Bible Commentaries

INTRODUCTION TO 2 Kings 3

This chapter gives the character of Jehoram king of Israel, 2 Kings 3:1, relates the rebellion of the king of Moab against him, 2 Kings 3:4, the war that he and his allies entered into on that account, 2 Kings 3:6 the distress the combined army were in for want of water, their application upon this to Elisha, who promised them water, and they had it in a wonderful manner, 2 Kings 3:10 and the chapter is concluded with the rout of the Moabites, and the barbarity of their king to his eldest son, 2 Kings 3:21.

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 1 Kings 22:51, and reigned twelve years.

And he wrought evil in the sight of the Lord,.... Was guilty of idolatry:

but not like his father, and like his mother; his father Ahab, and his mother Jezebel:

for he put away the image of Baal that his father had made; he did not destroy it, only removed it from the temple of Baal where it was set, that it might not be worshipped, at least publicly, see 1 Kings 16:31 this he did, either moved to it by his own conscience, observing the sudden deaths of his father and brother, which he might suppose was for their idolatry; or in order to obtain success in his war with Moab he was entering into; or being instigated by Jehoshaphat to do it, or otherwise he might refuse to join him.

Nevertheless he cleaved unto the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin,.... He closely adhered to the worship of the calves set up by him:

he departed not therefrom: that being a piece of state policy, to keep up the division of the two kingdoms.

And Mesha king of Moab was a sheep master,.... With which his country abounded; he kept great numbers of them, and shepherds to take care of them; he traded in them, and got great riches by them; his substance chiefly consisted in them:

and rendered unto the king of Israel: either as a present, or as an annual tribute:

an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool; that is, upon them, unshorn, and so the more valuable; and it was usual for tributary nations to pay their tribute to those to whom they were subject in such commodities which they most abounded with; so the Cappadocians, as Strabo (c) relates, used to pay, as a tribute to the Persians, every year, 1500 horses and 2000 mules, and five myriads of sheep, or 50,000; and formerly, Pliny (d) says, the only tribute was from the pastures.

(c) Geograph. l. 11. p. 362. (d) Nat. Hist. l. 18. c. 3.

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.

And King Jehoram went out of Samaria the same time, As soon as he came to the throne:

and numbered all Israel; who were fit to bear arms, got them together at some certain place, and mustered them, and prepared for a war with Moab, to reduce them.

And he went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, the king of Moab hath rebelled against me,.... By refusing to pay him tribute:

wilt thou go up with me against Moab to battle? and he said, I will go up; which he agreed to, partly to encourage in the reformation of religion which he had begun, and partly to chastise the Moabites for their invasion of his country, 2 Chronicles 20:1.

I am as thou art, my people as thy people, and my horses as thy horses; the same answer he returned to Ahab; see Gill on 1 Kings 22:4.