2 Re 3:4

4 Or Mesa, re di Moab, nudriva molto minuto bestiame; e pagava per tributo al re d’Israele centomila agnelli, e centomila montoni con la lana.

2 Re 3:4 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 3:4

And Mesha king of Moab was a sheep master
With which his country abounded; he kept great numbers of them, and shepherds to take care of them; he traded in them, and got great riches by them; his substance chiefly consisted in them:

and rendered unto the king of Israel:
either as a present, or as an annual tribute:

an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool;
that is, upon them, unshorn, and so the more valuable; and it was usual for tributary nations to pay their tribute to those to whom they were subject in such commodities which they most abounded with; so the Cappadocians, as Strabo ^F3 relates, used to pay, as a tribute to the Persians, every year, 1500 horses and 2000 mules, and five myriads of sheep, or 50,000; and formerly, Pliny ^F4 says, the only tribute was from the pastures.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 Geograph. l. 11. p. 362.
F4 Nat. Hist. l. 18. c. 3.

2 Re 3:4 In-Context

2 E fece ciò che dispiace al Signore; non però come suo padre, e come sua madre; perciocchè tolse via la statua di Baal, che suo padre avea fatta.

3 Ma egli si attenne a’ peccati di Geroboamo, figliuolo di Nebat, per i quali egli avea fatto peccare Israele; egli non se ne rivolse.

4 Or Mesa, re di Moab, nudriva molto minuto bestiame; e pagava per tributo al re d’Israele centomila agnelli, e centomila montoni con la lana.

5 Ma quando Achab fu morto, il re di Moab si ribellò contro al re d’Israele.

6 Laonde il re Gioram uscì in quel dì fuor di Samaria, e fece la rassegna di tutto Israele.