Cassiodorus : When Absalom was cruelly attacking his father David, the speed of his mule caused him to collide with a thick oak tree, and the branches wound round his neck so that he was suspended high in the air. This was a prefiguration of the Lord's betrayer. Just as Judas ended his life in the knot of a noose, so also David's persecutor breathed his last through the pressure on his throat. — EXPOSITION OF THE Psalms 3.1