שמואל ב, פרק י״ג, פסוק ל׳

As the king's sons flee for their lives, a horrifying and distorted message reaches the palace before they do. The sons are still traveling and have not yet made it back to the city [מצודת דוד]. Their journey is delayed because sheer panic and fear likely cause them to avoid taking the shortest, most direct route home [ביאור שטיינזלץ].

Meanwhile, the devastating news that reaches David is actually a false rumor [מצודת דוד]. This extreme exaggeration develops because a murder certainly did take place among the royal family. However, since the surviving sons immediately ran away instead of remaining at the scene, the resulting confusion leads to the mistaken report that Absalom has killed every single one of them, leaving no survivors [ביאור שטיינזלץ].