Bible Strands
2 Kings 3:23
“This is blood!” they exclaimed. “The kings have clashed swords and slaughtered one another. Now to the plunder, Moab!”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Moabite army observes the morning sun reflecting off the water and mistakes it for blood. They shout to their own troops that the allied kings have destroyed each other and command them to advance for plunder.
The words — The Hebrew דָּם זֶה (dam zeh) translates literally as "this is blood." The paired verbs הָחֳרֵב and נֶחֶרְבוּ (ho.cho.rev, ne.che.rev) state that the kings have clashed and struck each other down.
The thread — The anticipated division of spoils mirrors the enemy's declarations in Exodus 15:9 and Judges 5:30. The motif of misperception and divine intervention aligns with the blindness described in 2 Kings 6:18.
Why it lands — The text records a tactical deception born from optical illusion rather than actual battle. It requires the reader to acknowledge that human judgment of circumstances is unreliable without divine clarification.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And they said, This is blood: the kings are surely slain, and they have smitten one another: now therefore, Moab, to the spoil.
Cross-references
- Exodus 15:9 The enemy declared, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’
- Judges 5:30 ‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil—a girl or two for each warrior, a plunder of dyed garments for Sisera, the spoil of embroidered garments for the neck of the looter?’
- 2 Kings 6:18 As the Arameans came down against him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, “Please strike these people with blindness.” So He struck them with blindness, according to the word of Elisha.
- 2 Kings 7:6 For the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots, horses, and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel must have hired the kings of the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us.”
- 2 Chronicles 20:25 Then Jehoshaphat and his people went to carry off the plunder, and they found on the bodies an abundance of goods and valuables—more than they could carry away. They were gathering the plunder for three days because there was so much.
- Isaiah 10:14 My hand reached as into a nest to seize the wealth of the nations. Like one gathering abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth. No wing fluttered, no beak opened or chirped.’”