18 ¹ David mustered the people who were with him, and appointed officers over units of a thousand and a hundred. 18 ² Then he divided the army in three, one division under the command of Joab, one under Joab's brother Abishai son of Zeruiah, and the third under Ittai the Gittite. The king announced to the army that he was coming out himself with them to battle. 18 ³ But they said, 'No, you must not come out; if we turn and run, no one will take any notice, nor will they, even if half of us are killed; but you are worth ten thousand of us, and it would be better now for you to remain in the city in support.' 18 ⁴ 'I will do what you think best', answered the king; and he then stood beside the gate, and the army marched past in their units of a thousand and a hundred. 18 ⁵ The king gave orders to Joab, Abishai, and Ittai: 'Deal gently with the young man Absalom for my sake.' The whole army heard the king giving all his officers this order to spare Absalom.

18 ⁶ The army took the field against the Israelites and the battle was fought in the forest of Ephron prob. rdg, Heb Ephraim. 18 ⁷ There the Israelites were routed before the onslaught of David's men; so great was the rout that twenty thousand men fell that day. 18 ⁸ The fighting spread over the whole country-side, and the forest took toll of more people that day than the sword.

18 ⁹ Now some of David's men caught sight of Absalom. He was riding a mule and, as it passed beneath a great oak Or terebinth, his head was caught in its boughs; he found himself in mid air and the mule went on from under him. 18 ¹⁰ One of the men who saw it went and told Joab, 'I saw Absalom hanging from an oak.' 18 ¹¹ While the man was telling him, Joab broke in, 'You saw him? Why did you not strike him to the ground then and there? I would have given you ten pieces of silver and a belt.' 18 ¹² The man answered, 'If you were to put in my hands a thousand pieces of silver, I would not lift a finger against the king's son; for we all heard the king giving orders to you and Abishai and Ittai that whoever finds himself near the young man Absalom must take great care of him. 18 ¹³ If I had dealt him a treacherous blow, the king would soon have known, and you would have kept well out of it.' 18 ¹⁴ 'That is a lie!' said Joab. 'I will make a start and show you I will ... show you: or I can waste no more time on you like this.' So he picked up three stout sticks and drove them against Absalom's chest while he was held fast in the tree and still alive. 18 ¹⁵ Then ten young men who were Joab's armour-bearers closed in on Absalom, struck at him and killed him.

18 ¹⁶ Joab sounded the trumpet, and the army came back from the pursuit of Israel because he had called it off. 18 ¹⁷ They took Absalom's body and flung it into a great pit in the forest, and raised over it a huge pile of stones. The Israelites all fled to their homes.

18 ¹⁸ The pillar in the King's Vale had been set up by Absalom in his lifetime, for he said, 'I have no son to carry on my name.' He had named the pillar after himself; and to this day it is called Absalom's Monument.