1. David divided his soldiers into groups of a hundred and groups of a thousand. Then he chose officers to be in command of each group.
2. He sent out one third of his army under the command of Joab, another third under the command of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, and the rest under the command of Ittai from Gath. He told the soldiers, “I'm going into battle with you.”
3. But the soldiers said, “No, don't go into battle with us! It won't matter to our enemies if they make us all run away, or even if they kill half of us. But you are worth ten thousand of us. It would be better for you to stay in town and send help if we need it.”
9. Absalom was riding his mule under a huge tree when his head caught in the branches. The mule ran off and left Absalom hanging in mid-air. Some of David's soldiers happened to pass by,
10. and one of them went and told Joab, “I saw Absalom hanging in a tree!”
11. Joab said, “You saw Absalom? Why didn't you kill him? I would have given you ten pieces of silver and a special belt.”
12. The man answered, “Even if you paid me a thousand pieces of silver here and now, I still wouldn't touch the king's son. We all heard King David tell you and Abishai and Ittai not to harm Absalom.
13. He always finds out what's going on. I would have been risking my life to kill Absalom, because you would have let me take the blame.”
14. Joab said, “I'm not going to waste any more time on you!”Absalom was still alive, so Joab took three spears and stuck them through Absalom's chest.
15. Ten of Joab's bodyguards came over and finished him off.
16. Then Joab blew a trumpet to signal his troops to stop chasing Israel's soldiers.