2 Kings 3:19

_AND YE SHALL SMITE EVERY FENCED CITY, AND EVERY CHOICE CITY, AND SHALL FELL EVERY GOOD TREE, AND STOP ALL WELLS OF WATER, AND MAR EVERY GOOD PIECE OF LAND WITH STONES._ Ye shall smite every fenced city ... and shall fell every good tree, х_ TOWB_ (H2896), good, i:e., prolific, tree]. The destruction of fruit trees was expressly prohibited by the Mosaic law (see the notes at Deuteronomy 20:19). But a special permission was granted by God to the Israelites to do it on this occasion, as a punishment to Moabites (cf. Jeremiah 18:11), who were to be destroyed by extraordinary judgments of heaven, for their great wickedness. AND MAR EVERY GOOD PIECE OF LAND WITH STONES - by strewing the fields with heaps of small stone

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 3:19. _SHALL FELL EVERY GOOD TREE_] Every tree by which your enemies may serve themselves for fortifications, c. But surely _fruit trees_ are not intended here for this was positively against the law of God, Deuteronomy 20:19-5: "When thou shalt besiege a city - thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof - for the tree of the field is man's life - only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down." _STOP ALL WELLS OF WATER_] In those hot countries this would lead sooner than any thing else to reduce an enemy. _MAR EVERY GOOD PIECE OF LAND WITH STONES._] Such a multitude of men, each throwing a stone on a good field as they passed, would completely destroy it....

YE SHALL FELL EVERY GOOD TREE - This is not an infringement of the rule laid down in Deuteronomy 20:19. The Israelites were not forbidden to fell the fruit trees in an enemy’s country, as a part of the ravage of war, when they had no thoughts of occupying the country. The plan of thus injuring an enemy was probably in general use among the nations of these parts at the time. We see the destruction represented frequently on the Assyrian monuments and mentioned in the inscriptions of Egypt. AND STOP ALL WELLS OF WATER - The stoppage of wells was a common feature of ancient, and especially Oriental, warfare (compare Genesis 26:15). MAR ... WITH STONES - The exact converse of tha

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 ...

AND YE SHALL SMITE EVERY FENCED CITY AND EVERY CHOICE CITY,.... That is, the inhabitants of them with the sword, and demolish them also, 2 Kings 3:25, and shall fell every good tree; which seems contrary to the law in Deuteronomy 20:19, but that may respect trees belonging to a city when besieged only, or only to Canaanitish cities; or the law was now dispensed with, and that for this time only, to make the punishment of Moab the greater, for their rebellion and other sins: AND STOP ALL WELLS OF WATER; which must be very distressing to those that survived the calamity of the sword: AND MAR EVERY GOOD PIECE OF LAND WITH STONES; as that it could not be ploughed and sowed, nor anything spring up and grow upon it....

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

MAR. spoil....

_and shall fell every good tree_ Some persons have seen in Elisha's language here a contradiction to Deuteronomy 20:19, where in the siege of a city the Israelites are forbidden to cut down the fruit trees. But in that place the reference is to the trees of Canaan, where the people were themselves to settle and live. The land of Moab was not to be occupied by them, therefore they were bidden to destroy everything in it. In Deuteronomy it is expressly said, -Thou shalt not destroy them, for thou mayest eat of them". _stop all wells_[R.V. FOUNTAINS] _of water_ As water in the east is mostly reached by digging, what is here meant is that all such places should be filled up, so that the work of obtaining water might have all to be done over again. The R.V. gives -fountains" in verse 25 also. _mar every good piece of land_ The verb, when used elsewhere, si