2 Kings 3 · a question people ask
The LORD said he would deliver Moab into their hand. Did it happen?
The LORD's word through Elisha was, "This is an easy thing in the LORD’s sight. He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand" (3:18), and "You shall strike every fortified city and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all springs of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones" (3:19). The chapter tells what followed, point by point: "the Israelites rose up and struck the Moabites, so that they fled before them" (3:24); "They beat down the cities; and on every good piece of land each man cast his stone, and filled it. They also stopped all the springs of water and cut down all the good trees" (3:25). At Kir Hareseth "all they left was its stones; however the men armed with slings went around it and attacked it" (3:25). Then comes 3:27, and "they departed from him, and returned to their own land" (3:27). The chapter sets the word and the outcome one after the other and makes no comment on them. It doesn't say the word failed, and it doesn't say Kir Hareseth was taken or Moab brought back under Israel. These notes don't go further than that.
The verses
“This is an easy thing in the LORD’s sight. He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand. You shall strike every fortified city and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all springs of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones.’””
“When they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and struck the Moabites, so that they fled before them; and they went forward into the land attacking the Moabites. They beat down the cities; and on every good piece of land each man cast his stone, and filled it. They also stopped all the springs of water and cut down all the good trees, until in Kir Hareseth all they left was its stones; however the men armed with slings went around it and attacked it.”
“Then he took his oldest son who would have reigned in his place, and offered him for a burnt offering on the wall. There was great wrath against Israel; and they departed from him, and returned to their own land.”