Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 175
2S
| 18:11-28
S am u el – K I N G S
163
“What?” Joab demanded. “You saw him there and didn’t kill him? I
would have rewarded you with ten pieces of silver and a hero’s belt!”
“I would not kill the king’s son for even a thousand pieces of silver,” the
man replied to Joab. “We all heard the king say to you and Abishai and Ittai,
‘For my sake, please spare young Absalom.’ And if I had betrayed the king
by killing his s on—and the king would certainly find out who did it—you
yourself would be the first to abandon me.”
“Enough of this nonsense,” Joab said. Then he took three daggers and
plunged them into Absalom’s heart as he dangled, still alive, in the great
tree. Ten of Joab’s young armor bearers then surrounded Absalom and
killed him.
Then Joab blew the ram’s horn, and his men returned from chasing the
army of Israel. They threw Absalom’s body into a deep pit in the forest
and piled a great heap of stones over it. And all Israel fled to their homes.
During his lifetime, Absalom had built a monument to himself in the
King’s Valley, for he said, “I have no son to carry on my name.” He named
the monument after himself, and it is known as Absalom’s Monument to
this day.
Then Zadok’s son Ahimaaz said, “Let me run to the king with the good
news that the Lord has rescued him from his enemies.”
“No,” Joab told him, “it wouldn’t be good news to the king that his son is
dead. You can be my messenger another time, but not today.”
Then Joab said to a man from Ethiopia, “Go tell the king what you have
seen.” The man bowed and ran off.
But Ahimaaz continued to plead with Joab, “Whatever happens, please
let me go, too.”
“Why should you go, my son?” Joab replied. “There will be no reward
for your news.”
“Yes, but let me go anyway,” he begged.
Joab finally said, “All right, go ahead.” So Ahimaaz took the less demanding route by way of the plain and ran to Mahanaim ahead of the Ethiopian.
While David was sitting between the inner and outer gates of the town,
the watchman climbed to the roof of the gateway by the wall. As he looked,
he saw a lone man running toward them. He shouted the news down to
David, and the king replied, “If he is alone, he has news.”
As the messenger came closer, the watchman saw another man running
toward them. He shouted down, “Here comes another one!”
The king replied, “He also will have news.”
“The first man runs like Ahimaaz son of Zadok,” the watchman said.
“He is a good man and comes with good news,” the king replied.
Then Ahimaaz cried out to the king, “Everything is all right!” He bowed