2 Kings 3:21-25

3:21 Now all Moab had heard that the kings were attacking, ¹  so everyone old enough to fight was mustered and placed at the border. ²  3:22 When they got up early the next morning, the sun was shining on the water. To the Moabites, who were some distance away, the water looked red like blood. 3:23 The Moabites ³  said, “It’s blood! The kings are totally destroyed! ⁴  They have struck one another down! Now, Moab, seize the plunder!” 3:24 When they approached the Israelite camp, the Israelites rose up and struck down the Moabites, who then ran from them. The Israelites ⁵  thoroughly defeated ⁶  Moab. 3:25 They tore down the cities and each man threw a stone into every cultivated field until they were covered. ⁷  They stopped up every spring and chopped down every productive tree.

Only Kir Hareseth was left intact, ⁸  but the slingers surrounded it and attacked it.

¹ tn Heb “had come up to fight them.”

² tn Heb “and they mustered all who tied on a belt and upwards, and they stood at the border.”

³ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Moabites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn The translation assumes the verb is חָרַב (kharav, “to be desolate”). The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb form for emphasis. (For another example of the Hophal infinitive with a Niphal finite verb, see Lev 19:20. Cf. also IBHS 582 §35.2.1c.) Some prefer to derive the verb from a proposed homonym meaning “at HALOT 349 s.v. II חרב and BDB 352 s.v. חָרְבָה).

⁵ tn Heb “they.”

⁶ tc The consonantal text (Kethib) suggests, “and they went, striking down,” but the marginal reading (Qere) is “they struck down, striking down.” For a discussion of the textual problem, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 46.

⁷ tn Heb “and [on] every good portion they were throwing each man his stone and they filled it.” The vav + perfect (“and they filled”) here indicates customary action contemporary with the situation described in the preceding main clause (where a customary imperfect is used, “they were throwing”). See the note at 3:4.

⁸ tn Heb “until he had allowed its stones to remain in Kir Hareseth.”