13. Then too, if I had acted with such audacity, against my own life, this would never have been able to be hidden from the king. And would you then have stood by my side?"
14. And Joab said, "It will not be as you wish. Instead, I will be assailing him in your sight." Then he took three lances in his hand, and he fixed them in the heart of Absalom. And while he was still clinging to life upon the oak,
15. ten young men, armor bearers of Joab, ran up, and striking him, they killed him.
16. Then Joab sounded the trumpet, and he held back the people, lest they pursue Israel in their flight, for he was willing to spare the multitude.
17. And they took Absalom, and they threw him into a great pit in the forest. And they piled an exceedingly great heap of stones over him. But all of Israel fled to their own tents.
18. Now Absalom had raised up for himself, when he was still alive, a monument, which is in the Valley of the King. For he said, "I have no son, and so this shall be the memorial to my name." And he called the monument by his own name. And it is called the Hand of Absalom, even to this day.
19. Then Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, said, "I will run and report to the king that the Lord has accomplished judgment for him, from the hand of his enemies."
20. And Joab said to him: "You shall not be the messenger on this day. Instead, you shall report on another day. I am not willing for you to give the report today, because the son of the king is dead."
21. Then Joab said to Hushai, "Go, and report to the king what you have seen." Hushai reverenced Joab, and he ran.