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

And Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool.

A sheep-master; a man of great wealth, (which in those times and places consisted much in cattle,) which enabled and emboldened him to rebel against his sovereign lord.

2 Kings 3:4 And Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool.Ver. 4. And Mesha king of Moab.] Mesha signifieth Salvation, a fit name for a king. But this man might as ill deserve it, as did Antiochus, surnamed Soter, that is, a saviour: not for any great good he did, but because he did not much harm. With the wool.] It was grown to a proverb among our forefathers, Curia Romana non petit ovem sine lana. Rain., De Idol. Rom., p. 272.

(4) The revolt of Moab, continued from 2 Kings 1:1. Ahaziah did not reign two full years, and his accident seems to have prevented any attempt on his part to reduce the Moabites. Mesha.—The name means “deliverance, salvation,” and occurs on the monument set up by this king, describing his victories and buildings. (See Note on 2 Kings 1:1.) A sheep-master.—Heb., nτqηd (Amos 1:1). In Arabic, naqad means a kind of sheep of superior wool; naqqβd, the owner or shepherd of such sheep. The land of Moab is mountainous, but well watered, and rich in fertile valleys, and thus specially suited for pasture; and the Arabian wilderness lay open to the Moabite shepherds and their flocks. Rendered.—Used to render (waw conversive of the perfect); scil., year by year. This tribute is referred to in Isaiah 16:1. With the wool.—Rather, in wool (an accusative of limitation). The word rendered “lambs” (kβrξm) means lambs fatted for food. The expression “in wool,” therefore, relates only to the rams. Mesha’s annual tribute was paid in kind, and consisted of a hundred thousand fatted lambs and the fleeces of a hundred thousand rams. This was a heavy burden for a country no larger than the county of Huntingdon. (Comp. Mesha’s own allusions to the “oppression” of Moab by Omri and Ahab, 2 Kings 1:1, Note.) The LXX. adds, ἐντῇἐπαναστάσει (“in the revolt”); implying that the present rebellion was distinct from that of 2 Kings 1:1, and that this tribute was imposed as an indemnity for the former revolt. The addition is probably due to a transcriber.

Verse 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, τρεφωνβοσκηματα; all to the same sense. The original signifies one who marks or brands, probably from the marking of sheep. He fed many sheep, &c., 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.

4. And Mesha king of Moab] This name for the king of Moab occurs in the first line of the Moabite stone. In that inscription the Moabite king mentions his successes against Omri and Omri’s successor and speaks of forty years as the time during which the conflict between Israel and Moab continued. Now Omri reigned six years (1 Kings 16:23) and Ahab’s reign lasted twenty-two years (1 Kings 16:29) while Ahaziah reigned one or two years more. Thus the whole period of forty years would not be covered unless we take in the reign of Jehoram. The Moabite inscription naturally represents only the Moabite successes, but the Scripture narrative shews that the victory over Omri had been followed by a defeat in the days of Ahab. a sheepmaster] The LXX. transliterates the word writing Νωκήδ. It occurs only here and in Amos 1:1. The other Greek versions and the Targum give the meaning. The Moabite country by its character, valleys with fertile hill-sides and streams of water running through them, was eminently suited for a pastoral people; and from the nature of the tribute imposed it seems likely that all the wealth of the Moabites was in their cattle. rendered unto the king of Israel] At the division of the kingdoms, Moab would fall to the share of the ten tribes, as it joined on to the south of the tribe of Reuben. Perhaps the tribute at first had not been so heavy as is here described, but had been increased on account of the struggles of Moab to throw off their yoke. an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool] R.V. the wool of an hundred thousand lambs, and of an hundred thousand rams. There is nothing in the Hebrew for ‘with’. The construction is: ‘he rendered these animals, the wool’. So that it seems best to take the last word as explanatory of what has preceded, and to understand that what the Moabite king gave of these numerous animals was the fleece only. The LXX. understood it so, and gives ἐπὶπόκων, as we might say fleece-wise. That version however adds in the verse, without any warrant of the original, ἐντῇἐπαναστάσει = in the revolt, as if to explain that this large payment had been made only on one occasion. But this is wholly without evidence, and the Hebrew would lead us to think that the payment was made every year, and this is implied in Isaiah 16:1, ‘Send ye the lamb’, i.e. the tribute of lambs. This being so, it is more likely that the fleeces were sent than the live stock. Indeed there would be little meaning in adding ‘the wool’ if the flocks were to be sent alive. It should be mentioned however that Josephus supports the A.V. saying μνριάδαςεἴκοσιπροβάτωνσὺντοῖςπόκοις.

Moab, the region immediately east of the Dead Sea and of the lower Jordan, though in part suited for agriculture, is in the main a great grazing country.

4. Sheepmaster — The word is rendered shepherd in Amos 1:1, and, according to some writers, means literally a marker, and serves to designate a shepherd, because it was his custom to mark his sheep in order to distinguish them.