a king · noun, common masculine singular construct
Moab
מוֹאָ֖בmo.'Av
H4124
Moab · proper noun, a place name
sheepmaster
נֹקֵ֑דno.Ked
H5349
a spotter (of sheep or cattle) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
rendered
וְהֵשִׁ֤יבve.he.Shiv
H7725
to turn back (hence · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
king
לְמֶֽלֶךְle.Me.lekh-
H4428
a king · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵל֙Yis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
hundred
מֵאָהme.'ah-
H3967
a hundred · noun, common feminine singular absolute
thousand
אֶ֣לֶף'E.lef
H505
hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alph… · noun, common both genders singular absolute
lambs
כָּרִ֔יםka.Rim
H3733
a ram (as full-grown and fat) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
hundred
וּמֵ֥אָהu.Me.'ah
H3967
a hundred · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
thousand
אֶ֖לֶף'E.lef
H505
hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alph… · noun, common both genders singular absolute
rams
אֵילִ֥ים'ei.Lim
H352
properly · noun, common masculine plural absolute
wool
צָֽמֶרTza.mer
H6785
wool · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 26:13-14 And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great:
2 Samuel 8:2 And he smote Moab, and measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground; even with two lines measured he to put to death, and with…
Genesis 13:2 And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.
1 Chronicles 18:2 And he smote Moab; and the Moabites became David’s servants, and brought gifts.
2 Chronicles 26:10 Also he built towers in the desert, and digged many wells: for he had much cattle, both in the low country, and in the plains: husbandmen al…
Job 1:3 His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a ver…
Job 42:12 So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousa…
Psalms 60:8 Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe: Philistia, triumph thou because of me.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 2 Kings 3:1-5
Jehoram, the son of Ahab, and brother of Ahaziah, is here upon the throne of Israel; and, though he was but a bad man, yet two commendable things are here recorded of him: -
I. That he removed his father's idols. He did evil in many things, but not like his father Ahab or his mother Jezebel, Kg2 3:2. Bad he was, but not so bad, so overmuch wicked, as Solomon speaks, Ecc 7:17. Perhaps Jehoshaphat, though by his alliance with the house of Ahab he made his own family worse, did something towards making Ahab's better. Jehoram saw his father and brother cut off for worshipping Baal, and wisely took warning by God's judgments on them, and put away the image of Baal, resolving to worship the God o…
MESHA, KING OF MOAB, REBELS. (Kg2 3:4-5)
Mesha king of Moab, &c.--As his dominions embraced an extensive pasture country, he paid, as annual tribute, the wool of a hundred thousand lambs and a hundred thousand rams. It is still common in the East to pay custom and taxes in the fruits or natural produce of the land.
Adam Clarke on 2 Kings 3:4
Was a sheepmaster - The original is נקד naked, of which the Septuagint could make nothing, and therefore retained the Hebrew word νωκηδ: but the Chaldee has מרי גיתי marey githey, "a sheepmaster;" Aquila has ποιμνιοτροφος; and Symmachus, τρεφων βοσκηματα; all to the same sense. The original signifies one who marks or brands, probably from the marking of sheep. He fed many sheep, etc., and had them all marked in a particular way, in order to ascertain his property.
A hundred thousand lambs - The Chaldee and Arabic have a hundred thousand fat oxen.
John Gill on 2 Kings 3:4
And Mesha king of Moab was a sheep master,.... With which his country abounded; he kept great numbers of them, and shepherds to take care of them; he traded in them, and got great riches by them; his substance chiefly consisted in them:
and rendered unto the king of Israel: either as a present, or as an annual tribute:
an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool; that is, upon them, unshorn, and so the more valuable; and it was usual for tributary nations to pay their tribute to those to whom they were subject in such commodities which they most abounded with; so the Cappadocians, as Strabo (c) relates, used to pay, as a tribute to the Persians, every year, 1500…
Dictionary and topics
Colour — The subject of colours holds an important place in the Scriptures. White occurs as the translation of various Hebrew words. It is applied to milk (Gen. 49:12), manna (Ex. 16:31), snow (Isa. 1:18),…
Elisha — God his salvation, the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, who became the attendant and disciple of Elijah (1 Kings 19:16-19). His name first occurs in the command given to Elijah to anoint him as his…
Israel, Kingdom of — (B.C. 975-B.C. 722). Soon after the death of Solomon, Ahijah’s prophecy (1 Kings 11:31-35) was fulfilled, and the kingdom was rent in twain. Rehoboam, the son and successor of Solomon, was scarcely…
Jehoram — Jehovah-exalted. (1.) Son of Toi, king of Hamath, sent by his father to congratulate David on the occasion of his victory over Hadadezer (2 Sam. 8:10). (2.) A Levite of the family of Gershom (1 Chr.…
Jehoshaphat — Jehovah-judged. (1.) One of David’s body-guard (1 Chr. 11:43). (2.) One of the priests who accompanied the removal of the ark to Jerusalem (1 Chr. 15:24). (3.) Son of Ahilud, “recorder” or annalist…
Media — Heb. Madai, which is rendered in the Authorized Version (1) “Madai,” Gen. 10:2; (2) “Medes,” 2 Kings 17:6; 18:11; (3) “Media,” Esther 1:3; 10:2; Isa. 21:2; Dan. 8:20; (4) “Mede,” only in Dan. 11:1.…
Mesha — Middle district, Vulgate, Messa. (1.) A plain in that part of the boundaries of Arabia inhabited by the descendants of Joktan (Gen. 10:30). (2.) Heb. meysh’a, “deliverance,” the eldest son of Caleb…
Moabite Stone — A basalt stone, bearing an inscription by King Mesha, which was discovered at Dibon by Klein, a German missionary at Jerusalem, in 1868. It was 3 1/2 feet high and 2 in breadth and in thickness,…
Moabite Stone, The — In the year 1868 Rev. F. Klein, of the Church Missionary Society at Jerusalem, found at Dhiban (the biblical Dibon), in Moab, a remarkable stone, since called the Moabite Stone. It was lying on the…
Omri — Servant of Jehovah. When Elah was murdered by Zimri at Tirzah (1 Kings 16:15-27), Omri, his captain, was made king (B.C. 931). For four years there was continued opposition to his reign, Tibni,…
War of Joram, in Alliance with Jehoshaphat, against the Moabites. - Kg2 3:4, Kg2 3:5. The occasion of this war was the rebellion of the Moabites, i.e., the refusal to pay tribute to Israel since the death of Ahab. Mesha the (vassal-) king of Moab was a possessor of flocks, and paid to the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and 100,000 rams; not merely at the commencement of each new reign (Cler.), but as a yearly tribute (השׁיב, to bring again = to bring repeatedly, as in Num 18:9, etc.). This yearly tribute could not be exorbitant for the land of the Moabites, which abounded in good pasture, and was specially adapted for the rearing of flocks. The payment of tribute in natural objects and in the…
The joint war of Israel and Judah against Moab was the setting for one of Elisha’s miracles.
3:4-5 The Moabite rebellion (see 1:1) began with the withholding of the annual tribute. The Moabite Stone (Mesha Stela) records details of Israel’s domination of northern Moab in the days of Omri and Ahab, a subservience that continued into the reigns of Ahaziah and Joram.
Rashi on 2 Kings 3:4
Owned many flocks. [Targum Yonoson renders,] “owner of livestock.”4Sheep are usually spotted [= נְקוּדִים], therefore a sheep owner is called נַקָּד.—Radak
Wooly rams. [Targum Yonoson renders,] “pasture-fed rams,” with their wool.
Sheep — Are of different varieties. Probably the flocks of Abraham and Isaac were of the wild species found still in the mountain regions of Persia and Kurdistan. After the Exodus, and as a result of…
Temple, Solomon’s — Before his death David had “with all his might” provided materials in great abundance for the building of the temple on the summit of Mount Moriah (1 Chr. 22:14; 29:4; 2 Chr. 3:1), on the east of the…
Zoar — Small, a town on the east or south-east of the Dead Sea, to which Lot and his daughters fled from Sodom (Gen. 19:22, 23). It was originally called Bela (14:2, 8). It is referred to by the prophets…
Lamb, The · Tribute often paid in — Tribute often paid in
Mesha · .Tributary to Ahab — .Tributary to Ahab
Moabites · Paid tribute of sheep and wool to the king of Israel — Paid tribute of sheep and wool to the king of Israel
Sheep · Tribute (taxes) paid in — Tribute (taxes) paid in
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
