2 Kings 3:21-27

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. 3:26 When the king of Moab realized he was losing the battle, ⁹  he and 700 swordsmen tried to break through and attack ¹⁰  the king of Edom, but they failed. 3:27 So he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him up as a burnt sacrifice on the wall. There was an outburst of divine anger against Israel, ¹¹  so they broke off the attack ¹²  and returned to their homeland.

[3:21]  ¹ tn Heb “had come up to fight them.”

[3:21]  ² tn Heb “and they mustered all who tied on a belt and upwards, and they stood at the border.”

[3:23]  ³ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Moabites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:23]  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).

[3:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “they.”

[3:24]  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.

[3:25]  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.

[3:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “until he had allowed its stones to remain in Kir Hareseth.”

[3:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the king of Moab saw that the battle was too strong for him.”

[3:26]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he took with him seven hundred men, who drew the sword, to break through against.”

[3:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “there was great anger against Israel.”

[3:27]  ¹² tn Heb “they departed from him.”