is dead."
- Then Joab said to a Cushite, "Go, tell
the king what you have seen." The Cushite bowed down before Joab and
ran off.
- Ahimaaz son of Zadok again said to Joab,
"Come what may, please let me run behind the Cushite." But Joab
replied, "My son, why do you want to go? You don't have any news that
will bring you a reward."
- He said, "Come what may, I want to
run." So Joab said, "Run!" Then Ahimaaz ran by way of the plain
and outran the Cushite.
- While David was sitting between the inner
and outer gates, the watchman went up to the roof of the gateway by the wall.
As he looked out, he saw a man running alone.
- The watchman called out to the king and
reported it. The king said, "If he is alone, he must have good news."
And the man came closer and closer.
- Then the watchman saw another man running,
and he called down to the gatekeeper, "Look, another man running alone!"
The king said, "He must be bringing good news, too."
- The watchman said, "It seems to me
that the first one runs like Ahimaaz son of Zadok." "He's a good
man," the king said. "He comes with good news."
- Then Ahimaaz called out to the king, "All
is well!" He bowed down before the king with his face to the ground and
said, "Praise be to the LORD your God! He has delivered up the men who
lifted their hands against my lord the king."
- The king asked, "Is the young man Absalom
safe?" Ahimaaz answered, "I saw great confusion just as Joab was
about to send the king's servant and me, your servant, but I don't know what
it was."
- The king said, "Stand aside and wait
here." So he stepped aside and stood there.
- Then the Cushite arrived and said, "My
lord the king, hear the good news! The LORD has delivered you today from all
who rose up against you."
- The king asked the Cushite, "Is the
young man Absalom safe?" The Cushite replied, "May the enemies of
my lord the king and all who rise up to harm you be like that young man."
- The king was shaken. He went up to the room
over the gateway and wept. As he went, he said: "O my son Absalom! My
son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you -- O Absalom, my son,
my son !"
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