Bible Strands
2 Kings 3:25
They destroyed the cities, and each man threw stones on every good field until it was covered. They stopped up every spring and cut down every good tree. Only Kir-haraseth was left with stones in place, but men with slings surrounded it and attacked it as well.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Israelite army executes a systematic destruction of Moabite territory immediately after routing the Moabite forces in the previous verse. This occurs during a coordinated invasion before the Moabite king attempts a desperate breakout to the king of Edom.
The words — יַשְׁלִ֨יכוּ (yash.Li.khu) means they threw, and חֶלְקָה (chel.Kah) denotes a portion of land. Together they describe soldiers covering every fertile field with stones until the ground was obscured.
The thread — The scorched-earth tactic fulfills the directive in 2 Kings 3:19 to attack fortified cities, cut down good trees, and stop up springs. The ruined city of Kir-haraseth later becomes a focal point of lament in Isaiah 16:7 and Jeremiah 48:31.
Why it lands — The text demands observation of how military campaigns can methodically erase agricultural and urban infrastructure. It leaves the reader to note that total devastation precedes a ruler's failed escape attempt and does not guarantee victory.
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 beat down the cities, and on every good piece of land cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the wells of water, and felled all the good trees: only in Kir–haraseth left they the stones thereof; howbeit the slingers went about it, and smote it.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 3:19 And you shall attack every fortified city and every city of importance. You shall cut down every good tree, stop up every spring, and ruin every good field with stones.”
- Isaiah 16:7 Therefore let Moab wail; let them wail together for Moab. Moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth, you who are utterly stricken.
- Jeremiah 48:31 Therefore I will wail for Moab; I will cry out for all of Moab; I will moan for the men of Kir-heres.
- Jeremiah 48:36 Therefore My heart laments like a flute for Moab; it laments like a flute for the men of Kir-heres, because the wealth they acquired has perished.
- Isaiah 16:11 Therefore my heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir-heres.
- Genesis 26:15 So the Philistines took dirt and stopped up all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham.
- Genesis 26:18 Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. And he gave these wells the same names his father had given them.
- Deuteronomy 2:9 Then the LORD said to me, “Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, because I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as their possession.”
- Deuteronomy 20:19 When you lay siege to a city for an extended time while fighting against it to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them, because you can eat their fruit. You must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human, that you should besiege them?
- Judges 9:45 And all that day Abimelech fought against the city until he had captured it and killed its people. Then he demolished the city and sowed it with salt.