Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 3:21
And when all the Moabites heard that the kings were come up to fight against them, they gathered all that were able to put on armor, and upward, and stood in the border.
21. And [R.V. Now ] when all the Moabites heard ] By the circuitous journey which the armies had made their march would be less observed, and it would only be at the time of their appearance on the frontier that the object of their expedition would become known. But the casting off the yoke of Israel, and the freeing of their land from such a burdensome tribute made the war popular in Moab, and all were prepared to do their duty against the invaders.
come up ] See above on verse 7.
they gathered all that were able to put on armour ] R.V. they gathered themselves together, all &c. The verb is literally, ‘they called themselves together’. The expression indicates the enthusiasm with which each man appealed to his neighbour. ‘To put on armour’ is literally ‘to gird themselves with a girdle’, for to the girdle the weapon was attached.
and stood in the border ] This would naturally be a height dividing their country from the land of Edom.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
21 27. The Moabites attack the allied armies, but are defeated. The king of Moab sacrifices his eldest son (Not in Chronicles)
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And stood in the border – On the north side of the wady, ready to defend their territory.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
To put on armour, Heb. to gird on a girdle, i.e. a military girdle, to which the sword was fastened, 2Sa 20:8; 1Ki 2:5.
In the border, or, in that border, to wit, of their country, which was towards Edom, which way they understood the kings came. Here they stood probably to defend the passages into their country.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And when all the Moabites heard that the kings were come up to fight against them,…. The kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom:
they gathered all that were able to put on armour, and upward; that were of an age capable of that, and all who were more grown; or “girt on a girdle” l, a military one, with which the sword was girt, who were at age to wear and knew how to wield a sword: and stood in the border; of their land, between Edom and them, to defend themselves and their country against these invaders.
l “eingente cingulo”, Montanus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
2Ki. 3:23. This is bloodFor the rancour between the kings of Israel and Judah was well known; hence the Moabites supposed they had slaughtered each other in some quarrel on their march. Thus deluded by the sight of the waterreddened by the suns rays, or with the colour of the earth into which they had dug (2Ki. 3:16), the Moabites hastened. unprepared, into the hands of their foes.
2Ki. 3:25. Called Kir Moab (Isa. 15:1). It was the capital city, and fortifiednow called Kerak.
2Ki. 3:27. Eldest son, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wallIn the sight of the assailing armies; and this spectacle of horror roused in the allies of Israel such revulsion, because that their support of Israel had driven the king of Moab to this dreadful act, that they fell back from the siege, and left Israel to its own fortunes.W. H. J.
HOMILETICS OF 2Ki. 3:21-27
THE DANGER OF TRUSTING TO APPEARANCES
I. Appearances may deceive those who fancy themselves well prepared for all contingencies (2Ki. 3:21). Moab was aware of the approach of the invading army, and made the most careful and elaborate preparation to withstand it. All who were capable of bearing arms were marched to the frontier, and the brave little nation, keenly watching every movement of the enemy, seemed determined to make a stout and desperate defence. It is important to prepare for the conflict of life; to be armed with the whole armour of God, and ever on our guard against the attack of our spiritual foes. But when we are best prepared we are liable to be misled by false appearances. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
II. Appearances may surprise the most cautious into committing a fatal blunder (2Ki. 3:22-24). The shining of the early morning sun upon the water that filled the red earth-pits newly dug in the valley was mistaken for blood, and the Moabite leader, without taking any pains to verify his impression, jumped to the conclusion that the invading army had qurelled, and what he saw shining in the sunlight was the blood of the slain. The word of command was given to advance, with the expectation that there was now nothing to do but to gather the spoil; but, too late to remedy it, the mistake of the Moabites was seen, and the compact little army that was strong and formidable when entrenched in its defences was speedily smitten and put to flight when it came into unexpected contact with the refreshed and well-armed Israelites. A false glitter did all the mischief. Alas! how many have been thus lured on to their destructionthe lover of strong drink, who has looked upon the wine when it is red, until he has been fascinated with its mocking sheen and whelmed in its intoxicating vortex; the insatiate seeker of pleasure, who has been captivated by beauteous forms and pleasant sounds, and lost in giddy mazes; the grasping money-getter, for whom the glare of wealth has had an irresistible charm that has robbed him of the love of home, of kindred, and of honour. Enchanted with the glamour of false appearances, the generous have become penuriousthe modest, boldthe careful, recklessly extravagantthe virtuous, base.
III. Trusting to appearances is often followed by the most ruinous consequences (2Ki. 3:25-27). In this case we see an army utterly routeda fruitful country made barren and desolateand the only heir-apparent to a throne cruelly immolated by a distracted father. Many a promising nation has been brought to naught by yielding to the unholy lust of power, following the ignis fatuus of military glory, or craving for the crimsoned reputation of a tyrannical ascendency. The Sclavonians have a legend that a certain river was infested with a water-demon who had the power of assuming the shape of a cluster of red flowers waving and spreading themselves out in graceful and attractive forms on the surface of the water; but if the passer-by was tempted to put forth his hand to pluck one of the fragile blossoms, he was at once seized by invisible hands, dragged beneath the surface, and suffocated in the treacherous stream. It is perilous to trust to false appearances: it may lead to irreparable disaster. Many who have plucked the flower of pleasure have found it to contain a fatal sting.
LESSONS:
1. Appearances have a great influence over us.
2. Are often false and fictitious.
3. Entice many into hopeless ruin.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2Ki. 3:22-25. They rise soon enough to beguile themselves. The beams of the rising sun, glistening upon those vaporous and unexpected waters, carried in the eyes of some Moabites a semblance of blood. A few eyes were enough to fill all ears with a false noise: the deceived sense miscarries the imagination. Civil broils give just advantage to a common enemy; therefore must the camps be spoiled, because the kings have smitten each other. Those who shall be deceived are given over to credulity: the Moabites do not examine either the conceit or the report, but fly in confusedly upon the camp of Israel, whom they find, too late, to have no enemies but themselves. As if death would not have hastened enough to them, they come to fetch it, they come to challenge it: it seizeth upon them unavoidably. They are smitten, their cities razed, their lands marred, their wells stopped, their trees felled, as if God meant to waste them but once.Bp. Hall.
2Ki. 3:22-23. Optical illusions. I. May deceive the most wary. II. May lead to very serious mistakes. III. Should be carefully tested.
The Divine aid by which the army of Israel was not only saved from destruction, but even obtained a complete victory over their enemies, consisted here not in a miracle of God surpassing the known laws of nature, but only in this, that God the Lord, as he had announced before by His prophet, introduced the laws of nature working to the determinate end in the predetermined way. As the suddenly appearing mass of waters was affected in a natural way by a violent rain in the distance, so also the illusion that was so fatal to the Moabites is explained in a natural way, indicated even in the text. From the red earth of the pits the water collected in them had assumed a red colour, which was considerably increased by the rays of the rising sun falling upon it, so that, seen from a distance, it must have appeared like blood. But the Moabites might be the less disposed to think of an optical illusion, as by their familiar acquaintance with the region they knew that the Wady had at that time no water, and they had seen or learned nothing of the rain which had fallen far from them in the Edomite mountains.Keil.
2Ki. 3:23. The self-destruction of the allied armies of Moab, Ammon, and Edom (2Ch. 20:22-25) was still fresh in the minds of the Moabites; and knowing the enmity and jealousy existing between Judah and Israel, and confident that the Edomites were no fast friends of either party, they very naturally imagined, from the sight of what appeared so much blood, that the different kings had fallen out among themselves, and destroyed each other. They supposed it only remained for them to go, as did Jehoshaphat on that former occasion, and gather up the precious jewels and other spoil from among the dead bodies.
2Ki. 3:25. The terrible havoc of war. I. Sacrifices precious lives. II. Ruthlessly destroys the work of years. III. Exhausts the resources of a nation. IV. Checks national growth.
2Ki. 3:26-27. No onsets are so furious as the last assaults of the desperate. The king of Moab, now hopeless of recovery, would be glad to shut up with a pleasing revenge. With seven hundred resolute followers, he rushes into the battle towards the king of Edom, as if he would bid death welcome might he but carry with him that despited neighbour, and now, mad with repulse, he returns; and, whether as angry with his destiny, or as barbarously affecting to win his cruel gods with so dear a sacrifice, he offers them, with his own hands, the blood of his eldest son in the sight of Israel, and sends him up in the smoke to those hellish deities. Oh, prodigious act, whether of rage or of devotion! What a hand had Satan over his miserable vassals! What marvel is it to see men sacrifice their souls in an unfelt oblation to these plausible tempters, when their own flesh and blood have not been spared! There is no tyrant like to the prince of darkness.Bp. Hall.
2Ki. 3:26. Bravery. I. Called forth by the stress of circumstances. II. Challenges admiration irrespective of the cause it champions. III. Often unavailing.
2Ki. 3:27. The offering was doubtless made to the Moabitish god Chemosh, not to the God of Israel. Mesha supposed that his misfortunes were owing to the vengeance of his gods, whom he had in some way offended, and by this costly sacrifice he sought to propitiate them. Human sacrifices were common among many of the ancient heathen nations. The story of Iphigenia sufficiently shows the existence of the practice among the Greeks. It prevailed, also, among the Carthaginians and Phnicians, and most of the nations in and around Palestine. Causing children to pass through the fire to Molech (chap. 2Ki. 13:10; Deu. 18:10) is an allusion to this abominable custom. Diodorus Siculus relates that when Agathocles was going to besiege Carthage, the people, seeing the extremities to which they were reduced, ascribed their misfortune to the anger of their god, in that they had latterly spared to offer him children nobly born, and had fraudulently put him off with the children of slaves and foreigners. To make an atonement for this crime, two hundred children of the best families in Carthage were at once offered in sacrifice, and no less than three hundred of the citizens voluntarily sacrificed themselves. Philo, in a fragment preserved by Eusebius, says: It was a custom among the ancients, on occasions of great distress, for the rulers of a city or nation, instead of leaving the entire population to destruction, to sacrifice the beloved of their children as a ransom to the vengeful deities.Whedon.
Various accounts of the origin of human sacrifice have been given, but all are necessarily conjectural. It seems to us that the practice grew out of the notion that whatever was most costly and precious must needs be most acceptable as an offering to the gods; and it being established that the life of an animal was an acceptable offering, perverse ingenuity reasoned that the life of the human creaturethe noblest of creaturesand his life-blood the most precious on earth, must be still more acceptable to heaven, still more valuable in the sight of the gods. This being the case, it further followed that the more illustrious, the more pure or exalted the person whose life was offered, the more proper still was the offering, and the more cogent its force in gratifying, soothing, or rendering propitious the stern powers that ruled the destinies of man. As to the precise object, it appears to us that in all, or nearly all, the cases fully known, these offerings were propitiatory at least, if not expiatory.Kitto.
The inhuman cruelty of heathenism. I. Immolates the choicest human victims. II. Is prompted by despair. III. Rouses the indignation of the righteous. IV. Is specially offensive to God.
The departure of the Israelitish army in consequence of the human sacrifice of the king of Moab is a very remarkable sign of the difference between the fundamental opinions of the Israelites and of the heathen. Whereas, amongst almost all heathen peoples, sacrifice culminates in human sacrifice, and this is considered the most holy and most effective, in the Mosaic system, on the other hand, it is regarded as the greatest and most detestable abomination in the sight of God. It is forbidden, not merely from considerations of humanity, but also because, as the law declares with special emphasis, the sanctuary of the Lord is thereby defiled and His Holy Name profaned (Lev. 20:1-5; Lev. 18:21). Human sacrifice stands in the most glaring contradiction to the revelation of God as the Holy One, in which character He was known in Israel alone; hence it was to be punished, without respite, by death. From the preceding narrative we see how deep roots the detestation of human sacrifice had struck in the conscience of the people. Neither the cultus founded by Jeroboam, nor that of Baal which Ahab had imported, with all its barbarism, had been able even to weaken this detestation. It was still so strong that a victorious army allowed itself to be led thereby to withdraw again from a land it had already subdued.Lange.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(21) And when . . . heard . . . they gathered.Now all the Moabites had heard . . . and had gathered themselves:
literally, had been summoned, called together (Jdg. 7:23).
All that were able to put on armour.From every one girding on a girdle, and upwardsi.e., all of adult age, all who could bear arms. It was a levy en masse of the male population for the defence of the country.
Stood in.Had taken their stand on the frontier.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
The Defeat of Moab
v. 21. And when all the Moabites heard that the kings were come up to fight against them, v. 22. And they rose up early in the morning, v. 23. and they said, This is blood, v. 24. And when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites, v. 25. And they beat down the cities, and on every good piece of land cast every man his stone and filled it, v. 26. And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred men that drew swords, v. 27. Then he,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
No doubt the Lord overruled the minds of the Moabites to this delusion, in supposing what they beheld of the water to be blood. And indeed as they knew no rain had fallen, such an idea was not, altogether improbable. The victory of Israel, which Elisha had promised in the Lord’s name, certainly was well followed up. It is remarkable upon this occasion, that the Israelites were permitted to act different from a known law! Deu 20:19 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Ki 3:21 And when all the Moabites heard that the kings were come up to fight against them, they gathered all that were able to put on armour, and upward, and stood in the border.
Ver. 21. They gathered all that were able to put on armour. ] In Scotland, they have an ancient custom, in cases of importance, to command the fire cross to be carried; that is, two firebrands set in fashion of a cross, and pitched upon the point of a spear, and proclamation is thereupon made that all men over sixteen years of age, and under sixty, shall come into the field against the common enemy. a
a Life of King Edward VI, by Sir J. Heywood,
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
put on armour. Hebrew gird a girdle.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
2Ki 3:21-25
2Ki 3:21-25
THE DEFEAT OF THE MOABITES BY THE COALITION
“Now when the Moabites heard that the kings were come up to fight against them, they gathered themselves together, all that were able to put on armor, and upward, and stood on the border. And they rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone upon the water, and the Moabites saw the water over against them as red as blood: and they said, This is blood; the kings are surely destroyed, and they have smitten each man his fellow: now therefore, Moab, to the spoil. And when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites, so that they fled before them; and they went forward into the land, smiting the Moabites. And they beat down their cities; and on every good piece of land they cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the fountains of water, and felled all the good trees, until in Kir-hareseth only they left the stones thereof howbeit the slingers went about it, and smote it.”
This paragraph states merely that the victory over Moab was granted, even as the prophet had said and that the Israelites ruthlessly carried out their ancient equivalent of the “scorched earth” invasion. However, it was not in the will of God that Moab should again become tributary to Israel; and accordingly, there came an abrupt end of this destructive campaign, leaving Moab independent of Israel.
E.M. Zerr:
Verse 21. About this time the Moabites awoke to their danger, and gathered all their fighting men for battle.
2Ki 3:22-23. This body of water was between the allies and the Moabites. From the angle where the latter looked in the direction of the water, it was made to look like blood. This could be aptly called a miraculous camouflage, for the Lord certainly caused it to occur to deceive the Moabites. They concluded the enemies were slain and that their blood was causing the red which they saw. With the enemy slain, nothing was to hinder them from taking the spoil, so they thought, and thus announced it.
2Ki 3:24. The camp of the allies, which was in charge of the Israelites, was kept quiet. The soldiers were lying low, looking for the Moabites to come on with no expectation of meeting any resistance. All of this was an effective maneuver, doubtless inspired by the Lord as his means of causing fulfillment of the promise in verses 18, 19. The allies sprang to the attack and overcame the Moabites. They were put to flight and chased even to their own country with great slaughter.
2Ki 3:25. Only in Kir-hareseth. The first word is not in the original. The R. V. words it, “until in Kir-hareseth,” etc. The verse means they made exception of this city in their general destruction with the large stones. But it was not to escape entirely, for the men with the slings encompassed the city and smote the people.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
gathered: Heb. were cried together
put on armour: Heb. gird himself with a girdle. 1Ki 20:11, Eph 6:14
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ki 3:21. All that were able to put on armour and upward That is, from youths, that were but just able to put on armour, to those that were far advanced in life; so that none were exempted. And stood in the border
Of their country, intending to defend themselves, but not to march out of their country to give the enemy battle.