מלכים ב 3:4

Hebrew Modern Translation

ומישע מלך מואב היה נקד והשיב למלך ישראל מאה אלף כרים ומאה אלף אילים צמר׃

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Aleppo Codex
ומישע מלך מואב היה נקד והשיב למלך ישראל מאה אלף כרים ומאה אלף אילים צמר

Biblia Hebrica Stuttgartensia (1967/77)
וּמֵישַׁ֥ע מֶֽלֶךְ־מוֹאָ֖ב הָיָ֣ה נֹקֵ֑ד וְהֵשִׁ֤יב לְמֶֽלֶךְ־יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ מֵאָה־אֶ֣לֶף כָּרִ֔ים וּמֵ֥אָה אֶ֖לֶף אֵילִ֥ים צָֽמֶר ׃

Westminster Leningrad Codex
וּמֵישַׁע מֶֽלֶךְ־מוֹאָב הָיָה נֹקֵד וְהֵשִׁיב לְמֶֽלֶךְ־יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵאָה־אֶלֶף כָּרִים וּמֵאָה אֶלֶף אֵילִים צָֽמֶר ׃

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

a sheepmaster: Genesis 13:2, Genesis 26:13, Genesis 26:14, 2 Chronicles 26:10, Job 1:3, Job 42:12

rendered: 2 Samuel 8:2, 1 Chronicles 18:2, Psalms 60:8, Psalms 108:9, Psalms 108:10

lambs: Isaiah 16:1

Reciprocal: 2 Samuel 13:23 - sheepshearers 2 Kings 1:1 - after the 2 Chronicles 17:11 - brought Ecclesiastes 2:7 - also

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Mesha king of Moab was a sheep master,.... With which his country abounded; he kept great numbers of them, and shepherds to take care of them; he traded in them, and got great riches by them; his substance chiefly consisted in them:

and rendered unto the king of Israel: either as a present, or as an annual tribute:

an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool; that is, upon them, unshorn, and so the more valuable; and it was usual for tributary nations to pay their tribute to those to whom they were subject in such commodities which they most abounded with; so the Cappadocians, as Strabo c relates, used to pay, as a tribute to the Persians, every year, 1500 horses and 2000 mules, and five myriads of sheep, or 50,000; and formerly, Pliny d says, the only tribute was from the pastures.

c Geograph. l. 11. p. 362. d Nat. Hist. l. 18. c. 3.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Moab, the region immediately east of the Dead Sea and of the lower Jordan, though in part suited for agriculture, is in the main a great grazing country. Mesha resembled a modern Arab Sheikh, whose wealth is usually estimated by the number of his flocks and herds. His tribute of the wool of 100, 000 lambs was a tribute in kind, the ordinary tribute at this time in the East.

Mesha is the monarch who wrote the inscription on the “Moabite stone” (2 Kings 1:1 note). The points established by the Inscription are:

1. That Moab recovered from the blow dealt by David 2Sa 8:2, 2 Samuel 8:12, and became again an independent state in the interval between David’s conquest and the accession of Omri;

2. That Omri reconquered the country, and that it then became subject to the northern kingdom, and remained so throughout his reign and that of his son Ahab, and into the reign of Ahab’s son and successor, Ahaziah;

3. That the independence was regained by means of a war, in which Mesha took town after town from the Israelites, including in his conquests many of the towns which, at the original occupation of the holy land, had passed into the possession of the Reubenites or the Gadites, as Baal-Meon Numbers 32:38, Kirjathaim Numbers 32:37, Ataroth Numbers 32:34, Nebo Numbers 32:38, Jahaz Joshua 13:18, etc.;

4. That the name of Yahweh was well known to the Moabites as that of the God of the Israelites; and

5. That there was a sanctuary of Yahweh at Nebo, in the Trans-Jordanic territory, where “vessels” were used in His service.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 2 Kings 3:4. Was a sheepmaster — The original is נקד naked, of which the Septuagint could make nothing, and therefore retained the Hebrew word νωκηδ: but the Chaldee has מרי גיתי marey githey, "a sheepmaster;" Aquila has ποιμνιοτροφος; and Symmachus, τρεφων βοσκηματα; all to the same sense. The original signifies one who marks or brands, probably from the marking of sheep. He fed many sheep, &c., and had them all marked in a particular way, in order to ascertain his property.

A hundred thousand lambs — The Chaldee and Arabic have a hundred thousand fat oxen.