2 Samuel 18:12–18

12 But the man replied, “Even if a thousand shekelsc were weighed out into my hands, I would not lay a hand on the king’s son. In our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘Protect the young man Absalom for my sake.d’ 13 And if I had put my life in jeopardye—and nothing is hidden from the kingx—you would have kept your distance from me.”

14 Joaby said, “I’m not going to wait like this for you.” So he took three javelins in his hand and plunged them into Absalom’s heart while Absalom was still alive in the oak tree. 15 And ten of Joab’s armor-bearers surrounded Absalom, struck him and killed him.z

16 Then Joaba sounded the trumpet, and the troops stopped pursuing Israel, for Joab halted them. 17 They took Absalom, threw him into a big pit in the forest and piled upb a large heap of rocksc over him. Meanwhile, all the Israelites fled to their homes.

18 During his lifetime Absalom had taken a pillar and erected it in the King’s Valleyd as a monumente to himself, for he thought, “I have no sonf to carry on the memory of my name.” He named the pillar after himself, and it is called Absalom’s Monument to this day.