Elijah Denounces Ahaziah

After the death of Ahab, Moab rebelled against Israel.

War with Moab

Now King Mesha of Moab was a sheep breeder who used to deliver to the king of Israel one hundred thousand lambs and the wool of one hundred thousand rams.

But when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.

As he went he sent word to King Jehoshaphat of Judah, “The king of Moab has rebelled against me; will you go with me to battle against Moab?” He answered, “I will; I am as you are; my people are your people; my horses are your horses.”

Then the king of Israel said, “Alas! The Lord has summoned these three kings to hand them over to Moab.”

Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What have I to do with you? Go to your father’s prophets or to your mother’s.” But the king of Israel said to him, “No; it is the Lord who has summoned these three kings to hand them over to Moab.”

This is only a trifle in the sight of the Lord, for he will also hand Moab over to you.

When all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, all who were able to put on armor, from the youngest to the oldest, were called out and were drawn up at the frontier.

When they rose early in the morning and the sun shone upon the water, the Moabites saw the water opposite them as red as blood.

They said, “This is blood; the kings must have fought together and killed one another. Now then, Moab, to the spoil!”

But when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and attacked the Moabites, who fled before them; as they entered Moab, they continued the attack.

When the king of Moab saw that the battle was going against him, he took with him seven hundred swordsmen to break through opposite the king of Edom, but they could not.

So Elisha died, and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year.

The king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Destruction, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Astarte the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

He sent against him bands of the Chaldeans, bands of the Arameans, bands of the Moabites, and bands of the Ammonites; he sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by his servants the prophets.