2 Kings 3:23

23 Then they said, This is blood: it is clear that destruction has come on the kings; they have been fighting one another: now come, Moab, let us take their goods.

2 Kings 3:23 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 3:23

And they said, this is blood
They were very confident of it, having no notion of water, there having been no rain for some time; and perhaps it was not usual to see water at any time in this place:

the kings are surely slain;
they and their forces:

and they have smitten one another;
having quarrelled either about their religion, or about want of water, and the distress they were come into through it, laying the blame of their coming out to war, or of their coming that way, on one another; and the Moabites might rather think something of this kind had happened, from what had lately been done among themselves, and their allies, ( 2 Chronicles 20:23 )

now therefore, Moab, to the spoil;
having no occasion to fight, or prepare for it; all they had to do was to march directly to the enemy's camp, and plunder it.

2 Kings 3:23 In-Context

21 Now all Moab, hearing that the kings had come to make war against them, got together all who were able to take up arms and went forward to the edge of the country.

22 And early in the morning they got up, when the sun was shining on the water, and they saw the water facing them as red as blood.

23 Then they said, This is blood: it is clear that destruction has come on the kings; they have been fighting one another: now come, Moab, let us take their goods.

24 But when they came to the tents of Israel, the Israelites came out and made a violent attack on the Moabites, so that they went in flight before them; and they went forward still attacking them;

25 Pulling down the towns, covering every good field with stones, stopping up all the water-springs, and cutting down all the good trees; they went on driving Moab before them till only in Kir-hareseth were there any Moabites; and the fighting-men went round the town raining stones on it.