2 Samuel

⁷And the people of Israel were smitten there before the servants of David, and there was a great slaughter there that day of twenty thousand men. ⁸For the battle was there spread over the face of all the country: and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured. ⁹And Absalom chanced to meet the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon his mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went on. ¹⁰And a certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak. ¹¹And Joab said unto the man that told him, And behold, thou sawest it, and why didst thou not smite him there to the ground? and I would have given thee ten pieces of silver, and a girdle. ¹²And the man said unto Joab, Though I should receive a thousand pieces of silver in mine hand, yet would I not put forth mine hand against the king's son: for in our hearing the king charged thee and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Beware that none touch the young man Absalom. ¹³Otherwise if I had dealt falsely against his life, (and there is no matter hid from the king,) then thou thyself wouldest have stood aloof.