water collected in them had acquired a reddish colour, which was considerably intensified by the rays of the rising sun, so that when seen from a distance it resembled blood. The Moabites, however, were the less likely to entertain the thought of an optical delusion, from the fact that with their accurate acquaintance with the country they knew very well that there was no water in the wady at that time, and they had neither seen nor heard anything of the rain which had fallen at a great distance off in the Edomitish mountains. The thought was therefore a natural one, that the water was blood, and that the cause of the blood could only have been that their enemies had massacred one another, more especially as the jealousy between Israel and Judah was not unknown to them, and they could have no doubt that Edom had only come with them as a forced ally after the unsuccessful attempt at rebellion which it had made a short time before; and, lastly, they cannot quite have forgotten their own last expedition against Judah in alliance with the Edomites and Ammonites, which had completely failed, because the men composing their own army had destroyed one another. But if they came into collision with the allied army of the Israelites under such a delusion as this, the battle could only end in defeat and in a general flight so far as they were concerned.
Verses 24-25
The Israelites followed the fugitives into their own land and laid it waste, as Elisha had prophesied (2Ki 3:25 compared with 2Ki 3:19). The Chethîb ויבו־בהּ is to be read בהּ ויּבו (for ויּבוא as in 1Ki 12:12): and (Israel) came into the land and smote Moab. The Keri ויּכּוּ is a bad emendation. הכּות is either the infinitive construct used instead of the infin. absolute (Ewald, §351, c.), or an unusual form of the inf. absol. (Ewald, §240, b.). עד־השׁאיר, till one (= so that one only) left its stones in Kir-chareseth. On the infinitive form השׁאיר see at Jos 8:22. The suffix in אבניה probably points forward to the following noun (Ewald, §309, c.). The city called חרשׂת קיר here and Isa 16:7, and חרשׂ קיר in Isa 16:11 and Jer 48:31, Jer 48:36, i.e., probably city of potsherds, is called elsewhere מואב קיר, the citadel of Moab (Isa 15:1), as the principal fortress of the land (in the Chaldee Vers. דמואב כרכּא), and still exists under the name of Kerak, with a strong castle build by the Crusaders, upon a lofty and steep chalk rock, surrounded by a deep and narrow valley, which runs westward under the name of Wady Kerak and falls into the Dead Sea (vid., Burckhardt, Syr. pp. 643ff.,
