UST by section 2 KI 3:1

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2 Kings 3

3 After Jehoshaphat had been ruling Judah for almost 18 years, Jehoram son of Ahab became the king of Israel. He ruled that kingdom from the city of Samaria for 12 years. 2 He did things that Yahweh had told the Israelites were evil. But he did not do as many evil things as his father Ahab and his mother Jezebel had done. He destroyed the stone pillar for worshiping Baal that his father had set up. 3 However, he did not destroy the golden calves that Jeroboam son of Nebat had made. When Jeroboam made those calves, he led the Israelites to sin by worshiping idols. Jehoram did not lead the people to stop doing that.

4 Mesha, the king of Moab, raised sheep. Because the king of Israel controlled Moab, every year Mesha had to give him 100,000 lambs and 100,000 rams that had full coats of wool. 5 But after King Ahab died, Mesha rebelled and refused to pay this tribute to the king of Israel. 6 When Mesha rebelled, King Jehoram left the city of Samaria and gathered soldiers from throughout Israel to reconquer the Moabites. 7 Then he sent messengers to Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah. They told him on behalf of Jehoram, “The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you lead your army and join me as I lead my army to fight to reconquer Moab?” Jehoshaphat told them to tell Jehoram, “Yes, I will help you. I will lead my army and join you as you lead your army. My soldiers and their horses will fight alongside your soldiers and their horses.” 8 Jehoram then sent the messengers back to ask Jehoram, “What route should we take to attack Moab?” Jehoshaphat told them to tell Jehoram, “We should attack Moab through the desolate area in the land of Edom.” 9 So the kings of Israel and Judah led their armies along that route. When they got to Edom, the king of Edom joined them with his army. They spent seven days marching around the southern end of the Sea of the Arabah. By that time, there was no water left for the soldiers or for the animals they had with them. 10 The king of Israel exclaimed, “This is a terrible situation! It seems that Yahweh has led us three kings and our armies here so that the Moabite army can defeat us!” 11 Jehoshaphat said, “We should ask Yahweh what we should do. Is one of his prophets here?” One of Jehoram’s army officers replied, “Elisha son of Shaphat is here. He was Elijah’s servant.” 12 Jehoshaphat said, “Yahweh will give him a message for us.” So those three kings went to speak with Elisha.

13 Elisha told the king of Israel, “You have no right to ask me for help! You worship Baal, just as your father and mother did, so ask Baal’s prophets to help you.” But Jehoram replied, “No, we want you to ask Yahweh because it seems that Yahweh has led us three kings and our armies here so that the Moabite army can defeat us.” 14 Elisha replied, “I serve Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies. I swear by Yahweh that I am only helping you at all because you have Jehoshaphat king of Judah with you, and I respect him. 15 So bring someone to me who plays the harp.” So they did that, and when the person played the harp, Yahweh gave Elisha the power to prophesy. 16 He said, “Yahweh is telling you to dig as many ditches as you can in this valley, 17 because he is going to make it rain too far away for you to see, but the water from the storm will flow into this valley. As a result, your soldiers, your livestock, and your pack animals will have plenty of water to drink. 18 Yahweh considers that an easy thing to do, since he will also do something much greater. He will enable you to defeat the army of Moab. 19 You will conquer every important city in Moab, including those that have high walls around them. You will cut down all their fruit trees. You will stop the water from flowing from their springs. And you will ruin their fertile fields by covering them with rocks.” 20 Early the next morning, it was the time when the Israelites customarily offered a grain sacrifice. They suddenly saw water flowing toward them from the direction of Edom. It filled all the ditches they had dug.

21 The people of Moab learned that the three kings had come with their armies to fight against them. So they summoned all of their soldiers, including youths who were just learning to fight. The Moabite soldiers set up a defensive position at the border of their land with Edom. 22 When they got up early the next morning, they looked over to where the other armies were. They saw the sunrise reflecting on the water, and this made the water look red like blood. 23 They exclaimed, “Look, that is blood! Soldiers from those three kingdoms must have fought and killed each other. As a result, the armies must have destroyed each other! So let us go and take their weapons and possessions!” 24 So they went to the area where the soldiers from Israel, Judah, and Edom had set up their tents. But those soldiers attacked the Moabite soldiers and forced them to retreat. The Israelite, Judean, and Edomite soldiers pursued them into the land of Moab. They began attacking the people there. 25 Those soldiers destroyed the Moabite cities. Whenever they passed fertile fields, they threw many rocks onto them. They stopped the water from flowing from the springs. They cut down the fruit trees. Finally the Moabite capital of Kir Hareseth was the only city they had not destroyed. Israelite, Judean, and Edomite soldiers threw stones from slings from places all around the city and killed many of the defenders on its walls. 26 The king of Moab realized that his enemies were defeating him. So he gathered 700 soldiers who fought well with swords. He led them to try to fight their way through to where the king of Edom was leading his soldiers. But they were not able to do that. 27 Then the king of Moab took his oldest son, who would have become the next king after he died, and offered him as a burnt sacrifice. He did this on top of the city wall so people could see it. Then there was great anger against the attacking soldiers, and they left and all went back to their own countries.

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UST by section 2 KI 3:1

2 Kings 3

UST by section 2 KI 3:1