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.
17. They threw Absalom's body into a deep pit in the forest and put a big pile of rocks over it.Meanwhile, the people of Israel had all run back to their own homes.
18. When Absalom was alive, he had set up a stone monument for himself in King's Valley. He explained, “I don't have any sons to keep my name alive.” He called it Absalom's Monument, and that is the name it still has today.
19. Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said, “Joab, let me run and tell King David that the Lord has rescued him from his enemies.”
20. Joab answered, “You're not the one to tell the king that his son is dead. You can take him a message some other time, but not today.”
21. Someone from Ethiopia was standing there, and Joab told him, “Go and tell the king what you have seen.” The man knelt down in front of Joab and then got up and started running.