Verse 19
19. Fell every good tree This is by no means a mere prophecy, as Wordsworth says; a simple prediction of what the allied armies would inflict on Moab; but a command as plain and positive as that by which he had formerly authorized the destruction of the idolatrous Canaanites. So utter a destruction of the Moabites did the Lord now authorize that he even suspended the law of Deuteronomy 20:19, which forbade the destruction of the fruit-trees of the enemy. The Israelites were not to occupy the land of Moab, as they did the land of the Canaanites, and therefore they had no need to spare the fruit-trees for their own use. But this felling of the good trees would be to the surviving Moabites a memorable woe. Their ruined cities they might speedily rebuild, and unstop their wells, or dig new ones, and clear the land of stones, but years must pass before new fruit-trees could be reared.
Mar… land with stones Literally, Grieve the land. That is, afflict, disfigure, and injure the land by casting stones upon it so as to make it sterile. A vast host like that led by these three kings could speedily cover a field with stones.
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