2 Samuel 18:10
8 The battle spread over the whole countryside, and that day the forest devoured more people than the sword.
9 Now Absalom was riding on his mule when he met the servants of David, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom’s head was caught fast in the tree. The mule under him kept going, so that he was suspended in midair.
When one of the men saw this, he told Joab, “I just saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree!”
11 “You just saw him!” Joab exclaimed. “Why did you not strike him to the ground right there? I would have given you ten shekels of silver and a warrior’s belt!”
12 The man replied, “Even if a thousand shekels of silver were weighed out into my hands, I would not raise my hand against the son of the king. For we heard the king command you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘Protect the young man Absalom for my sake.’
Here the Bible tells a story about someone else. Ask yourself what it can say to us today. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- When one of the men saw this, he told Joab, “I just saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree!”
- KJV
- And a certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, Behold, I saw Absalom hanged in an oak.
- WEB
- A certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, “Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.”
- ASV
- And a certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.
- DARBY
- And a man saw it, and told Joab, and said, Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in a terebinth.
- BLB
- And a man saw [it] and told Joab, and he said, “Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree.”
- ÅB
- Dette fikk en mann se, meldte det til Joab og sa: Jeg så Absalom henge i terebinten der borte.
- OTB
- En mann så det og fortalte Joab: "Se, jeg så Absalom henge i en eik."
- B1930
- Dette fikk en mann se, meldte det til Joab og sa: Jeg så Absalom henge i terebinten der borte.