In Context

7 The people of Israel were struck there before the servants of David, and there was a great slaughter there that day of twenty thousand men.

8 For the battle was there spread over the surface of all the country; and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.

9 Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the sky and earth; and the mule that was under him went on.

10 A certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, |Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.|

11 Joab said to the man who told him, |Behold, you saw it, and why didn't you strike him there to the ground? I would have given you ten pieces of silver, and a sash.|

12 The man said to Joab, |Though I should receive a thousand pieces of silver in my hand, I still wouldn't put forth my hand against the king's son; for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, 'Beware that none touch the young man Absalom.'

2 Samuel 18:10 in Other Translations