2 Kings 3:4

“And Mesha king of Moab was a sheep master, etc.] 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 f27 relates, used to pay, as a tribute to the Persians, every year, 1500…”

“MESHA, KING OF MOAB, REBELS. (Kg2 3:4-5) Mesha king of Moab, &c.--As his dominions embraced an extensive pasture country, he paid, as annual tribute, the wool of a hundred thousand lambs and a hundred thousand rams. It is still common in the East to pay custom and taxes in the fruits or natural produce of the land.”

“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.…”

“A sheep - master - A man of great wealth (which in those times and places consisted much in cattle) which enabled and emboldened him to rebel against his sovereign. 4 Kings (2 Kings) 3:7”

“3:4-27 The joint war of Israel and Judah against Moab was the setting for one of Elisha’s miracles. 3:4-5 The Moabite rebellion (see 1:1) began with the withholding of the annual tribute. The Moabite Stone (Mesha Stela) records details of Israel’s domination of northern Moab in the days of Omri and Ahab, a subservience that continued into the reigns of Ahaziah and Joram.”

“a sheepmaster: Gen 13:2, Gen 26:13, Gen 26:14; Ch2 26:10; Job 1:3, Job 42:12 rendered: Sa2 8:2; Ch1 18:2; Psa 60:8, Psa 108:9, Psa 108:10 lambs: Isa 16:1 4 Kings (2 Kings) 3:5”

“War of Joram, in Alliance with Jehoshaphat, against the Moabites. - Kg2 3:4, Kg2 3:5. The occasion of this war was the rebellion of the Moabites, i.e., the refusal to pay tribute to Israel since the death of Ahab. Mesha the (vassal-) king of Moab was a possessor of flocks, and paid to the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and 100,000 rams; not merely at the commencement of each new reign (Cler.), but as a yearly tribute (השׁיב, to bring again = to bring repeatedly, as in Num 18:9, etc.). This yearly tribute could not be exorbitant for the land of the Moabites, which abounded in good pasture, and was specially adapted for the rearing of flocks. The payment of tribute in natural objects and in the…”