2 Kings 3:21 - Exposition

And when all the Moabites heard that the kings were come up to fight against them. The Hebrew has no pluperfect tense; but the verbs have here a pluperfect force. Translate, When all the Moabites had heard that the kings were come up to fight against them , they had gathered all that were able , etc. The muster of the troops had long preceded the storm. They gathered all that were able to put on amour ; literally, there had been gathered together all that girded themselves with girdles ; i.e. all the male population of full age. And upward— i.e; and all above the age when the girdle was first assumed—and stood in the border; took up a position near the extreme border of their territory, on the northern bank of the Wady-el-Ahsy.