2 Kings 3:4
in 2 Kings 3Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder, and he would render to the king of Israel a hundred thousand lambs and the wool of a hundred thousand rams.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep-master; and he rendered unto the king of Israel the wool of a hundred thousand lambs, and of a hundred thousand rams.
KJV
And Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool.
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This verse in 2 Kings 3
Commentary
6 notes on this verseWas 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.
This site's exposition
Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder
on 2 Kings 3:4-5
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.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
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.
And Mesha king of Moab was a sheep master,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Mesha king of Moab, &c.--As his dominions embraced an extensive pasture country, he paid, as annual tribute, the wool of a hundred thousand lambs and a hundred thousand rams. It is still common in the East to pay custom and taxes in the fruits or natural produce of the land.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Moab, the region immediately east of the Dead Sea and of the lower Jordan, though in part suited for agriculture, is in the main a great grazing country. Mesha resembled a modern Arab Sheikh, whose wealth is usually estimated by the number of his flocks and herds. His tribute of the wool of 100, 000 lambs was a tribute in kind, the ordinary tribute at this time in the East. Mesha is the monarch who wrote the inscription on the “Moabite stone” (2Ki 1:1 note). The points established by the Inscription are: 1. That Moab recovered from the blow dealt by David 2Sa 8:2, 2Sa 8:12, and became again an independent state in the interval between David’s conquest and the accession of Omri; 2. That Omri reconquered the country, and that it then became subject to the northern kingdom, and remained so throughout his reign and that of his son Ahab, and into the reign of Ahab’s son and successor, Ahaziah; 3. That the independence was regained by means of a war, in which Mesha took town after town from the Israelites, including in his conquests many of the towns which, at the original occupation of the holy land, had passed into the possession of the Reubenites or the Gadites, as Baal-Meon Num 32:38, Kirjathaim Num 32:37, Ataroth Num 32:34, Nebo Num 32:38, Jahaz Jos 13:18, etc.; 4. That the name of Yahweh was well known to the Moabites as that of the God of the Israelites; and 5. That there was a sanctuary of Yahweh at Nebo, in the Trans-Jordanic territory, where “vessels” were used in His service.
The words behind it
15 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וּמֵישַׁ֥ע | umeisha' | and Mesha | H4338 → | |
| מֶֽלֶךְ־ | melekh- | [the] king of | H4428 → | 2525 times |
| מוֹאָ֖ב | moav | Moab | H4124 → | 181 times |
| הָיָ֣ה | hayah | he was | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| נֹקֵ֑ד | noked | a sheep-breeder | H5349 → | |
| וְהֵשִׁ֤יב | veheshiv | and he returned | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| לְמֶֽלֶךְ־ | lemelekh- | to [the] king of | H4428 → | 2525 times |
| יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ | yisrael | Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
| מֵאָה־ | meah- | one hundred | H3967 → | 581 times |
| אֶ֣לֶף | ʾelef | thousand | H505 → | 505 times |
| כָּרִ֔ים | karim | lambs | H3733 → | |
| וּמֵ֥אָה | umeah | and one hundred | H3967 → | 581 times |
| אֶ֖לֶף | ʾelef | thousand | H505 → | 505 times |
| אֵילִ֥ים | ʾeilim | rams | H352 → | |
| צָֽמֶר׃ | tzamer | wool | H6785 → |
וּמֵישַׁ֥עand Mesha
umeisha'H4338 →
מֶֽלֶךְ־[the] king of
melekh-H4428 →2525 times
מוֹאָ֖בMoab
moavH4124 →181 times
הָיָ֣הhe was
hayahH1961 →3559 times
נֹקֵ֑דa sheep-breeder
nokedH5349 →
וְהֵשִׁ֤יבand he returned
veheshivH7725 →1056 times
לְמֶֽלֶךְ־to [the] king of
lemelekh-H4428 →2525 times
יִשְׂרָאֵל֙Israel
yisraelH3478 →2507 times
מֵאָה־one hundred
meah-H3967 →581 times
אֶ֣לֶףthousand
ʾelefH505 →505 times
כָּרִ֔יםlambs
karimH3733 →
וּמֵ֥אָהand one hundred
umeahH3967 →581 times
אֶ֖לֶףthousand
ʾelefH505 →505 times
אֵילִ֥יםrams
ʾeilimH352 →
צָֽמֶר׃wool
tzamerH6785 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Job 1:3and he owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a very large number of servants. Job was the greatest man of all the people of the East.
it leads to
- Job 29:25
I chose their course and presided as chief. So I dwelt as a king among his troops, as a comforter of the mourners.
- Job 42:12
So the LORD blessed Job’s latter days more than his first. He owned 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.
- Judges 6:3
Whenever the Israelites would plant their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other people of the east would come up and invade them,
- Proverbs 10:22
The blessing of the LORD enriches, and He adds no sorrow to it.
- Numbers 23:7
And Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the mountains of the east. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘put a curse on Jacob for me; come and…
- Job 29:25
Through
Psalms 60:8Moab is My washbasin; upon Edom I toss My sandal; over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
it leads to
- 2 Samuel 8:1–2
Some time later, David defeated the Philistines, subdued them, and took Metheg-ammah from the hand of the Philistines.
- 2 Samuel 8:14
He placed garrisons throughout Edom, and all the Edomites were subject to David. So the LORD made David victorious wherever he went.
- 2 Samuel 8:1–2
Through
2 Samuel 8:2David also defeated the Moabites, made them lie down on the ground, and measured them off with a cord. He measured off with two lengths those to be put to death, and with one…
it leads to
- Numbers 24:17
I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come forth from Jacob, and a scepter will arise from Israel. He will crush the skulls of Moab and…
- Numbers 24:17
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies4
On this verse
On this chapter
What the record shows
2 entries- Mesha Stele (Moabite Stone)undisputed
Dhiban (biblical Dibon), Jordan, 1868 · Louvre, Paris (AO 5066)
Counterpoint: The stele is Mesha's own victory monument and tells the war very differently from 2 Kings 3, claiming Moab threw off Israel while Kings has the coalition win the field and withdraw. Its possible second mention of the 'House of David' in line 31 rests on André Lemaire's restoration of damaged letters; Nadav Na'aman and others read the line otherwise, and Michael Langlois's high-resolution imaging has revived rather than settled the argument.
- Mesha — attested in contemporary inscriptionundisputed
Mesha Stele (self-authored)
Biblical figure (King of Moab, mid-9th c. BC) identified in extra-biblical epigraphy.
About 2 Kings
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.