2 Kings 3:5
2 Kings 3:24-27
struck down ... Moabites .......... defeated Moab <05221 04124> [smote the.]
struck down ............ defeated <05221> [went forward. or, smote in it even.]
tore down <02040> [beat down.]
stopped up <05640> [stopped.]
chopped down <05307> [and felled.]
Kir Hareseth <07025> [only in, etc. Heb. until he left the stones thereof in]
Kir-haraseth. Kir-haraseth. Supposed to be the same as Ar, or Areopolis, the capital of Moab.
[Kir-heres.]
king ..................... king ... Edom <0123 04428> [unto the king of Edom.]
offered ... up .... burnt sacrifice <05927 05930> [offered him.]
In cases of great extremity, it was customary in various heathen nations, to offer human sacrifices, and even their own children. This was frequent among the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Scythians, Gauls, Africans, and others; and was the natural fruit of a religious system, which had for the objects of its worship cruel and merciless divinities. The king of Moab, in this case, sacrificed his son to obtain the favour of Chemosh his god, who, being a devil, delighted in blood and murder, and the destruction of mankind. The dearer any thing was to them, the more acceptable those idolaters thought the sacrifice, and therefore burnt their children in the fire to their honour.
broke off <05265> [they departed.]
