In answer to Joab, Absalom replied, "Look, I sent for you, telling you "Come here so I can send you to the king to ask him "What's the point in moving here from Geshur? I would have been better off to have remained there!"' So let me see the king's face, and if I'm guilty of anything, let him execute me!"

Absalom and all of the Israelis replied, "The advice of Hushai the Archite is better than Ahithophel's!"

All of the men who had accompanied Joab arrived and besieged Sheba in Abel of Beth-maacah. They threw up a siege ramp against the city rampart and began to batter the wall to demolish it.

I pulverized them to powder, like the dust of the earth; I crushed them, stomping on them like mud on a street.