Chapter 3
Joram’s Campaign against Moab. 1 Joram, the son of Ahab, began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of the reign of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, and he reigned for twelve years. 2 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as bad as his father and his mother. He removed the idol of Baal that his father had made. 3 Still, he clung to the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, causing Israel to sin. He did not turn away from them.
4 Mesha, the king of Moab, tended sheep. He had to give the king of Israel one hundred thousand lambs and the wool from one hundred thousand sheep. 5 When Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.
6 King Joram went out from Samaria and he gathered together all of Israel. 7 He sent this message to Jehoshaphat, the king of Israel: “The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you not go out with me to fight against Moab?” He answered, “I will go. My people are your people, and my horses are your horses.” 8 He said, “By which way should we go up?” He answered, “By way of the Desert of Edom.”
9 The king of Israel went out with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. They wandered around for seven days, but there was no water for the army or the animals that followed them. 10 The king of Israel said, “What? Has the Lord called three kings together only to hand them over into the hands of Moab?” 11 Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there not a prophet of the Lord so that we can inquire of the Lord through him?” A servant of the king of Israel answered, “There is Elisha, the son of Shaphat. He used to pour water onto the hands of Elijah.”[a] 12 Jehoshaphat said, “The word of the Lord is with him.”
So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. 13 But Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What do you and I have to do with each other? Go to the prophets of your father and your mother.” The king of Israel said, “No, the Lord called together these three kings to deliver them into the hands of Moab.” 14 Elisha said, “As the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, if it were not for the presence of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, I would not even look at you or take notice of you. 15 Now, bring a harpist to me.” While the harpist was playing, the hand of the Lord came upon him. 16 He said, “Thus says the Lord: Fill this valley with ditches. 17 For thus says the Lord: You will see neither wind nor rain, but this valley will fill up with water for you and your animals to drink. 18 This will be easy for the Lord, and he will also hand over the Moabites into your hands. 19 You will overthrow every fortified city and every larger city. You will cut down every good tree, stop up every well, and scatter stones in every good field.”
20 In the morning while they were offering a sacrifice, water came flowing from Edom. The land was filled with water. 21 The Moabites heard that the kings were coming to fight against them, and they gathered together everyone who was old enough to put on armor and older and they stationed them on the border.
22 When they got up in the morning, the sun was shining on the water, and the Moabites saw that the water on the other side was as red as blood.[b] 23 They said, “This is blood. Surely the kings have attacked and killed one another. To the spoil, Moab!”
24 When they arrived at the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and defeated the Moabites who fled before them. They pushed forward, cutting down the Moabites. 25 They then destroyed the cities, and each cast his stone onto a good piece of land, filling it in. They stopped up all of the wells, and they cut down all of the good trees. But they left the stones of Kir-hareseth, although the slingers surrounded and attacked it.
26 When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took seven hundred swordsmen with him to break through to the king of Edom, but they could not. 27 They took his oldest son who would have reigned in his stead, and they offered him up as a burnt offering upon the wall. They were furious at Israel. They departed and returned to their own land.
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 3:11 Pour water onto the hands of Elijah: the recommendation of Elisha, a prophet who might have served Elijah, was affirmed by Jehoshaphat to the kings of Edom and Israel in their search for a prophet of the Lord.
- 2 Kings 3:22 A mirage caused by the rays of the rising sun on the desert, or else a coloring due to the ocher or red clay that was so plentiful as to give the region its name (Edom means “red”).