2 Kings 3:24

24 But when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites so that they fled before them, but they went forward smiting the Moabites, even in their country.

2 Kings 3:24 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 3:24

And when they came to the camp of Israel
Not in an orderly regular manner, in rank and file, as an army should march, but in a confused manner, everyone striving who should get thither first, and have the largest share of the booty:

the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites, so that they fled before
them;
being prepared for them, they fell upon them sword in hand, and soon obliged them to flee:

but they went forward smiting the Moabites, even in their country;
they pursued them closely, and slew them as they fled, and followed them not only to their borders, but into their own country: though Schultens {m}, from the use of the word (hbn) in the Arabic language, renders the passage, "and they blunted their swords in it (in that slaughter), even by smiting the Moabites".

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 De Defect. Hod. Ling. Heb. sect. 26.

2 Kings 3:24 In-Context

22 And when they rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone upon the water, and the Moabites saw the water before them as red as blood;

23 and they said, This is blood; the kings are surely slain, and they have smitten one another. Now therefore, Moab, to the spoil.

24 But when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites so that they fled before them, but they went forward smiting the Moabites, even in their country.

25 And they beat down the cities, and on every good piece of land each man cast his stone and filled it, and they stopped all the fountains of water and felled all the good trees until they left their stones only in Kirharaseth, for the slingers went about it and smote it.

26 And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was overcoming him, he took with him seven hundred men that drew swords to break through unto the king of Edom, but they could not.