2 Kings 3 - NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible
3:4 Mesha. A ninth-century BC Moabite king, the successor of his father, Chemosh-yatti, according to the Moabite Stone. He began his reign under the dominion of the Israelite house of Omri. pay . . . tribute. As was true of most subservient peoples in the ancient Near East, Mesha had to pay his overlord “tribute” (i.e., taxes). In Mesopotamia and Assyria this could involve the handing over of a percentage of agricultural products or of flocks and herds, or indeed people (forced labor). The present verse describes the taxation in this more local case as involving sheep and wool, which is understandable given the importance of sheep in the economy of ancient Palestine. After Ahab’s death, however, Mesha took advantage of the new situation and rebelled, inciting Ahab’s son Joram to launch the campaign described in this chapter. a hundred thousand lambs. This is an immense tribute, but nowhere near the 800,000 sheep Sennacherib claimed to have taken from Babylon, so we can see that the amounts are not beyond what is attested in other ancient Near Eastern records.
3:8 Desert of Edom. The idea was to attack Moab from the south rather than from the north, which was possible because Edom was under Judahite rule and Edom’s “king” was Jehoshaphat’s deputy rather than an independent monarch (1Ki 22:47).
3:11 Elisha . . . used to pour water on the hands of Elijah. This classifies Elisha as an attendant of the famous prophet. Despite the insignificance of the task, Elisha’s association with Elijah is enough to provide hope for divine aid.
3:13 the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother. Refers to the prophets of Baal who serve Ahab and Jezebel (see note on 1Ki 18:19). Either Joram consulted Yahweh specifically to begin this campaign or, more likely, the oracle was taken by Jehoshaphat. In either case, it is Yahweh who has led them there, and now Yahweh must be dealt with. The divine direction is now perceived by Joram as intending to destroy them.
3:15 bring me a harpist. The implication is that music plays its part in Elisha’s attainment of the prophetic “state” in which he utters his prophecy. This connection between music and prophecy is also hinted at in 1Sa 10:5–11, and suggests that, on this occasion at least, Elisha was engaged in “ecstatic” prophetic behavior of a kind similar to that evidenced at Mari. Another example of ecstatic prophecy is recorded in an eleventh-century BC Egyptian text. It describes the visit of the traveler Wenamun to the Phoenician city of Byblos and the following event that took place during a temple ritual: “Now while he [the prince of Byblos] was making offering to his gods, the god seized one of his youths and made him possessed. And he [the young man] said to him [the prince]: “Bring up the god! Bring the messenger who is carrying him [i.e., Wenamun]. Amun is the one who sent him out.”
3:20 water flowing from the direction of Edom. The campaign is probably close to the Wadi Zered, which drains runoff from high elevations and so can suddenly fill with water even if no rain falls in the area. Prophetic knowledge of flooding due to rain elsewhere is also demonstrated by Deborah in Jdg 4:14–16 (see note on Jdg 4:7).
3:22 the water looked red—like blood. It is easy to see how water in a sandstone region under a red sky would appear like blood, but it is not so easy to see why they didn’t notice the lack of corpses. More likely they thought they saw a deserted camp. A Mesopotamian omen dictates that if a river carries blood, internal strife will cause an army to do battle with itself. The Moabites probably see the water as such an omen.
3:27 he took his firstborn son . . . and offered him as a sacrifice. See notes on 16:3; 1Ki 11:5; Lev 20:2; Jer 7:31. Here the mechanism of sacrifice is not explicitly described. We are only told that the child was the king’s firstborn son—the sacrifice of something exceedingly precious in an exceedingly critical situation. Jephthah’s vow is similar to this, though his sacrifice of his daughter comes after the fact (Jdg 11:30–40).
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