ESV Global Study Bible :: Footnotes for 2 Kings 3

2 Kings 3:1–27 Like Elijah before him, Elisha becomes involved in politics. Here, he is consulted about a military campaign (compare 1 Kings 22:1–28).

2 Kings 3:2 Although Jehoram allowed his people to worship Baal (see v. 13; 9:22; 10:18–28), he himself did not worship Baal as did his father and mother (that is, Ahab and Jezebel). Instead, he removed Baal’s pillar from the temple (see 1 Kings 14:23).

2 Kings 3:4–5 Mesha was a ninth-century b.c. king of Moab. He began his reign under the authority of Israel and was required to give Israel a percentage of his agricultural produce (lambs and wool). After Ahab’s death, Mesha rebelled.

2 Kings 3:7–9 Confronted with the Moabite rebellion, Jehoram, like his father Ahab before him, seeks help from Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. Jehoshaphat responds to Jehoram just as he did to Ahab: I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses (compare 1 Kings 22:4). However, unlike on that earlier occasion, this time Jehoshaphat fails to seek the Lord’s will (contrast 1 Kings 22:5). They plan to attack Moab from the south, through the wilderness of Edom, rather than from the north. This is possible because Edom is under Judean rule (1 Kings 22:47) and her king is Jehoshaphat’s deputy rather than an independent monarch. The combined armies get lost, however, caught in a circuitous march. Not surprisingly, a military venture undertaken without prophetic advice faces disaster.

2 Kings 3:11–14 Is there no prophet of the Lord here? Faced with disaster, Jehoshaphat finally seeks divine guidance (compare 1 Kings 22:7). They find Elisha, the one who poured water on the hands of Elijah (probably a reference to Elisha’s having been Elijah’s servant).

2 Kings 3:15–19 bring me a musician. Music plays a part in Elisha receiving his message from God (compare 1 Sam. 10:5–11). The immediate crisis (no water, 2 Kings 3:9) is to be dealt with by a miracle, as the nearby streambed shall be filled with water from a mysterious source (neither wind nor rain). God will give the alliance a complete victory over Moab. They will attack every fortified city and every choice city, devastating the land as they move through it. Deuteronomy 20:19–20 prohibits this kind of destruction in normal cases, but here the Moabites as a nation are to be destroyed (see note on Deut. 20:16–18), rather than simply conquered.

2 Kings 3:20–24 Water mysteriously flows from the direction of Edom. This fools the Moabites into thinking Israel and Judah have slaughtered each other, because in the morning sunlight the water appears red as blood.

2 Kings 3:27 Just as Israel seemed to have defeated him, Mesha offered his son as burnt offering on the wall. As a consequence, there came great wrath against Israel. This does not refer to divine anger. Instead, it seems, Mesha’s troops respond to his desperate act with an anger against Israel that carries them to victory against all the odds.