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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.

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.

Then Joab said to the Cushite, "Go, tell the king what you have seen." So the Cushite bowed to Joab and ran.

"But whatever happens," he said, "I will run." So he said to him, "Run." Then Ahimaaz ran by way of the plain and passed the Cushite.

Then the king said, "Turn aside and stand here." So he turned aside and stood still.

So the people stole away to enter into the city that day, as people who are dishonored steal away when they flee in battle.

So now, arise, go out and speak to the heart of your servants, for I swear by Yahweh, if you do not go out, surely not a man will pass the night with you, and this will be of greater evil for you than all the evil that has come upon you from your youth until now."

So the king arose and sat in the gate. And they told all the people, saying, "Behold, the king is sitting in the gate." Then all the people came before the king. Now Israel had fled, each to his tent.

However, Absalom, whom we anointed over us, has died in battle. So now, why are you silent about having the king return?"

And say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my bone and my flesh? May God do so to me, and more also, if you will not be commander of the army before me continually in place of Joab.'"

Thus he inclined the hearts of all the men of Judah as one man, so they sent word to the king, saying, "Return, you and all your servants."

So he said to the king, "Let not my lord consider me guilty, nor remember what your servant did wrong on the day when my lord the king went out from Jerusalem, so that the king would take it to heart.

So he answered, "O my lord, the king, my servant deceived me; for your servant said, ‘I will saddle a donkey for myself that I may ride on it and go with the king,' because your servant is lame.

So the king said to him, "Why do you still speak of your affairs? I have decided, ‘You and Ziba shall divide the land.'"

So the king answered, "Chimham shall pass over with me, and I will do for him what is good in your sight; and whatever you require of me, I will do for you."

So all the men of Israel went up from following David and followed Sheba the son of Bichri; but the men of Judah clung to their king, from the Jordan even to Jerusalem.

Then David came to his house at Jerusalem, and the king took the ten women, the concubines whom he had left to keep the house, and placed them under guard and provided them with sustenance, but did not go in to them. So they were shut up until the day of their death, living as widows.

So Amasa went to call out the men of Judah, but he delayed longer than the set time which he had appointed him.

So Joab's men pursued him, along with the Cherethites and the Pelethites and all the mighty men; and they went out from Jerusalem to pursue Sheba the son of Bichri.

But Amasa was not on guard against the sword which was in Joab's hand so he struck him in the belly with it and poured out his inward parts on the ground, and did not strike him again, and he died. Then Joab and Abishai his brother pursued Sheba the son of Bichri.