When Ahab’s heir Ahaziah died, the throne passed to a younger brother, Jehoram. This one at least had the sense to remove his father’s palace idol of Baal. However, he still kept the shrines at Dan and Bethel operating. So keep in mind that the northern kingdom was still deeply pagan in orientation.
Judah to the south was reigned by Jehoshaphat, regarded as a good king, cleansing the kingdom of pagan idols and commissioning priests to travel around the land teaching the law to the people. However, he was stupid enough to ally with Ahab by marrying his son to the latter’s daughter.
At this time, Moab was a tributary to Israel, while Edom was under Judah’s thumb. Moab rebelled as soon as Ahab died, and stopped sending the annual tribute of sheep and wool. Jehoshaphat decided to go and collect by force. He mustered his troops and sent a message to Judah, asking if his ally would like to join him in this venture. Besides, the strategy required Jehoram to march through Judah and Edom. The northern border of Moab had been highly fortified over the past few years while things had been unstable in Samaria, so he wanted to attack from the south.
Jehoshaphat’s job was to provide the reserve troops, and Edom contributed a smaller force in a similar role. We have no idea which route they took, but the idea was to avoid being seen by Moab’s lookouts and spies. They came around the south end of the sea and picked up the Edomite troops. It wasn’t far to the southern border of Moab, the Wadi Zered (Wadi al-Hasa today).
But this took them seven days, and Edom was in drought. There was no water in the wadi, and they had run out of what they carried; the nearby Dead Sea was toxic. Maintaining the fiction that Israel still worshiped Jehovah, Jehoram wailed that He had brought them out to this place to die. Yet the king had not bothered to inquire of Jehovah’s prophet, Elisha, who had come along for the trip (some of that Hebrew sarcasm). So it was for Jehoshaphat to suggest asking a prophet of God, and one of Jehoram’s lieutenants casually answer that Elisha was there. He was known as a close servant of Elijah (washing his hands prior to ceremonies).
That sounded quite trustworthy to Jehoshaphat, so they went down to see Elisha in the camp. Keep in mind that, as battle leaders, the kings would have been discussing things from some high spot overlooking the Wadi Zered, while the troops would have been waiting, probably setting up camp somewhere nearby on open terrain. We have no idea which of the two obvious routes they would have taken, but both the western shore of the Dead Sea, and the ancient Highway of Kings, would cross relatively flat open areas where they intersect with the Wadi Zered. However, the narrative makes it sound like they hugged the shore of the Dead Sea.
Elisha received the King of Israel with harsh words, suggesting he consult with prophets of his pagan idols. The king’s response was to blame Elisha’s God for the bad situation. Elisha came back that, as surely as his God was alive, not a dead idol, that he would not bother responding were it not for the presence of the faithful King Jehoshaphat of Judah. So Elisha called for a musician to play and sing some familiar worship tunes. This put him in the frame of mind to hear more clearly in his spirit what God would have to say. Keep in mind that a military camp of this sort would have been a busy, noisy place.
The Lord responded by speaking through Elisha: Dig some long catch basins in the wadi floor. They would feel no cooling wind nor see or hear the storms, but somewhere far upstream it would rain and the valley would run with fresh water. It would be no sweat at all to God to supply their need, and He would deliver Moab into their hands, as well. They were ordered to take advantage of the situation and set Moab back to the Stone Age: pull down every fortified and walled city, cut down every useful tree, fill the wells with sand, and fill all the farm fields with rubble from the destroyed cities.
So the next morning, with the ritual sharing of bread with God, that water filled the wadi, coming down from the highlands up on northern Edom. By this time, Moab’s spotters had notified their king that the three armies were on the southern border. This far outnumbered his troops, so he pressed into service any man large enough to wear armor. They had camped rather hastily on the border, and when they rose to face the onslaught, they saw the wet valley floor below. Having no report of rain, they mistook the red glint of the sunrise off the water as blood. Surely the three kings had quarreled and the armies had fought!
So they rushed down the slope to attack. They were met by the fully intact army of Israel in the lead, and were slaughtered. The survivors hastily withdrew and retreated back into the hills. The triple invasion force then rose and began destroying the whole countryside, as ordered.
Now, there was one city that was not easy to attack — Kir-harasheth. You’d have to see it (modern day Kerak, Jordan). The hilltop is a rounded triangle with a long tail running off to the southwest, and a skinny finger ridfe sticking out on the northwestern corner. The hill is very steep-sided, with deep ravines on every side, and heights across each one facing the city. It was such a wonderful site that the Crusaders built one of their fortresses there, and archaeology has not found much of what might have stood before that.
So there was no way to attack this thing except with slingers, the artillery of that day. Estimates vary, but we have reason to believe they could lob 1kg stones far enough to rain down inside the city walls, and probably begin the process of chipping away at some of the walls. They weren’t made of cut stone, but stacked rocks and mud.
The King of Moab, Mesha, left a stone monument that has been found and refers to this battle. Seeing that a prolonged siege would succeed, he tried to slip out with his elite troops on one side to where the Edomite forces were waiting. Maybe he thought they would be less interested in fighting so hard, but he guessed wrong and was driven back inside the walls.
So he did the one thing that would have worked. Keep in mind that the northern kingdom of Israel had become highly superstitious at this point, having no faith in Jehovah. Mesha sacrificed his first-born son to Chemosh, Moab’s national deity, right on the wall of the city in plain sight of Israel’s army. It’s not at all uncommon among Moabites to do such a thing, but Israel had some weird superstitions about Abraham sacrificing his son and what kind of magical power it was supposed to have unleashed. Notice that neither Judah nor Edom reacted much to this, but it really messed with the heads of the Israeli soldiers (the Hebrew wording in our text is rather hard to translate).
So they backed off in dismay. While Mesha didn’t have much to save, he did manage to keep his independence, as noted on that stone monument. The expedition dispersed and everyone went home.
