2 Kings 3:16
and he said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Dig this valley full of ditches.’
BSB
ASV
And he said, Thus saith Jehovah, Make this valley full of trenches.
KJV
And he said, Thus saith the Lord, Make this valley full of ditches.
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.
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.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk4
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
2 Kings 4:3“Go,” said Elisha, “borrow jars, even empty ones, from all your neighbors. Do not gather just a few.
leads to
Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim.
Until now you have not asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.
I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it.
Then Elisha said, “Take the arrows!” So he took them, and Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground!” So he struck the ground three times and stopped.
