(9) В¶ And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a 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 heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away.
Every prelude to the death of Absalom is awful. His death is not after the common visitation of all men. He is first suspended, as it were, a spectacle between heaven and earth, unworthy of being in either. The simple boughs of a tree, shall begin the preparation of his awful death. A mule shall assist at his execution. Had the animal thrown him: had he broken his neck in the fall; or had a certain man at a venture, shot him through; these would have been among the common things of war. But no! His sin, his rebellion, his whole life, indeed, had been so flagicious, that his death must be marked with more than common infamy. The very beast on which he rides, shall leave him, as if delighted to be no longer burthened with such a sinner!