2 Kings 3:17

_FOR THUS SAITH THE LORD, YE SHALL NOT SEE WIND, NEITHER SHALL YE SEE RAIN; YET THAT VALLEY SHALL BE FILLED WITH WATER, THAT YE MAY DRINK, BOTH YE, AND YOUR CATTLE, AND YOUR BEASTS._ Ye shall not see wind. It is common in the East to speak of seeing wind, from thee clouds of straw, dust, or send, that are often whirled into the air after a long drought....

6-19 The king of Israel laments their distress, and the danger they were in. He called these kings together, yet he charges it upon Providence. Thus the foolishness of man perverteth his way, and then his heart fretteth against the Lord, Proverbs 19:3. It was well that Jehoshaphat inquired of the Lord now, but it had been much better if he had done it before he engaged in this war. Good men sometimes neglect their duty, till necessity and affliction drive them to it. Wicked people often fare the better for the friendship and society of the godly. To try their faith and obedience, Elisha bids them make the valley full of pits to receive water. Those who expect God's blessings, must dig pools for the rain to fill, as in the valley of Baca, and thus make even that a well, Psalms 84:6. We need not inquire whence the wa...

Verse 2 Kings 3:17. _YE SHALL NOT SEE WIND_] There shall be no _wind_ to collect vapours, and there shall be no _showers_, and yet the _whole_ bed of this river, and all the _new made canals_, shall be filled with water....

No rain was to fall where the Israelites and their enemies were encamped; there was not even to be that all but universal accompaniment of rain in the East, a sudden rise of wind (compare 1 Kings 18:45; Psalms 147:18; Matthew 7:25). CATTLE, AND YOUR BEAST - The former are the animals brought for food. The latter are the baggage animals....

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 3:1 THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF JEHORAM'S REIGN OVER ISRAEL; HIS WAR WITH MOAB. 2 KINGS 3:1 NOW JEHORAM THE SON OF AHAB BEGAN TO REIGN OVER ISRAEL IN SAMARIA THE EIGHTEENTH YEAR OF JEHOSHAPHAT KING OF JUDAH. This note of time is not quite in accordance with the chronology of 1 Kings, which gives Jehoshaphat a reign of twenty-five years (1 Kings 22:42), Ahab one of twenty-two years ...

FOR THUS SAITH THE LORD, YE SHALL NOT SEE WIND, NEITHER SHALL YE SEE THE RAIN,.... Neither perceive the south wind blow, which usually brings rain, nor clouds gathering in the heavens, as portending it, nor any filling from thence: YET THAT VALLEY SHALL BE FILLED WITH WATER; and all the ditches dug in it: THAT YE MAY DRINK, BOTH YE AND YOUR CATTLE, AND ALL YOUR BEASTS; there would be such a quantity as would be enough for them all, the soldiers, the horses they rode on, and the beasts that drew their wagons....

2. JEHORAM, MOAB, AND ELISHA CHAPTER 3 _ 1. Jehoram, King of Israel (2 Kings 3:1)_ 2. Moab's rebellion (2 Kings 3:4) 3. Elisha's message and prediction (2 Kings 3:10) 4. The defeat of Moab (2 Kings 3:21) In chapter 1:17 we read, “And Jehoram reigned in his stead (Ahaziah) in the second year of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah.” (He was associated with his father in the government of the kingdom. See 2 Kings 8:27;...

REIGN OF JEHORAM. WAR WITH MOAB. The only two kings of Israel on whom the censure pronounced is in any way qualified are Jehoram, the last of the house of Omri, and Hoshea (2 Kings 17:2), the last king of Israel. All the others are said to have done evil. The war with Moab is the subject of the famous inscription of Mesha discovered in 1868 (pp. 34, 69). On this Mesha states that Omri occupied the land of Mehedebah (Medeba, Numbers 21:30; Joshua 13:9; Isaiah 15:2) his days, half his son's days, forty years. In Kings it is specially said that Mesha's rebellion was after the death of Ahab. Omri and Ahab together according to Kings reigned on

WIND. Hebrew. _ruach._ App-9....

_For thus saith the Lord_ Both the order to dig trenches, and the promise of water are prefaced in this solemn manner. It is no order of his own which the prophet delivers. _Ye shall not see wind_ The verb -see" is used elsewhere of what is not visible but experienced by the other senses. So Exodus 20:18, -All the people _saw_the thunderings … and the noise of the trumpet". After a drought wind is in the East the general precursor of rain. Cf. 1 Kings 18:41; 1 Kings 18:45. _neither shall ye see rain_ The prophet's language here implies that the cause of the coming supply of water would be rain falling elsewhere. Natural powers will bring the rain, though it shall fall at a distance from the camp