2 Kings 3:4

ISRAEL; JUDAH; AND EDOM GO TO WAR AGAINST MOAB

"Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep-master; and he rendered unto the king of Israel the wool of a hundred thousand lambs, and of a hundred thousand rams. But it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. And king Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time, and mustered all Israel. And he went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, The king of Moab hath rebelled against me; wilt thou go with me against Moab to battle? And he said, I will go up, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses. And he said, Which way shall we go up? And he answered, The way of the wilderness of Edom."

The obvious reason why Jehoram desired that alliance with Jehoshaphat was that Edom, at that time, was subject to Jehoshaphat and that such an arrangement would allow him to attack Moab through Edom's territory. The desirability of that was urgent because Moab had strongly fortified the cities that lay along the more direct route.

"Mesha the king of Moab was a sheep-master" (2 Kings 3:4). The word sheep-master occurs nowhere else in the Bible except in Amos 1:1.[4]

"He rendered unto the king of Israel the wool of a hundred thousand, ..." (2 Kings 3:4). The RSV adds the word "annually" here, despite the fact of its not being in the Hebrew, but this is probably correct, because Keil agreed that the usage of this terminology throughout the O.T. indicates annual tribute.[5]

Calkins labeled such an annual tribute as "excessive,"[6] but Keil stated that, "Such an annual tribute would not have been exorbitant, because the land of the Moabites abounded in excellent pasture and was especially adapted to the rearing of flocks."[7]

"I am as thou art, ..." (2 Kings 3:7). Jehoshaphat's ready compliance with Jehoram's request is surprising, "Because his similar response to a like invitation from Ahab had resulted in his receiving the rebuke of God's prophet (2 Chronicles 19:2). Jehoram's removing that pillar of Baal might have influenced him."[8]

So the kings went to war against Moab, but a drought had removed their projected water supply!