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2 Samuel 18:9 - 18:18

9 Then Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Now Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak. And his head caught fast in the oak, so he was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him passed onward. 10 Then a certain man saw it, he told Joab and said, “Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.” 11 Then Joab said to the man who had told him, “Now behold, you saw him! Why then did you not strike him there to the ground? And I would have given you ten pieces of silver and a belt.” 12 So the man said to Joab, “Even if I should receive one thousand pieces of silver in my hand, I would not send forth my hand against the king’s son; for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, ‘Keep for me the young man Absalom!’ 13 Otherwise, if I had dealt treacherously against his life (and there is nothing hidden from the king), then you yourself would have stood aloof.” 14 Then Joab said, “I will not wait around here before you.” So he took three spears in his hand and thrust them through the heart of Absalom while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak. 15 And ten young men who carried Joab’s armor gathered around and struck Absalom and put him to death. 16 Then Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing Israel, for Joab restrained the people. 17 And they took Absalom and cast him into a deep pit in the forest and set over him a very great heap of stones. And all Israel fled, each to his tent. 18 Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up for himself a pillar which is in the King’s Valley, for he had said, “I have no son to preserve my name.” So he named the pillar after his own name, and it is called Absalom’s Monument to this day.