12 And he said to Joab: If thou wouldst have paid down in my hands a thousand pieces of silver, I would not lay my hands upon the king's son: for in our hearing he king charged thee, and Abisai, and Ethai, saying: Save me the boy Absalom.
13 Yea and if I should have acted boldly against my own life, this could not have been hid from the king, and wouldst thou have stood by me?
14 And Joab said: Not as thou wilt, but will set upon him in thy sight. So he took three lances in his hand, and thrust them into the heart of Absalom: and whilst he yet panted for life, sticking on the oak,
15 Ten young men, armourbearers of Joab, ran up, and striking him slew him.
16 And Joab sounded the trumpet, and kept back the people from pursuing after Israel in their flight, being willing to spare he multitude.
17 And they took Absalom, and cast him into a great pit in the forest, and they laid an exceeding great heap of stories upon him: but all Israel fled to their own dwellings.
18 Now Absalom had reared up for himself, in his lifetime, a pillar, which is in the king's valley: for he said: I have no son, and this shall be the monument of my name. And he called the pillar by is own name, and it is called the hand of Absalom, to this day.