6 So the army went out into the field against Israel, and the battle was fought in the forest of Ephraim.
7 [Absalom's] men of Israel were defeated by the servants of David, and there was a great slaughter that day of 20,000 men.
8 For the battle spread over the face of all the country, and the forest devoured more men that day than did the sword.
9 Then Absalom [unavoidably] met the servants of David. Absalom rode on a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and Absalom's head caught fast [in a fork] of the oak; and the mule under him ran away, leaving him hanging between the heavens and the earth.
10 A certain man saw it and told Joab, Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.
11 Joab said to the man, You saw him! Why did you not strike him down to the ground? I would have given you ten shekels of silver and a girdle.
12 The man told Joab, Though I should receive 1,000 pieces of silver, yet I would not put forth my hand against the king's son. For in our hearing the king charged you, Abishai, and Ittai, Have a care, whoever you be, for the young man Absalom.