2 Samuel 18 And David inspects the people who are with him, and sets over them heads of thousands and heads of hundreds,

CLV⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ And David inspects the people who [are] with him, and sets over them heads of thousands and heads of hundreds, ² and David sends the third of the people by the hand of Joab, and the third by the hand of Abishai, son of Zeruiah, brother of Joab, and the third by the hand of Ittai the Gittite, and the king said unto the people, `I certainly go out--I also--with you.. ³ And the people say, `You do not go out, for if we utterly flee, they do not set [their] heart upon us; and if half of us die, they do not set [their] heart unto us--for now like us [are] ten thousand; and now, better that you be to us from the city for an helper.. ⁴ And the king said unto them, `That which is good in your eyes I do;' and the king stands at the side of the gate, and all the people have gone out by hundreds and by thousands, ⁵ and the king charges Joab, and Abishai, and Ittai, saying, `Gently--for me, for the youth, for Absalom;' and all the people heard in the king's charging all the heads concerning Absalom. ⁶ And the people goes out into the field to meet Israel, and the battle is in a forest of Ephraim;" ⁷ and smitten there are the people of Israel before the servants of David, and the smiting there is great on that day--twenty thousand;" ⁸ and the battle is there scattered over the face of all the land, and the forest multiplies to devour among the people more than those whom the sword has devoured in that day. ⁹ And Absalom meets before the servants of David, and Absalom is riding on the mule, and the mule comes in under an entangled bough of the great oak, and his head takes hold on the oak, and he is placed between the heavens and the earth, and the mule that [is] under him has passed on. ¹⁰ And one man sees, and declares to Joab, and said, `Lo, I saw Absalom hanged in an oak.. ¹¹ And Joab said to the man who is declaring [it] to him, `And lo, you have seen--and wherefore did you not smite him there to the earth--and on me to give to you ten silverlings and one girdle?. ¹² And the man said unto Joab, `Yea, though I am weighing on my hand a thousand silverlings, I do not put forth my hand unto the son of the king; for in our ears has the king charged you, and Abishai, and Ittai, saying, Observe you who [is] against the youth--against Absalom;" ¹³ or I had done against my soul a vain thing, and no matter is hid from the king, and you--you do station yourself over-against.. ¹⁴ And Joab said, `Not right--I tarry before you;' and he takes three darts in his hand, and strikes them into the heart of Absalom, while he [is] alive, in the midst of the oak. ¹⁵ And they go round--ten youths bearing weapons of Joab--and smite Absalom, and put him to death. ¹⁶ And Joab blows with a trumpet, and the people turns back from pursuing after Israel, for Joab has kept back the people;" ¹⁷ and they take Absalom and cast him in the forest unto the great pit, and set up over him a very great heap of stones, and all Israel have fled--each to his tent. ¹⁸ And Absalom has taken, and sets up for himself in his life, the standing-pillar that [is] in the king's valley, for he said, `I have no son to cause my name to be remembered;' and he calls the standing-pillar by his own name, and it is called `The monument of Absalom' unto this day. ¹⁹ And Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, `Let me run, I pray you, and I bear the king tidings, for Yahweh has delivered him out of the hand of his enemies;. ²⁰ and Joab said to him, `You are not a man of tidings this day, but you have borne tidings on another day, and this day you do not bear tidings, because the king's son [is] dead.. ²¹ And Joab said to Cushi, `Go, declare to the king that which you have seen;' and Cushi bows himself to Joab, and runs. ²² And Ahimaaz son of Zadok adds again, and said unto Joab, `And whatever it be, let me run, I pray you, I also, after the Cushite.' And Joab said, `Why [is] this--you are running, my son, and for you there are no tidings found?' -. ²³ `And, whatever it be, [said he,] let me run.' And he said to him, `Run;' and Ahimaaz runs the way of the circuit, and passes by the Cushite. ²⁴ And David is sitting between the two gates, and the watchman goes unto the roof of the gate, unto the wall, and lifts up his eyes, and looks, and lo, a man running by himself. ²⁵ And the watchman calls, and declares to the king, and the king said, `If by himself, tidings [are] in his mouth;' and he comes, coming on and drawing near. ²⁶ And the watchman sees another man running, and the watchman calls unto the gatekeeper, and said, `Lo, a man running by himself;' and the king said, `Also this one is bearing tidings.. ²⁷ And the watchman said, `I see the running of the first as the running of Ahimaaz son of Zadok.' And the king said, `This [is] a good man, and with good tidings he comes.. ²⁸ And Ahimaaz calls and said unto the king, `Peace;' and he bows himself to the king, on his face, to the earth, and said, `Blessed [is] Yahweh your Elohim who has shut up the men who lifted up their hand against my lord the king.. ²⁹ And the king said, `Peace to the youth--to Absalom?' And Ahimaaz said, `I saw the great multitude, at the sending away of the servant of the king, even your servant [by] Joab, and I have not known what [it is].. ³⁰ And the king said, `Turn round, station yourself here;' and he turns round and stands still. ³¹ And lo, the Cushite has come, and the Cushite said, `Let tidings be proclaimed, my lord, O king; for Yahweh has delivered you to-day out of the hand of all those rising up against you.. ³² And the king said unto the Cushite, `Peace to the youth--to Absalom?' And the Cushite said, `Let them be--as the youth--the enemies of my lord the king, and all who have risen up against you for evil.. ³³ And the king trembles, and goes up on the upper chamber of the gate, and weeps, and thus he has said in his going, `My son! Absalom my son; my son Absalom; oh that I had died for you, Absalom, my son, my son..