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2 KINGS 3

PARAGRAPH DIVISIONS OF MODERN TRANSLATIONS

READING CYCLE THREE (see "Bible Interpretation Seminar")

FOLLOWING THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR'S INTENT AT THE PARAGRAPH LEVEL

This is a study guide commentary, which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

Read the chapter in one sitting. Identify the subjects. Compare your subject divisions with the five translations above. Paragraphing is not inspired, but it is the key to following the original author's intent, which is the heart of interpretation. Every paragraph has one and only one subject.

1. First paragraph
2. Second paragraph
3. Etc.

WORD AND PHRASE STUDY

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 3:1-3
  ¹Now Jehoram the son of Ahab became king over Israel at Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years. ²He did evil in the sight of the Lord, though not like his father and his mother; for he put away the sacred pillar of Baal which his father had made. ³Nevertheless, he clung to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin; he did not depart from them.

3:1 "in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat" See full note at 2 Kgs. 1:17.

SPECIAL TOPIC: KINGS OF THE DIVIDED MONARCHY

3:2-3 Jehoram did not follow in the Ba'al worship of his parents but still he maintained the two rival temples at Dan and Bethel. Though the king did not follow Ba'al the people of Israel did.

The "sacred pillar of Baal" refers to

1. local high places where the fertility gods of Canaan were worshiped by pillar and pole
2. the MT has the SINGULAR (cf. 1 Kgs. 16:32) but the LXX and Vulgate have the PLURAL

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 3:4-8
  ⁴Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder, and used to pay the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams. ⁵But when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. ⁶And King Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time and mustered all Israel. ⁷Then he went and sent word to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, "The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to fight against Moab?" And he said, "I will go up; I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses." ⁸He said, "Which way shall we go up?" And he answered, "The way of the wilderness of Edom."

3:4-5 This is first mentioned in 2 Kgs. 1:1.

3:4 Does this verse refer to the animals or only to their wool?

3:7 The godly king Jehoshaphat had to close a connection to idolatrous Israel. Israel and Judah still saw themselves as one ethnic group (cf. 1 Kgs. 22:4). They were related by royal marriage.

Israel wanted to attack Moab from the south and needed permission from Judah and her vassal Edom (cf. 1 Kgs. 22:47) to cross their land.

3:8 The Moabite campaign involved three nations.

1. Israel
2. Judah
3. Edom

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 3:9-12
  ⁹So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom; and they made a circuit of seven days' journey, and there was no water for the army or for the cattle that followed them. ¹⁰Then the king of Israel said, "Alas! For the Lord has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab." ¹¹But Jehoshaphat said, "Is there not a prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of the Lord by him?" And one of the king of Israel's servants answered and said, "Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who used to pour water on the hands of Elijah." ¹²Jehoshaphat said, "The word of the Lord is with him." So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.

3:9 "there was no water" This need will be miraculously met in v. 17.

3:10 Jehoram was very discouraged by the lack of water and saw it as YHWH giving victory to Moab.

3:11 Again Jehoshaphat wanted guidance from YHWH (cf. 1 Kgs. 22:7).

▣ "Elisha. . .is here" Apparently prophets traveled with the Israeli armies.

▣ "pour water on the hands of Elijah" This could

1. refer to a cultural sign that he was Elijah's servant
2. be related to ritual cleansing
3. be a play on YHWH's miracle of providing the needed water (cf. v. 17)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 3:13-20
  ¹³Now Elisha said to the king of Israel, "What do I have to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother." And the king of Israel said to him, "No, for the Lord has called these three kings together to give them into the hand of Moab." ¹⁴Elisha said, "As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look at you nor see you. ¹⁵But now bring me a minstrel." And it came about, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him. ¹⁶He said, "Thus says the Lord, 'Make this valley full of trenches.' ¹⁷For thus says the Lord, 'You shall not see wind nor shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, so that you shall drink, both you and your cattle and your beasts. ¹⁸This is but a slight thing in the sight of the Lord; He will also give the Moabites into your hand. ¹⁹Then you shall strike every fortified city and every choice city, and fell every good tree and stop all springs of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones.'" ²⁰It happened in the morning about the time of offering the sacrifice, that behold, water came by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water.

3:13 Elisha totally rejects the king of Israel because of

1. his parents' idolatry
2. his continuing the golden calf worship at Dan and Bethel

3:14 "As the Lord of hosts lives" See full note on the oath formula at 2 Kgs. 2:2.

▣ "Lord of hosts" See SPECIAL TOPIC: Lord OF HOSTS.

3:15 Music has always had a powerful effect on the mind and emotions (i.e., King Saul and David, cf. 1:Sam. 10:5-6; 16:16,23). The prophets often carried music instruments (cf. 1 Chr. 25:1). Worship at the tabernacle and temple was accompanied by music (i.e., 1 Chr. 15:16; 2 Chr. 29:25; Neh. 12:27; Ps. 150:3-5). Music was used on several other occasions.

1. victory songs ‒ Exodus. 15; Ps. 33:3; Isa. 38:20
2. laments/taunts ‒ Job 30:9; Isa. 23:16; Lam. 3:14,63
3. used by the prophets to induce a trance or ecstatic state ‒ 1 Sam. 10:5,10; 19:20

▣ "the hand of the Lord" This idiom affirmed the presence of YHWH and His revealing His will through His prophet. This phrase is theologically parallel to "the Spirit of the Lord came upon him."

SPECIAL TOPIC: ANTHROPOMORPHIC LANGUAGE USED TO DESCRIBE GOD

The MT has a Qal INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE (BDB 793, KB 889) with a MASCULINE SINGULAR ADJECTIVE (BDB 260). As you can see from the different translations, there is confusion on who will do the digging.

1. the three armies ‒ NASB, NKJV, NJB, TEV, LXX
2. YHWH ‒ NRSV
3. unspecified ‒ REB, JPSOA, Peshitta

Notice YHWH used human and natural actions to accomplish His will. The soldiers must dig and YHWH must send.

3:19 These actions were common military procedures in the ANE.

1. cut down the trees
2. stop up all springs
3. put stones in the productive agricultural fields

This invasion was meant to be a total annihilation of Moabite society. It was like a holy war on Chemosh's people.

3:20 "about the time of offering the sacrifice" There are two possible contexts for this timing.

1. during battle campaigns sacrifices were done in the camp
2. all actions were linked to the regular morning and evening sacrifices (i.e., the continual, cf. Exod. 29:38-42) in the temple in Jerusalem (i.e., 1 Kgs. 18:29)

▣ "water came by the way of Edom" This would refer to rains upstream in Edom. YHWH used natural means with supernatural

1. timing
2. intensity
3. locality

See notes on the plagues of Egypt in Exodus 7-11, as well as Josh. 3:14-17.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 3:21-27
  ²¹Now all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them. And all who were able to put on armor and older were summoned and stood on the border. ²²They rose early in the morning, and the sun shone on the water, and the Moabites saw the water opposite them as red as blood. ²³Then they said, "This is blood; the kings have surely fought together, and they have slain one another. Now therefore, Moab, to the spoil!" ²⁴But when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites arose and struck the Moabites, so that they fled before them; and they went forward into the land, slaughtering the Moabites. ²⁵Thus they destroyed the cities; and each one threw a stone on every piece of good land and filled it. So they stopped all the springs of water and felled all the good trees, until in Kir-hareseth only they left its stones; however, the slingers went about it and struck it. ²⁶When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him 700 men who drew swords, to break through to the king of Edom; but they could not. ²⁷Then he took his oldest son who was to reign in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall. And there came great wrath against Israel, and they departed from him and returned to their own land.

3:22 YHWH used both the water and the sunlight to confuse the Moabite army. The red stone of Edom and the reflection of the morning sun on the new pools of water looked like a "blood bath" had occurred between the three invading kings/armies.

3:23 "the kings have surely fought together" Moab's army assumed that the three kings invading them had attacked and killed one another. The VERB used appears as an INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE and a PERFECT VERB of the same root (BDB 352, KB 349).

1. Hophal INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE
2. Niphal PERFECT VERB

3:24 "when they came" This is the VERB (BDB 97, KB 112, Qal IMPERFECT with waw) in the MT, but the Masoretic scholars offered a suggested change to "and they smote" (BDB 645, KB 697, Hiphil IMPERFECT with waw).

1. "and they came" ‒ ויבו (LXX, Peshitta)
2. "and they smote" ‒ ויבו

The difference is just a change of vowels.

3:25 "until in Kir-hareseth" This was a well fortified city in the southern highlands of Moab, possibly a second capital.

▣ "slingers" The ANE armies were divided into specialized units.

1. foot soldiers
2. archers
3. slingers
4. spearmen
5. cavalry
6. chariots
7. diggers (to dig under walled cities)
8. carpenters for building siege equipment

The MT has "Eden" (BDB 10), which is spelled similarly to "Aram" (BDB 74). The UBS Text Project, p. 338, gives "Aram" a "C" rating (considerable doubt).

So here are the possible options.

1. surprise focused attack on
   1. the weakest army
   2. a former ally in hopes of getting them to join the Moabite cause
2. a last minute attempt of the Moabite king to flee to safety in Syria

3:27 There are several ways to view this verse.

1. The king of Moab offered the crown prince to Chemosh on the wall of Kir-hareseth to assure his protection from the invading armies of Israel, Judah, and Edom. This fits best with the word "wall" (BDB 327).
2. The king of Edom became afraid of Mesha's attack on him (v. 26) and in response to this, he offered the crown prince to Molech. YHWH was appalled by this (i.e., "great wrath"). This "wrath" is the problem phrase. Why was YHWH angry at what the Moabite king did but take it out on Israel? For some theories, see NIDOTTE, vol. 3, p. 118, #4.

   SPECIAL TOPIC: MOLECH

3. The wrath was from the king of Edom towards Israel and Judah because Mesha sacrificed the captured son of the king of Edom on the wall of the besieged city to appease Chemosh (Rabbis).

Most commentators assume number 1. AB, p. 47, says "This clause is one of the most perplexing items in Scripture."

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

This is a study guide commentary which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought-provoking, not definitive.

1. Why is the date in 2 Kgs. 3:1 not like the date in 2 Kgs. 1:17?
2. What is a sacred pillar?
3. Why was Jehoram afraid in v. 10?
4. What is music's relationship to prophecy?
5. Why are vv. 26-27 so hard to interpret?

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