Daily Tanach Wednesday Sefer Melachim 2 Chapter 3 Part 4: The battle with Moav

1. The battle with Moav:

• Moav prepares for battle: All of the Moavites heard that the kings had come up to wage war with them and so they all assembled, everyone old enough to gird a sword and older [which was all of their warriors^[1]], and they stood at the border.
• Moav sees water that appears like blood and is fooled to think that the enemy has been destroyed: The Moavites arose early in the morning, at the time that the sun shone on the water; and they saw the water from a distance, and the water appeared red like blood. They exclaimed to themselves that this blood must be the blood of their enemies as the kings who wanted to fight them have in the end fought against each other and have killed each other. “And now all of their spoils will go to Moav!”
• Moav is annihilated: The Moavites arrived to the Israelite camp [unprepared for war, thinking that they were all already dead] and the Israelites arose and struck the Moavites, and they fled from before them; and they attacked them, and slew the Moavites. The Jewish people demolished their cities, and every soldier [uprooted stones from their walls^[2] and] threw a stone on every fertile field and filled it up, and they stopped up every water spring and they chopped down every good tree. The only stones that were left over were the stones of the city called Charashe, and to destroy this wall they threw stone catapults at it until it fell.
• The king of Moav survives: The king of Moav saw that the men of war on the side of Israel were stronger than his side, and so he took with him seven hundred men with drawn swords to break through the lines of the camp and reach the king of Edom [to wage war against him^[3]], however, they were unable. So instead, the king of Moav took his first-born son who was meant to reign after him, and brought him up for a burnt-offering on the wall. [Some learn that he took his own firstborn son and slaughtered him and offered him as a sacrifice to his idolatry, in order to mimic the action of Akeidas Yitzchak and receive divine assistance.^[4] Others say that he sacrificed him to G-d and not to his idolatry.^[5] Others, however, explain that the firstborn son of Edom was a captive of the kingdom of Moav, and the king of Moav slaughtered him as a sacrifice, and burnt him completely in front of his father the king of Edom.^[6]]
• G-d is angered with the Jewish people: [The above actions of the king of Moav] caused a great wrath to fall upon Israel [as it caused G-d to remember that also his children Israel are guilty of idolatry^[7]] and so all of the kings withdrew from Moav and returned to their lands.

[1] Metzudos Dovid 3:20

[2] Rashi 3:25

[3] Metzudos Dovid 3:26

[4] Rashi 3:27

[5] Metzudos Dovid 3:27

[6] Radak 3:27

[7] Rashi 3:27; alternatively, the king of Edom got very angry with the Jewish people, as he had hoped to recover his son from the king of Moav, and instead he was sacrificed and burned in front of his eyes. [Radak 3:27]