2 Kingschapter 3
27 verses · Jeremiah, by tradition · 6th century BC · History
So he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him, and offered him as a burnt offering on the city wall. And there was great fury against the Israelites, so they withdrew and returned to their own land.
Introduction
Jeremiah, by tradition, History, 2 Kings Overview.
This chapter sets two national records side by side, since the king of Moab left his own account of the same revolt carved in stone. It was compiled in the exile for readers who knew what alliances with the northern kingdom had cost Judah. Three kings march through dry country, and only one of them has any claim on the prophet. Listen for why the prophet agrees to speak at all, and for the music that comes before his word. Listen too for water that saves one army and deceives another. The chapter ends at a city wall with a question it leaves open.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who had lost a rich tribute province and wanted it back
- What
- An account of a campaign by Israel, Judah and Edom against Moab, and of the water the LORD provides in a dry valley.
- Where
- The desert route around the southern end of the Dead Sea into Moab, ending at the wall of Kir-hareseth.
- When
- The reign of Joram of Israel, about 852 to 851 BC.
- Why
- To show the LORD keeping His word through His prophet for the sake of Judah's king, inside an alliance the book disapproves of.
Historical context
Joram son of Ahab holds the northern throne here, and the compiler's verdict on him is evil, but lesser than his father's, since he put away the pillar of Baal and held to the sins of Jeroboam. Moab paid Israel in livestock, a hundred thousand lambs and the wool of a hundred thousand rams, which describes a highland sheep economy on the plateau east of the Dead Sea, and when Ahab died, Mesha stopped paying.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
Mesha's own version of the same events survives on a basalt stone found at Dhiban in 1868, carved in Moabite, which records that Omri king of Israel oppressed Moab for many years and that Mesha threw off Israel and captured towns, and which names both the God of Israel and Moab's god Chemosh. Each account is a national record written by the winning side about the part it wants remembered, and having both is unusual and valuable.
The campaign takes the long southern route around the Dead Sea through waterless country, and the army runs dry after seven days. The prophet asks for a musician before he speaks, which fits what is known of prophetic practice, since music was used to prepare for receiving a word. The instruction to dig the valley full of trenches and the water arriving without wind or rain describes a real desert event, because a storm falling on distant highlands sends a flash flood down a dry wadi hours later under a clear sky.
The Moabites see the water at dawn as red as blood, which is what low sunlight does on water in a valley of red sandstone, and the scorched-earth tactics that follow, felling trees, stopping springs and ruining fields with stones, were ordinary siege practice, though Israel's own law forbade it against fruit trees. The chapter ends at the wall of Kir-hareseth with the king of Moab sacrificing his eldest son in full view, and child sacrifice in extreme crisis is attested for Moab and Phoenicia. The closing note that great wrath came upon Israel is disputed, and the site's published difficulties section carries both readings with their holders.
Significance
The first hearers heard a prophet tell a king of Israel to his face that he would not look at him except for the presence of Jehoshaphat of Judah. The alliance is what saved the army, and the book does not approve of it.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
They also heard God provide water for three kings, two of whom had no claim on him, in a valley where the enemy would misread it and walk into a trap.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The corpus keeps fifteen notes on this chapter, all of them Rashi in the Metsudah Tanach translation of Lakewood, New Jersey, under a CC-BY licence. The first is the most useful one in the whole range, because it explains why the book is arranged as it is. Rashi says this section was written here to tell the miracle done for the kings against Moab through Elisha, and he gives the reckoning behind the arrangement. Scripture enumerates eight miracles for Elijah and sixteen for Elisha, so that the double portion Elisha asked for is fulfilled in the count itself, and the miracles are set down one next to another. He names where he saw it, the Thirty-two Methods of Rabbi Eliezer son of Rabbi Yose Haglili, and adds that the dividing of the Jordan by Elisha counts as two of Elijah's (Rashi on II Kings 3:1:1). A reader who wants to know why the Elisha cycle runs as a chain of episodes has the tradition's answer here.
The regnal notice is read against the reigns on either side of it. Jehoram did evil, and the corpus prints the comparison with a second reading beside it. Rashi explains the qualification by the parents who added Baal worship to provoke, and the Metsudah footnote gives Ralbag's account, that Jehoram put down Baal worship and left the Asherah standing because his mother Jezebel was alive and supported it (Rashi on II Kings 3:2:1). The clinging to the sins of Jeroboam Rashi reads as a motive shared by every king of the north. They feared that pilgrimage at the three festivals would return the kingdom to the house of David, so they worshipped the calves (Rashi on II Kings 3:3:1). That reading makes the calves a political instrument, and it governs the tradition's judgment of the whole northern line.
The campaign itself draws close work on words and on places. The Moabite king's wealth in flocks Rashi renders through Targum Jonathan as owner of livestock, with the Metsudah footnote giving Radak's account of the word from the spotting of sheep (Rashi on II Kings 3:4:1). The route through the wilderness of Edom carries a footnote from Metzudat David that the man called king of Edom was a governor appointed by the king of Judah (Rashi on II Kings 3:8:1). The king's despair Rashi reads plainly as death by thirst, with Radak's fuller account in the footnote, that the three kings would be handed over either by thirst or by scattering to look for water (Rashi on II Kings 3:10:1).
Two notes explain why Elisha was the man sent for and why he needed a musician. The servant's description of him, the one who poured water on Elijah's hands, Rashi ties to Mount Carmel, where the pouring made his fingers like springs until the ditch filled, so it is fitting that a miracle about water come through him, and the footnote adds a second reading from the tractate Berakhot, that serving a scholar ranks above studying alone (Rashi on II Kings 3:11:1). At Elisha's sharp words to the king he gives the Targum's rendering, a plea not to mention the sins of that wicked woman but to beg mercy, with Radak's alternative in the footnote (Rashi on II Kings 3:13:1). The call for a musician he explains by what anger does. The Divine Presence had departed from Elisha because of his anger, and the footnote adds the second reading that he could not prophesy while mourning Elijah, since the Presence rests on prophets in joy (Rashi on II Kings 3:15:1).
The sign and the battle close the chapter. Ditches full of water is his gloss on the promise (Rashi on II Kings 3:16:1). The promise that this is a light thing Rashi extends, that the miracle is slight in God's eyes and He will go on to act wondrously again and give Moab over (Rashi on II Kings 3:18:1). The order to cut down every good tree Rashi handles as a question of law, since the Torah forbids harming a besieged city's trees, and he answers that it was permitted here against a nation held in contempt, citing a second verse about not seeking their peace and their benefit (Rashi on II Kings 3:19:1). The timing of the water Rashi reads as a beginning and an end, the water falling in the morning in the land of Edom and surging into the valley at the meal offering, and he names the Midrash of Rabbi Tanchuma for it (Rashi on II Kings 3:20:1). The border is glossed with an Old French word (Rashi on II Kings 3:21:1), and the water red as blood is explained by the nature of water under a morning sun (Rashi on II Kings 3:22:1).
Nine further notes stand on this chapter with no English text in the corpus and are cited here unquoted. They are Metzudat David on II Kings 3:6:1, 3:7:1, 3:9:1, 3:14:1 and 3:17:1, and Radak on II Kings 3:5:1, 3:12:1, 3:23:1 and 3:24:1. The sacrifice of the Moabite king's son at the last verse carries no kept note and no linked commentary at all, which is worth stating plainly, because that verse is the hardest in the chapter and the classical answer to it has to be sought through the rabbinic locators below rather than through the commentators.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-three Midrash and seven Talmud, and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. The Moabite king and his flocks draw four, Jerusalem Talmud Kilayim 9:1:2, Midrash Mishlei 13:5, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 30:32:3 and Pesikta DeRav Kahana 6:2. The alliance of Judah with Israel draws Bamidbar Rabbah 18:1, Ein Yaakov, Shevuot 1:7, Ein Yaakov, Yoma 3:11 and Jerusalem Talmud Shevuot 1:2:7, and three of those four sit in tractates about oaths, which is how the tradition reads a king's promise to go up with another king.
The king's despair draws Bamidbar Rabbah 21:6, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Pinchas 5:2 and Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 3:1. The servant's description of Elisha draws Berakhot 7b:26, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Berakhot 1:39, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Pesakhim 6:3 and Ein Yaakov, Pesakhim 6:3, which is the run the kept note above points at when it says that serving a scholar ranks above studying alone. The word of the LORD with Elisha draws Berakhot 10a:26 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayishlach 45, and Elisha's refusal of the northern king draws Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 18:15:3.
His oath by the LORD of hosts, and the regard he holds Jehoshaphat in, draw Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Megillah 4:6, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Pesakhim 6:2, Ein Yaakov, Pesakhim 6:2 and Megillah 28a:15. The musician and the hand of the LORD draw four more, Eikhah Rabbah 2:22, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Pesakhim 10:10, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 2:11 and Ein Yaakov, Pesakhim 10:22. The ditches and the promise of water draw Devarim Rabbah 10:2 at verses 16 and 17 together, with Kohelet Rabbah 3:14:1, Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 32:1:2 and Pesikta DeRav Kahana 7:4 at the sixteenth, and Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 29:1 at the seventeenth. The light thing draws Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 773:1.
The water red as blood draws four, Ein Yaakov, Shabbat 14:3, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 19:23:4, Niddah 19a:18 and Shabbat 108a:6, and the run is about the colour of blood rather than about Moab. The sacrifice of the king's eldest son at the last verse draws the final four, Aggadat Bereshit 31:1, Bereshit Rabbah 55:5, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 4:28 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Taanit 1:7. Two of those four sit in the Midrash on Genesis, where the binding of Isaac is expounded, so the tradition reads this verse beside that one. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on II Kings 3:1:1 to 3:22:1, fifteen notes, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J, CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on II Kings 3:6:1, 3:7:1, 3:9:1, 3:14:1 and 3:17:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; and reported inside the Metsudah footnote at 3:8:1; Radak, Radak on II Kings 3:5:1, 3:12:1, 3:23:1 and 3:24:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; and reported inside the Metsudah footnotes at 3:4:1, 3:10:1 and 3:13:1; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/2-kings/3.json, the 40 rabbinic locators of this chapter, 33 Midrash and 7 Talmud.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Mesha's sheep tribute stops; three kings march south
2 Kings 3:1-3
In the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat’s reign over Judah: Jehoram did evil, “but not as his father and mother had done”, for he removed “the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had made”. The reform stops short, since “he clung to the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit”.
2 Kings 3:1
“Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah,.... So that the two years of the reign of his brother Ahaziah were not complete, only part of the seventeenth and part of the eighteenth of Jehoshaphat, since he began to reign in his seventeenth year, at the beginning of that, and died towards the close of the eighteenth, when Jehoram succeeded him, see 1Ki 22:51, and reigned twelve years.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
2 Kings 3:1
“In the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat - This date agrees exactly with the statements that Jehoshaphat began to reign in the fourth year of Ahab 1Ki 22:41, and Ahaziah in the 17th year of Jehoshaphat 1Ki 22:51.”
He removed the sacred pillar: Albert Barnes held that Jehoram, warned by his brother Ahaziah's death, began his reign by ending the Phoenician worship as the religion of the state. Baal worship still lived on among the people, for Jehu destroys a pillar of Baal. Barnes says Jehoram restored Jeroboam's order in its place.
2 Kings 3:2
“On the “evil” done by Ahab, see especially 1Ki 16:30-34. Jehoram, warned by the fate of his brother (2Ki 1:4 note), began his reign by a formal abolition of the Phoenician state religion introduced by Ahab - even if he connived at its continuance among the people 2Ki 10:26-27; and by a re-establishment of the old worship of the kingdom as arranged by Jeroboam.”
he clung to the sins: Matthew Henry gave the reason as policy. Jeroboam's calves were the state engine that kept the ten tribes apart from Judah, so Jehoram left them standing. Henry counted a man's repentance false when he drops only the sins that cost him and keeps those that profit him.
2 Kings 3:3
“He departed not therefrom, because that was the state engine by which the division between the two tribes was supported. Those do not truly, nor acceptably, repent or reform, who only part with the sins that they lose by, but continue their affection to the sins that they get by.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Kings 3:4-5
Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder: Moab paid its tribute, “a hundred thousand lambs and the wool of a hundred thousand rams”, and it stops paying at Ahab's death. The Moabite Stone, Mesha's inscription, tells the history from Moab's side, naming Omri as the king who oppressed Moab and crediting Chemosh with its freedom.
2 Kings 3:4
“Was a sheepmaster - The original is נקד naked, of which the Septuagint could make nothing, and therefore retained the Hebrew word νωκηδ: but the Chaldee has מרי גיתי marey githey, “a sheepmaster;” Aquila has ποιμνιοτροφος; and Symmachus, τρεφων βοσκηματα; all to the same sense. The original signifies one who marks or brands, probably from the marking of sheep. He fed many sheep, etc., and had them all marked in a particular way, in order to ascertain his property. A hundred thousand lambs - The Chaldee and Arabic have a hundred thousand fat oxen.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 3:4
“Taxes were then paid not so much in money as in the commodities of the country, which was an ease to the subject, whether it was an advantage to the prince or no. The revolt of Moab was a great loss to Israel, yet Ahaziah sat still in sloth and ease.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the king of Moab rebelled: The rebellion was a refusal of the tribute of lambs and wool. John Gill noted that Ahaziah took no step to recover it, whether from a timid temper, his injury or the shortness of his reign. Jehoram now takes up the debt.
2 Kings 3:5
“But it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. Who then was Ahaziah; but either through the pusillanimity of his temper, or the sickness that attended him, or the shortness of his reign, he took no steps to the reduction of him, or to oblige him to pay his tribute, which he neglected to do, and is meant by his rebellion.”
2 Kings 3:6-8
mobilized all Israel: Jehoram asks, “Will you go with me to fight against Moab?”, as Ahab asked before Ramoth-gilead at 1 Kings 22:4. Jehoshaphat answers, “I am like you, my people are your people, and my horses are your horses”. At 2 Chronicles 19:2 a prophet rebukes Jehoshaphat for helping the wicked.
Will you go with me: John Gill gives Jehoshaphat two reasons for agreeing: to encourage the reform Jehoram had begun, and to punish Moab for invading Judah. Albert Barnes also thought the removal of Baal's pillar weighed with him. The alliance of the two houses still stood.
2 Kings 3:7
“The close alliance between the two kingdoms still subsisted. Jehoram therefore sends confidently to make the same request with respect to Moab that his father had made two years before with respect to Syria (marginal reference). Jehoshaphat consented at once, notwithstanding that his former compliance had drawn upon him the rebuke of a prophet 2Ch 19:2. Perhaps Jehoram’s removal of the Baal-worship 2Ki 3:2 weighed with him.”
Adam Clarke explained the route by the king of Edom, who was tributary to Judah and bound to join the march. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown record that the armies looked for water in the brook Zered, the valley of Deuteronomy 2:13, and found it dry.
2 Kings 3:8
“Through the wilderness of Edom - Because he expected the king of Edom to join them, as we find he did; for, being tributary to Judah, he was obliged to do it.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 3:8
“They were disappointed by finding the wady of this valley, the brook Zered (De 2:13-18) [ROBINSON], dry. But the pious mind of Jehoshaphat inquired for a prophet of the Lord; and, on being informed that Elisha was at hand, the three kings "went down to him"; that is, to his tent, which was either in the camp, or close by it.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Bring me a minstrel: make this valley full of trenches
2 Kings 3:9-10
traveled a roundabout route for seven days: After seven days on a roundabout route the three armies and their animals have no water. Jehoram cries, laying on the LORD a route his own alliance chose at verse 8. Ahab laid Israel's trouble at the prophet's door in the same way at 1 Kings 18:17.
2 Kings 3:9
“Seven days’ journey - The distance of the route probably followed is not much more than 100 miles. But the difficulties of the way are great; and the army might not be able to move along it at a faster rate than about 15 miles a day. No water - The kings had probably expected to find sufficient water for both men and baggage animals in the Wady-el-Ahsy, which divides Edom from Moab, and which has a stream that is now regarded as perennial.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 3:9
“King of Edom - That is, the vice-roy under Jehosaphat, 1 Kings xxii, 47, here called king: because that word is sometimes used for any prince or chief ruler. Seven days - Because they made a great army, which could move but slowly; and they fetched a greater compass than was usual, for some advantage which they expected by it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
the LORD has summoned these three kings: Adam Clarke heard the cry as a confession of divine judgment, the king believing God had blinded them and let them march to their ruin. Jehoram names the LORD here before any prophet is sought. He says it again to Elisha at verse 13.
2 Kings 3:10
“The Lord hath called these three kings together - That is, This is a Divine judgment; God has judicially blinded us, and permitted us to take this journey to our destruction.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Kings 3:11-12
Jehoshaphat asks, “Is there no prophet of the LORD here?”, as he asked at 1 Kings 22:7. A servant names Elisha by a small credential, “He used to pour water on the hands of Elijah”. That service began when Elijah threw his cloak over him at 1 Kings 19:19-21.
2 Kings 3:11
“A prophet of the Lord - i. e. of Yahweh. It was necessary to inquire thus definitely, as there were still plenty of prophets who were only prophets of Baal 2Ki 3:13. Here is Elisha - Jehoram appears to have been ignorant of his presence with the host, and one of his “servants,” or officers, answered Jehoshaphat’s inquiry. Which poured water - An act signifying ministration or attendance (compare Joh 13:5 ff).”
2 more voices on this verse
2 Kings 3:11
“Probably it was such a servant as Obadiah was to his father Ahab, one that feared the Lord; to such a one Elisha made himself known, not to the kings. The account he gives of him is that it was he that poured water on the hands of Elijah, that is, he was his servant, and particularly attended him when he washed his hands.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Kings 3:11
“Poured water - Who was his servant; this being one office of a servant: and this office was the more necessary among the Israelites, because of the frequent washings which their law required. Probably it was by a special direction from God, that Elisha followed them, unasked, unobserved.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Jehoshaphat's words name Elisha a true prophet, and John Wesley thought the king's reputation for godliness meant many had told him of Elisha. The three kings went down in person to Elisha's tent, in the camp or near it. Wesley saw the honour as a bid for his full help.
2 Kings 3:13-14
Elisha sends Jehoram to “the prophets of your father and of your mother”. His oath, “As surely as the LORD of Hosts lives, before whom I stand”, is Elijah's oath at 1 Kings 18:15. Elisha says that only his regard for Jehoshaphat keeps him from refusing to look at Jehoram.
2 Kings 3:13
Jehoram’s humility in seeking 2Ki 3:12 instead of summoning Elisha, does not save him from rebuke. His reformation 2Ki 3:2 had been but a half reformation - a compromise with idolatry. Nay: for the Lord hath called ... - The force of this reply seems to be - “Nay, reproach me not, since I am in a sore strait - and not only I, but these two other kings also. The Lord - Yahweh - is about to deliver us into the hand of Moab. If thou canst not, or wilt not help, at least do not reproach.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 3:13
“What have I, &c. - I desire to have no discourse with thee. Get thee - To the calves, which thou after thy father's example dost worship; and to the Baals which thy mother yet worshippeth by thy permission; let these idols whom thou worshippest in thy prosperity, now help thee in thy distress.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
were it not for my regard: Matthew Henry judged that Elisha's anger at the sight of Jehoram was zeal without sin. Even so, the heat of it left him unfit for prayer and the Spirit's work, which asked a calm mind. The harp in the next verse answers that need.
2 Kings 3:14
“He composed himself to receive instructions from God. His mind was somewhat ruffled and disturbed at the sight of Jehoram; though he was not put into a sinful heat or passion, nor had spoken unadvisedly, yet his zeal for the present indisposed him for prayer and the operations of the Spirit, which required a mind very calm and sedate.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Music settles Elisha's spirit, ruffled by Jehoram's presence, before the hand of the LORD comes upon him. The prophetic schools evidently kept this as a regular practice rather than an isolated event. The word requires quiet first and utterance after, not the other way round.
2 Kings 3:15
“The text is a somewhat singular one, but I hope it will suggest a profitable idea. ‘But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him.’’2 Kings 3:15. ELISHA needed that the Holy Spirit should come upon him to inspire him with prophetic utterances. ‘Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.’ We need that the hand of the Lord should be laid upon us, for we can never open our mouths in wisdom except we are under the divine touch.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 3:15
“Music seems to have been a regular accompaniment of prophecy in the “schools of the prophets” (marginal reference), and an occasional accompaniment of it elsewhere Exo 15:20.”
2 Kings 3:16-18
The command asks for labour before the gift: ditches dug. The LORD calls the water “a simple matter” beside the greater gift, that He “will also deliver the Moabites into your hand”. Obedience supplies the vessels and the LORD fills them, as with the widow's jars at 4:1-7.
2 Kings 3:16
“Make this valley full of ditches - The word נחל nachal may be translated brook, as it is by the Vulgate and Septuagint. There probably was a river here, but it was now dry; and the prophet desires that they would enlarge the channel, and cut out various canals from it, and reservoirs, where water might be collected for the refreshment of the army and of the cattle; and these were to be made so wide that the reflection of the sun’s rays from this water might be the means of confounding and destroying the Moabites.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 3:16
“God is not tied to second causes. Ordinarily it is by a plentiful rain that God confirms his inheritance ( Ps. lxviii. 9 ), but here it is done without rain, at least without rain in that place.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The East speaks of seeing wind, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explain, from the dust and straw it lifts after drought. Albert Barnes took the cattle as the herds brought for food and the animals as the beasts that carried the baggage. Matthew Henry saw God working without his usual means.
2 Kings 3:17
“No rain was to fall where the Israelites and their enemies were encamped; there was not even to be that all but universal accompaniment of rain in the East, a sudden rise of wind (compare 1Ki 18:45; Psa 147:18; Mat 7:25). Cattle, and your beast - The former are the animals brought for food. The latter are the baggage animals.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 3:17
“Ye shall not see wind--It is common in the East to speak of seeing wind, from the clouds of straw, dust, or sand, that are often whirled into the air, after a long drought.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
He will also deliver the Moabites: The kings had feared falling into the hand of Moab, and the promise turns their fear around. John Gill observed that the LORD gives more than the kings asked or looked for. They had asked only for water.
2 Kings 3:18
“And this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord,.... To give them such a plenty of water in such an extraordinary manner: he would do for them what was greater, not only save them from falling into the hand of Moab, which they feared, but he wilt deliver the Moabites into your hands; which was more than was asked for, or expected.”
2 Kings 3:19-20
You shall cut down every good tree: The order to “cut down every good tree” stands beside Deuteronomy 20:19-20, which forbids cutting down an enemy's fruit trees in a siege. Deuteronomy governs a siege of land Israel will settle, and this campaign ends at verse 27 with Israel going home.
2 Kings 3:19
“Ye shall fell every good tree - This is not an infringement of the rule laid down in Deu 20:19-20. The Israelites were not forbidden to fell the fruit trees in an enemy’s country, as a part of the ravage of war, when they had no thoughts of occupying the country. The plan of thus injuring an enemy was probably in general use among the nations of these parts at the time. We see the destruction represented frequently on the Assyrian monuments and mentioned in the inscriptions of Egypt.”
Water red as blood, and a king's son on the wall
at the time of the morning sacrifice: Adam Clarke placed this offering at sunrise. It was the first sacrifice of the day, and John Wesley held that the prayers of God's people rose with it, Elisha's among them.
2 Kings 3:20
“The meal-offering - That is, the morning sacrifice: which doubtless was attended with the solemn prayers of God's people. At this time Elisha joined his prayers with the prayers of God's people, especially those at Jerusalem.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 3:20
“When the meat-offering was offered - This was the first of all offerings, and was generally made at sun-rising. There came water - This supply was altogether miraculous, for there was neither wind nor rain, nor any other natural means by which it could be supplied.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Kings 3:21-23
stationed at the border: Moab gathers everyone able to bear arms, old and young, and stands at the border to meet the invasion. The next morning's sun turns the standing water red. The Moabites read it as three armies that destroyed one another, a misreading that draws them off their guard toward the spoil.
2 Kings 3:21
“And stood in the border - On the north side of the wady, ready to defend their territory.”
as red as blood: Adam Clarke took the red colour as a trick of the light, and he had seen the same sight himself with nothing miraculous in it. The Moabites had never seen that valley full of water. Armies had turned on each other before, as Midian did at Judges 7:22.
2 Kings 3:22
“Saw the water on the other side as red as blood - This might have been an optical deception; I have seen the like sight when there was no reason to suspect supernatural agency. The Moabites had never seen that valley full of water, and therefore did not suspect that their eyes deceived them, but took it for the blood of the confederate hosts, who they thought might have fallen into confusion in the darkness of night and destroyed each other, as the Midianites had formerly done, Jdg 7:22, and the Philistines lately, 1Sa 14:20.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Albert Barnes recalled that the year before, Moab and its own allies had destroyed one another, as 2 Chronicles 20:23 records. Knowing the old jealousies between Judah, Israel and Edom, the Moabites found the same end easy to believe. Matthew Henry noted that men readily believe what they wish.
2 Kings 3:23
“The sun had risen with a ruddy light, as is frequently the case after a storm (compare Mat 16:3), nearly over the Israelite camp, and the pits, deep but with small mouths, gleaming redly through the haze which would lie along the newly moistened valley, seemed to the Moabites like pools of blood. The preceding year, they and their allies had mutually destroyed each other 2Ch 20:23. It seemed to them, from their knowledge of the jealousies between Judah, Israel, and Edom, not unlikely that a similar calamity had now befallen their foes.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 3:23
“Quod volumus facile credimus--What we wish we readily believe. Thus those that are to be destroyed are first deceived ( Rev. xx. 8 ), and none are so effectually deceived as those that deceive themselves.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Kings 3:24-25
the Israelites rose up and attacked them: Israel carries out the orders of verse 19: cities destroyed, fields covered with stones, springs stopped and good trees cut down. The one exception, “Only Kir-haraseth was left with stones in place”, marks where the campaign stops, for the royal city holds while slingers surround it.
Only Kir-haraseth was left: John Wesley described Kir-haraseth as the royal city where the remnant of Moab gathered around its king. Albert Barnes called it the great fortress of Moab, and noted that it was still a stronghold in the time of the Crusades. Slingers kept it under attack.
2 Kings 3:25
“Kir-haraseth - This was the royal city of the Moabites, into which the remnant of the Moabites were gathered, where also their king was with them. The stones - The walls and buildings of this city only were left; their whole country being destroyed.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 3:25
“Kir-Haraseth, also Kir-Hareseth, is identified almost certainly with the modern Kerak, a strong city on the highland immediately east of the southern part of the Dead Sea. It was the great fortress of Moab, though not the capital, which was Rabbath or Rabbah. It was an important strong-hold at the time of the Crusades, and is still a place of great strength.”
2 Kings 3:26-27
he took with him seven hundred swordsmen: Mesha's break toward Edom fails, and he offers “his firstborn son, who was to succeed him” as a burnt offering. Then “there was great fury against the Israelites”, and the verse does not say whose. The Hebrew word qetseph names the LORD's wrath at Numbers 1:53 and Joshua 22:20.
2 Kings 3:26
“Seven hundred men - These were no doubt the choice of all his troops, and being afraid of being hemmed up and perhaps taken by his enemies, whom he found on the eve of gaining possession of the city, he made a desperate sortie in order to regain the open country; and supposing that the quarter of the Edomites was weakest, or less carefully guarded, he endeavored to make his impression there; but they were so warmly received by the king of Edom that they failed in the attempt, and were driven back into the city.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
offered him as a burnt offering: Albert Barnes and Matthew Henry both read the offering as made to Chemosh to win his favour and turn his anger. Henry added that such worshippers counted the dearest gift the most pleasing, and so gave their children to the fire. Barnes judged the act in keeping with Moabite practice.
2 Kings 3:27
“Compare the marginal reference. Mesha, when his sally failed, took, as a last resource, his first born son, and offered him as a burnt-offering to appease the manifest anger of his god Chemosh, and obtain his aid against his enemies. This act was thoroughly in accordance with Moabitish notions. And there was great indignation against Israel - Either the Israelites were indignant with themselves, or the men of Judah and the Edomites were indignant at the Israelites for having caused the pollution of this sacrifice, and the siege was relinquished.”
2 more voices on this verse
2 Kings 3:27
“On the wall - That the besiegers might see it, and be moved by it. There was, &c. - Or, great trouble or repentance upon Israel, the Israelitish king and people (who was the first cause of the war, and had brought the rest into confederacy with him) were greatly grieved for this barbarous action, and resolved to prosecute the war no farther.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Kings 3:27
“He designed by this, (1.) To obtain the favour of Chemosh his god, which, being a devil, delighted in blood and murder, and the destruction of mankind. The dearer any thing was to them the more acceptable those idolaters thought it must needs be if offered in sacrifice to their gods, and therefore burnt their children in the fire to their honour.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: A regnal notice opening a campaign narrative, with a prophetic oracle at its centre and no verdict on its ending, as 3 classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat | The formula that measures every northern king is applied to Jehoram at 3:3. This site's published exposition note on 3:1 to 3:3 records that the same refrain opens at Jeroboam himself in 1 Kings 12:28 and closes the northern kingdom's story at 2 Kings 17:21 to 17:22, so every northern reign is weighed on that one scale and a partial reform still fails it.Matthew Henry and Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, and The Books of the Kings, 1872, on 2 Kings 3:1 to 3:3, as this site's published exposition note on those verses reports them. | 2 Kings 3:3, 1 Kings 12:28, 2 Kings 17:21 |
| I am as you are, my people as your people | Jehoram's summons and Jehoshaphat's answer at 3:7 repeat Ahab's summons before Ramoth-gilead at 1 Kings 22:4 almost word for word, and Jehoshaphat's question at 3:11, whether there is not here a prophet of the LORD, repeats his own words to Ahab at 1 Kings 22:7. This site's published exposition notes on 3:6 to 3:8 and on 3:11 to 3:12 set the two scenes side by side.Keil and Delitzsch, with John Gill, The Books of the Kings, 1872, and Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 2 Kings 3:6 to 3:12, as this site's published exposition notes on those verses report them. | 2 Kings 3:7, 1 Kings 22:4, 2 Kings 3:11, 1 Kings 22:7 |
| Before whom I stand | Elisha's oath at 3:14, as the LORD of hosts lives before whom I stand, is Elijah's own sentence from 1 Kings 18:15 carried over into his successor's mouth. This site's published exposition note on 3:13 to 3:14 calls it the double portion of spirit made audible, and records that Elisha says plainly that only Jehoshaphat's presence turns his face toward Jehoram at all.Keil and Delitzsch, with John Wesley, The Books of the Kings, 1872, and Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on 2 Kings 3:13 to 3:14, as this site's published exposition note on those verses reports them. | 2 Kings 3:14, 1 Kings 18:15 |
| The valley beaten down, item by item | The oracle at 3:19 lists what the army will do, every fortified city struck, every good tree felled, every spring stopped, every good field ruined with stones, and 3:25 reports the list carried out in the same order. This site's published exposition note on 3:24 to 3:25 records that Israel executes the instructions of verse 19 to the letter, and that the narrator's one exception, the stones left in Kir-haraseth, marks the campaign's edge.Albert Barnes and John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament, 1832 to 1869, and Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on 2 Kings 3:19 to 3:25, as this site's published exposition notes on those verses report them. | 2 Kings 3:19, 2 Kings 3:25 |
What the Moabite Stone confirms
10 more paragraphs on the patterns
This is the one chapter in the first half of the book with a neighbouring nation's own account of the same events. This site's published archaeology section carries the Mesha Stele, the Moabite Stone, dated about 840 BC and found at Dhiban in 1868. Mesha records that his god Chemosh was angry with his land, that Omri of Israel therefore oppressed Moab for years, and that Chemosh then delivered Moab and gave Mesha victory. The site states that the same king and the same rebellion open 2 Kings 3.
What the site claims from it is stated carefully. The stele is the closest formal parallel to the theology of Kings from any neighbouring nation, since it explains national defeat as the anger of the national god and national recovery as his favour returning. The site also states what makes Kings different, that Mesha's inscription is written by the victorious king about himself while Kings is written against its own kings by a compiler with nothing to gain. This site's published exposition note on 3:4 to 3:5 states the evidential claim at the same level: the stele is independent evidence that the rebellion and its Israelite rulers were real events outside the text, and it names Omri by name.
The debated concept: whose wrath at 3:27
The closing verse is one of seven contested readings this site publishes with their positions, and the page states no verdict. The site's published difficulties section states the problem exactly: the Hebrew names no source for the wrath, and translators have to decide, and the narrative is reporting what happened and why the siege lifted while declining to explain the mechanism.
The site's difficulties section carries two positions. The first is the fury of Moab's own defenders, or panic in the allied army, held by Keil and Delitzsch and by many modern evangelical commentators who read the wrath as human. The second is God's anger at Israel for driving Moab to that point, held by readers who note that the campaign was Jehoram's initiative, that Elisha granted victory only for Jehoshaphat's sake at 3:14, and that the last verse ends the war without the promised total conquest.
This site's published exposition note on 3:26 to 3:27 carries a third reading alongside those two and names its holders. Wesley reads the wrath as Israel's own horror and grief at having driven a father to this, ending the war in revulsion at what their siege had provoked. Barnes names that possibility and another beside it, that Judah and Edom were indignant at Israel specifically for causing the pollution of such a sacrifice. The note then records that the Hebrew word for wrath elsewhere names the LORD's own anger, at Numbers 1:53 and Joshua 22:20, which Keil weighs as a live reading that remains unproven. The note ends where the text does, that it does not say which.
The trees, and the law
The oracle's instruction to fell every good tree at 3:19 stands beside Deuteronomy 20:19 to 20:20, which forbids destroying an enemy's fruit trees in siege. This site's published exposition note on 3:19 to 3:20 records how the two are commonly read, as different cases rather than a contradiction: Deuteronomy governs a war of conquest meant to end in settling the land, and this campaign has no plan to occupy Moab, only to break its power. The reading is given as the common one rather than as the only one.
The place, and what is left of it
Kir-haraseth is the last place standing in the account, held by slingers while the countryside around it is broken. This site's published exposition note on 3:24 to 3:25 identifies it with the fortress later called Kerak, east of the Dead Sea, so the siege at the end of the chapter has a site a reader can locate.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
This site's published archaeology section for 2 Kings, src/components/book/dossier-content/2-kings.ts, the entry on the Mesha Stele, which states that the same king and the same rebellion open 2 Kings 3; This site's published exposition of 2 Kings 3, The published notes on 3:1 to 3:3 and on 3:26 to 3:27, which read the chapter as a reign entered on the book's one scale and a war that ends without the promised conquest and This site's published study guide to 2 Kings, src/components/book/guides/2-kings/Book2KingsGuide.tsx, the ISRAEL ledger, which enters Jehoram at 3:1 to 3:3 with that verdict and the note that he put away his father's pillar of Baal and still cleaved to the sins of Jeroboam.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Kings and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.