2 Kings 3:25 - Exposition

And they beat down the cities — i.e. destroyed them—leveled them with the ground— and on every good piece of land cast every man his stone (see 2 Kings 3:19 and the comment ad loc .) , and filled it [with stones]. And they stopped all the wells of water, and felled all the good trees — i.e. the fruit trees, δένδρα ἥμερα (Josephus)— only in Kir-haraseth left they the stones thereof; literally, until in Kir-haraseth — i.e; in Kir-haraseth only—left he the stones thereof . He ( i.e. the commander, or the army) went on destroying and leveling the cities, until he came to Kir-haraseth, which proved too strong for him. There he was obliged to leave the stones untouched. Kir-haraseth, which is not mentioned among the early Moabite towns, nor even upon the Moabite Stone, and which is therefore thought to have been a newly constructed fortress (Ewald), was, in the later times, one of the most important of the strongholds of Moab (see Isaiah 15:1 ; Isaiah 16:7 , Isaiah 16:11 ; Jeremiah 48:36 ). It was sometimes called Kir-Moab, "the fortress of Moab." At what time it got the name of Kerak is uncertain; but we find it spoken of as Kerak-Moab by Ptolemy, and by Stephen of Byzantium. It was a place of much importance in the time of the Crusades. The situation is one of great strength. The fortress is built upon the top of a steep hill, surrounded on all sides by a deep arid narrow valley, which again is completely enclosed by mountains, rising higher than the fort itself. It is undoubtedly one of the strongest positions within the territory anciently possessed by the Moabites. Howbeit the slingers went about it, and smote it. Ewald thinks that by " slingers " are meant, not mere ordinary slingers, but persons who worked more elaborate engines, as catapults and the like. He is undoubtedly correct in saying that "all sorts of elaborate modes of attacking fortifications were very early known in Asia;" but it is very questionable whether the Hebrew word used ( הַקַּלָּעִים ) can mean anything but "slingers" in the usual sense. The LXX . translate by σφενδονῆται . The situation is one which would allow of "slingers," in the ordinary sense, sending their missiles into the place, and grievously harassing it.