Israel’s bad king Jehoram and Judah’s good king Jehoshaphat join hands against Moab
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📚Now Jehoram, the son of Ahab, began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and he reigned twelve years. 2 📚And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, but not like his father 📖 and like his mother; for he put away the image of Baal that his father had made. 3 📚Nevertheless he clung to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin; he did not departed from them.4 📚And Mesha, king of Moab, was a sheep owner, and paid tribute of a hundred thousand lambs and a hundred thousand rams, with the wool, to the king of Israel. 5 📚But it happened when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. 6 📚And King Jehoram went out of Samaria at that same time, and counted all Israel. 7 📚And he went and sent word to Jehoshaphat 📖, the king of Judah, saying, “The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me against Moab to fight?” And he said, “I will go up. I am as you are, my people as your people, and my horses as your horses”.
8 📚And he said, “Which way should we go up?” And he answered, “The way through the wilderness of Edom”.
9 📚So the king of Israel and the king of Judah and the king of Edom 📖 went and circled around on a seven days’ march; and there was no water for the army and for the livestock that followed them.
10 📚And the king of Israel said, “Alas, that the LORD has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hands of Moab!”
11 📚But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here a prophet of the LORD, so that we can inquire of the LORD 📖 through him?”
And one of the servants of the king of Israel answered and said, “Elisha 📖 the son of Shaphat, who poured water on the hands of Elijah 📖, is here”.
12 📚And Jehoshaphat said, “The word of the LORD is with him”. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.
13 📚And Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What have I to do with you? You go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother”. And the king of Israel said to him, “No, for the LORD has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hands of Moab”.
3:13 1 Kings 22:6. Elisha knew that the king of Israel had no love for the true God, and was only consulting him because he was in trouble.⚜
14 📚And Elisha said, “As the LORD of hosts 📖 lives, before whom I stand, if it were not that I respect the presence of Jehoshaphat 📖 the king of Judah, I would not even look at you or see you. 15 📚But now bring me a musician”. And it happened when the musician played 📖, that the hand of the LORD came on him. 16 📚And he said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Make this valley full of ditches.’ 17 📚For thus says the LORD: ‘You will not see wind, nor will you see rain, yet that valley will be filled with water, so that you may drink, both you, and your livestock and your animals.’ 18 📚And this is but a small 📖 thing in the sight of the LORD. He will also deliver the Moabites into your hands. 19 📚And you shall defeat every fortified city, and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop up all the wells of water, and ruin every good piece of land with stones”.
20 📚And it came about in the morning, when the grain offering 📖 was offered, that water appeared coming by the way from Edom, and the region was filled with water.
21 📚And when all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, they gathered all who were able to put on armour, and older, and stood at the border. 22 And they rose up early in the morning, and the sun was shining on the water, and the water on the other side appeared to the Moabites as red as blood. 23 📚And they said, “This is blood! The kings have surely been killed, and have struck one another down. Now therefore, Moab, to the plunder!”
24 📚And when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and attacked the Moabites, so that they fled before them. And they advanced, striking down the Moabites, even into their country. 25 📚And they broke down the cities, and each man threw his stone on every good piece of land and filled it up, and they stopped all the wells of water, and felled all the good trees. Only in Kir-Haraseth did they leave its stones. However the slingers went around it and attacked it.
26 📚And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him seven hundred men who drew swords, to break through to the king of Edom, but they could not. 27 📚Then he took his oldest son, who would have reigned in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering 📖 on the wall. And there was great indignation against Israel; and they departed from him, and returned to their own land.