2 Kings 3:1-27
3 And Jehoram the son of Ahab became king over Israel at Samaria in the year eighteen of Jehoshaphat as king of Judah, and he reigned twelve years.
2 And he did what displeased Jehovah, only not like his father and mother: he removed the Baal obelisk that his father had made;
3 only he stuck to the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin; he did not turn from it.
4 And King Meshaʽ of Moab was a breeder of short-legged sheep, and had been paying the king of Israel a hundred thousand lambs and a hundred thousand rams in wool;
5 but when Ahab died the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.
6 And King Jehoram went out of Samaria on that day and mustered the Israelites and went.
7 * And he sent word to King Ahaziah, of Judah “The king of Moab has rebelled against me; will you go to Moab with me for the war?” And he said “Yes, I will do the same as you do, my people the same as your people, my ponies the same as your ponies.”
8 And he said “Which way shall we go up?” and he said “By way of the wilderness of Edom”;
9 and the king of Israel and the king of Judah and the king of Edom went. And they made a seven days’ circuit; and there was no water for the army and for the beasts in the rear.
10 And the king of Israel said “O, O! Jehovah has called these three kings to give them into the hands of the Moabites!”
11 And the king of Judah said “Is there no prophet of Jehovah’s here for us to inquire of Jehovah from?” and one of the king of Israel’s officers answered “Elishaʽ the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on Elijah’s hands.”
12 And the king of Judah said “He has Jehovah’s word with him”; and the king of Israel and the king of Judah and the king of Edom went down to him.
13 * And Elishaʽ said to the king of Israel “What business have you with me? go to your father’s prophets and to your mother’s.” And the king of Israel said to him “Do not say that, because Jehovah has called these three kings to give them into the hands of the Moabites.”
14 And Elishaʽ said “By Jehovah of Armies, in whose service I am, if it were not that I am willing to favor the king of Judah I would not look at you nor see you.
15 * But now get me a musician.” (When the musician played, Jehovah’s hand would be on him.)
16 And he said “Says Jehovah, Make this arroyo all trenches.
17 For, says Jehovah, you shall not see wind nor rain, but this arroyo shall be filled with water, and you and your armies and your beasts shall drink.
18 And Jehovah looks on this as too trifling a thing: he will give the Moabites into your hands,
19 and you shall sack every fortified city, and fell every good tree, and choke up all springs of water, and gall every piece of good ground with stones.”
20 And in the morning, at the time for making the offering, water was coming from the direction of Edom, and the ground was filled with water.
21 And all the Moabites had heard that the kings had gone up to fight them, and they had come out in arms, everyone who was old enough to wear a belt, and were standing at the boundary;
22 and the first thing in the morning, the sun having risen on the water, the Moabites saw the water over there looking red like blood,
23 and said “That is blood; the kings have been and fallen foul of each other and killed each other off: now to the plunder, Moab!”
24 and they came into the Israelite camp. And the Israelites rose to their feet and attacked the Moabites, and they ran from them. And they went in, killing the Moabites as they went in,
25 * and demolishing the cities, and throwing a stone apiece on every lot of good ground and filling it, and choking up every spring of water, and felling every good tree, till they left the walls of Kir-Haresheth standing. But the slingers surrounded it and beat it up;
26 and the king of Moab saw that the fighting was too hard for him, and he took with him seven hundred swordsmen to break through to the king of Edom, but they could not.
27 And he took his eldest son, who was to succeed him, and offered him as a burnt-offering on the wall; and there came great wrath over Israel, and they moved away, raising the siege, and went back to their own country.
Footnotes
^ 3:7 Var. King Jehoshaphat of Judah; conj. the king of Judah
^ 3:13 Lit. Don’t, because
^ 3:15 Conj. a musician.” And when the musician played, Jehovah’s hand was on him, and he said
^ 3:25 Lit. left its stones in Kir-Haresheth (which means “Haresheth Wall”)
