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We are now called to attend the public affairs of Israel, in which we shall find Elisha concerned. Here is, I. The general character of Jehoram, king of Israel (Kg2 3:1-3). II. A war with Moab, in which Jehoram and his allies were engaged (Kg2 3:4-8). III. The straits which the confederate army were reduced to in their expedition against Moab, and their consulting Elisha in that distress, with the answer of peace he gave them (Kg2 3:9-19). IV. The glorious issue of this campaign (Kg2 3:20-25) and the barbarous method the king of Moab took to oblige the confederate army to retire (Kg2 3:26, Kg2 3:27). The house of Ahab is doomed to destruction; and, though in this chapter we have both its character and its condition better than before, yet the threatened ruin is not far off.

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 3 This chapter gives the character of Jehoram king of Israel, Kg2 3:1, relates the rebellion of the king of Moab against him, Kg2 3:4, the war that he and his allies entered into on that account, Kg2 3:6 the distress the combined army were in for want of water, their application upon this to Elisha, who promised them water, and they had it in a wonderful manner, Kg2 3:10 and the chapter is concluded with the rout of the Moabites, and the barbarity of their king to his eldest son, Kg2 3:21.

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 in the Arabic language, renders the passage, "and they blunted their swords in it (in that slaughter), even by smiting the Moabites". (m) De Defect. Hod. Ling. Heb. sect. 26.

The reign and idolatry of Jehoram, king of Israel, Kg2 3:1-3. Mesha, king of Moab, rebels against Israel, Kg2 3:4, Kg2 3:5. Jehoram, Jehoshaphat, and the king of Edom join against the Moabites, and are brought into great distress for want of water, Kg2 3:6-10. The three kings go to Elisha to inquire of the Lord; who promises them water, and a complete victory, Kg2 3:11-19. Water comes the next morning, and fills the trenches which these kings had made in the valley, Kg2 3:20. The Moabites arm against them; and suppose, when they see the sun shining upon the waters, which look like blood, that the confederate kings have fallen out, and slain each other; and that they have nothing to do but take the spool, Kg2 3:21-23. The Israelites attack and completely rout then, beat down their cities, and mar their land, Kg2 3:24, Kg2 3:25. The king of Moab, having made an unsuccessful attack on the king of Edom, takes his eldest son, and of offers him for a burnt-offering upon the wall; and there is great indignation against Israel, Kg2 3:26, Kg2 3:27.

JEHORAM'S EVIL REIGN OVER ISRAEL. (Kg2 3:1-3) Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat--(compare Kg1 22:51). To reconcile the statements in the two passages, we must suppose that Ahaziah, having reigned during the seventeenth and the greater part of the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat, was succeeded by his brother Joram or Jehoram, in the end of that eighteenth year, or else that Ahaziah, having reigned two years in conjunction with his father, died at the end of that period when Jehoram ascended the throne. His policy was as hostile as that of his predecessors to the true religion; but he made some changes. Whatever was his motive for this alteration--whether dread of the many alarming judgments the patronage of idolatry had brought upon his father; or whether it was made as a small concession to the feelings of Jehoshaphat, his ally, he abolished idolatry in its gross form and restored the symbolic worship of God, which the kings of Israel, from the time of Jeroboam, had set up as a partition wall between their subjects and those of Judah.

Reign of Joram of Israel. - For the chronological statement in Kg2 3:1, see at Kg2 1:17. Joram or Jehoram was not so ungodly as his father Ahab and his Mother Jezebel. He had the statue or pillar of Baal, which his father had erected in Samaria, removed; and it was only to the sin of Jeroboam, i.e., the calf-worship, that he adhered. Joram therefore wished to abolish the worship of Baal and elevate the worship of Jehovah, under the image of the calf (ox), into the region of his kingdom once more. For the singular suffix ממּנּה see Ewald, 317, a. He did not succeed, however, in exterminating the worship of Baal. It not only continued in Samaria, but appears to have been carried on again in the most shameless manner (cf. Kg2 10:18.); at which we cannot be surprised, since his mother Jezebel, that fanatical worshipper of Baal, was living throughout the whole of his reign (Kg2 9:30).