Page:02.BCOT.KD.HistoricalBooks.A.vol.2.EarlyProphets.djvu/1360

 Jehoshaphat was taking the field against the Moabites.

Verses 9-12
But however cleverly this plan may have been contrived, when the united army had been marching round for seven days and was passing through the deep rocky valley of the Ahsy, which divided the territories of Edom and Moab, it was in the greatest danger of perishing from want of water for men and cattle, as the river which flows through this valley, and in which they probably hoped to find a sufficient supply of water, since according to Robinson (Pal. ii. pp. 476 and 488) it is a stream which never fails, was at that time perfectly dry. In this distress the hearts of the two kings were manifested. - 2Ki 3:10-12. Joram cried out in his despair: “Woe, that Jehovah has called these three kings, to give them into the hand of Moab!” (כּי, that, serves to give emphasis to the assurance; see Ewald, §330, b.) Jehoshaphat, on the other hand, had confidence in the Lord, and inquired whether there was no prophet there, through whom they could seek counsel of the Lord (as in 1Ki 22:7); whereupon one of the servants of the Israelitish king answered that Elisha was there, who had poured water upon the hands of Elijah, i.e., had been with him daily as his servant, and therefore could probably obtain and give a revelation from god. Elisha may perhaps have come to the neighbourhood of the army at the instigation of the Spirit of God, because the distress of the kings was to be one means in the hand of the Lord, not only of distinguishing