Melachim Bais 3:4

4 And Mesha Melech Moav was a sheep breeder, and rendered unto the Melech Yisroel 100,000 lambs, and 100,000 rams, with the tzemer (wool).

Melachim Bais 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.

Melachim Bais 3:4 In-Context

2 And he wrought rah in the eyes of Hashem; but not like Aviv, nor like Immo; for he put away matzvat HaBa’al (the image of Baal) that Aviv had made.

3 Nevertheless his deveykus was unto the chattot Yarov‘am Ben Nevat, which caused Yisroel to sin; therefrom he did not turn away.

4 And Mesha Melech Moav was a sheep breeder, and rendered unto the Melech Yisroel 100,000 lambs, and 100,000 rams, with the tzemer (wool).

5 But it came to pass, when Ach’av was mot, that Melech Moav rebelled against Melech Yisroel.

6 And Melech Yehoram went out of Shomron on that day, and mustered kol Yisroel.