And the king of Moab saw that the battle was too severe for him, and he took with him seven hundred men that drew swords, to break through to the king of Edom, but they could not.
Israel, Judah, and Edom had gone to war against Moab, and the war was going badly for Moab. Now Moab's king, cornered in his last stronghold, makes one final armed gamble, and the verse ends with three flat words: they could not.
The defeat took Moab completely by surprise. One writer thinks Israel then pushed the beaten king too hard:
Their defeat was thorough and crushing, as it was unexpected. Israel now seems to have gone too far in merciless pursuit and pressure on the king of Moab.
Moab's king did not charge at random. He picked one part of the enemy line, and one writer gives the likely reason:
The account mentions only Israel as striking the enemy and destroying them, just as Elisha had predicted. The king of Moab takes seven hundred men and tries to break through to the king of Edom. He no doubt wants to take refuge with him, but he does not succeed.
The charge failed. What a man does next, when every human resource is gone, shows where his trust really lies:
Frustrated in the attempt to break through, the king of Moab took his oldest son and offered him as a burnt offering to his idolatrous god. He acted as though this foolish step would turn the tide of the war! But such is the folly of unbelief.
Most take the next verse to mean that Moab's king killed his own son and heir. One writer links it instead to a later charge against Moab — that Moab burned the bones of Edom's king into lime:
It would seem that 2 Kings 3:26-27 contains the fact referred to, which most, like Josephus, have misinterpreted. "His eldest son" means the eldest son of the king of Edom. He was the heir to the throne, and probably joint king. The king of Moab threatened to burn him, and did burn his bones, when Israel refused to lift the siege.
Either way, the failed charge at Edom's line led straight to it.
The alliance that won the war did not survive it. Israel's king Jehoram is left to face the result:
This horrible sacrifice calls out the indignation of Israel's allies. Their vengeance has driven Moab to this extreme. They withdraw from the victor and return home. What a useless victory! Moab may believe that this appalling offering to its god has saved it. It may remain unconquered among its ruins, ready for worse reprisals. Such will always be the result of human victories, when it is not God who leads His people to victory. Edom was Israel's ally for a day, and Israel had counted on him. He abandons her and is angry with her from the moment she goes into battle with the name of the Lord as her banner... Jehoram must learn that a religion that only looks true will find no lasting support. It gets none from open unbelievers, and none from those who keep the testimony of God.
Israel had no claim on this victory. The prophet Elisha learned why God gave it anyway:
Elisha discovers that the Lord was going to use the occasion of His people's failure and distress to vindicate His own glory and magnify His grace. Not only would He keep His people from the destruction their own folly deserved, but He would grant them a striking victory over their enemies.
- Cornered. Moab's king expected an easy win. The defeat that hit him instead is what verse 26 opens with.
- Could not. Seven hundred swordsmen drove at the part of the line held by Edom, most likely hoping for shelter there, and failed.
- Cruelty. When his strength failed, he turned to his god with a human sacrifice. Commentators differ on who the victim was, and one writer calls the act the folly of unbelief.
- Cost. The allies broke up in anger and went home. A victory won without God leaves the enemy unbroken among his ruins, ready for worse.
- Cause. Grace was the only reason Israel won anything. God used His people's failure to display His own glory, instead of letting them reap the destruction their folly deserved.
And he took his eldest son, that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him up for a burnt-offering upon the wall. And there was great wrath against Israel; and they departed from him, and returned to [their own] land.
The war against Moab does not end with a treaty. It ends with a father burning his own heir on the city wall, in full view of the armies below. Then the winning side goes home. Commentators read the scene as a window into what false worship demands. They also show how an army can win a war and waste it in the same hour.
The king of Moab did not do this in private. He made his offering where Israel could watch:
Then in despair the King of Moab did the horrible thing of sacrificing his eldest son, the one to reign after him. He offered him upon the wall, in plain sight of Israel, as a burnt offering, to win the favour of his god Chemosh.
Kelly refuses to soften what happened, and then sets God's altar against the idol's:
Some have argued from the words "passing through the fire," here and elsewhere, that the children were not really burned. But this seems a kind attempt to soften how evil the thing was. It was the fullest, though not the only, profanation of the name of Israel's God. Jehovah accepted a sheep or an ox, or even a much smaller sacrifice; Satan under these names demanded their sons.
Kelly also traces where Moab's god came from, and how little human progress does to stop such worship:
Molech was the god of the Ammonites, and Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, differed little from it. One scholar makes the name Chemosh mean "fire," as Molech and names like it mean "King." ... The greatest science and learning, the highest civilization and luxury, can in no way stop this, if they do not help it on.
One writer traces the steps that led to the offering, and names what was behind it:
The king of Moab was desperate. He took 700 swordsmen to break through to the king of Edom, but they failed to get through. Blocked, he took his oldest son and offered him as a burnt offering to his idolatrous god. He did it as though this foolish act would change the tide of war! But such is the folly of unbelief.
Another writer hears an echo of this act in what God says about Moab long afterwards:
Then he offers up his firstborn son for a burnt offering upon the wall. Does this not bring to mind what Jehovah says much later about this same Moab: "Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul" (Micah 6:7)?
Commentators differ over whose child died. Most take the plain reading of the verse: the king of Moab killed his own heir. Kelly reads it differently, and ties the verse to a charge that Amos brings against Moab:
Amos brings this charge against Moab: he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime. It would seem that 2 Kings 3:26-27 contains the fact referred to, which most writers, like Josephus, have misinterpreted. "His eldest son" means the eldest son of the king of Edom. He was the heir to the throne, and probably joint king. The king of Moab threatened to burn him, and did burn his bones, when Israel refused to lift the siege.
The wrath that "came against Israel" broke the coalition. The armies that had just won walked away and left Moab standing in its own ruins.
This horrible sacrifice stirs up the anger of Israel's allies. Their own thirst for revenge had driven Moab to this extreme. So they leave the victor and go home. What a useless victory! Moab may think that this appalling offering to its god has saved it. It stays unbeaten among its own ruins, ready to strike back harder later. This will always be the result of human victories, when it is not God who leads His people to victory.
One writer draws a lesson from Jehoshaphat, the godly king who joined this war:
This was Jehoshaphat's second alliance with ungodly men, and like the first, it ended in failure and produced nothing. Even sinners who want their plans to succeed should be careful not to take God's children into partnership. God's hand may be on His own people for discipline, and trouble will follow them.
- Desperate — His breakout failed, so the king of Moab burned his heir on the wall for Israel to see. He hoped to buy Chemosh's help.
- Deceived — The move changed nothing about the battle. It was the folly of unbelief, acting as though a horror could turn the tide.
- Demanded — God's altar asked for a sheep or an ox. Behind the idol's name, Satan asked for sons, and no level of civilisation has ever stopped it.
- Disputed — Most read the victim as Moab's own crown prince. Kelly reads him as Edom's heir, and points to Amos, who charges Moab with burning the bones of Edom's king.
- Dissolved — The allies broke up and went home, leaving a won war unfinished. That is what human victories come to when God is not the one leading.