“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!”
Here is Absalom quite at a loss, at his wit's end first, and then at his life's end. He that began the fight, big with the expectation of triumphing over David himself, with whom, if he had had him in his power, he would not have dealt gently, is now in the greatest consternation, when he meets the servants of David, Sa2 18:9.
Commenting on 2 Samuel 18:9-18
And Joab said unto the man that told him,.... That gave the above account of him: and, behold, thou sawest him; in reality; or, "didst thou see him?" is it a fact? and why didst thou not smite him there to the ground; kill him on the spot, that he might have dropped from the tree to the ground: and I would have given thee...
Joab said unto the man that told him, . . . I would have given thee ten shekels of silver, and a girdle--that is, would have raised him from the ranks to the status of a commissioned officer. Besides a sum of money, a girdle, curiously and richly wrought, was among the ancient Hebrews a mark of honor, and sometimes bestowed as a reward of military merit.