2 Kings 3:22

2Ki 3:22 And they rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone upon the water, and the Moabites saw the water on the other side [as] red as blood:

Ver. 22. And the Moabites saw the water … as red as blood.] So they seemed to be, by reason of the sunbeams, which met with the vapours that arose out of the waters, and could not dispel them.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ki 3:22-23. The sun shone upon the water, &c. — They stood in such a situation, when they looked at the water, that those rays of the sun which gave a red colour, were reflected from the water to their eyes; or the light of the morning sun shining upon the water, through the vapours that arose from the earth, gave it a reddish appearance; so that they imagined it to be blood, which they were the more inclined to suppose, because they knew very well there was no water there before. And they said — The kings are surely slain, &c. — As they concluded what they saw could be nothing but blood, so they could not conceive it could be any other blood than that of the army of the three kings, who they thought had fallen out among themselves, vexed at the straits into which they had brought one another. Now therefore, Moab, to the spoil — Easily believing what they wished, they imagined they had nothing to do but to go and take the spoil, having no need to fight at all. Therefore they sent no scouts, but marched thither with their whole army, and that in great disorder: wherein, also, there was a divine hand, strengthening them in their mistakes, and hardening them to their destruction.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 22. Saw the water on the other side as red as blood] This might have been an optical deception; I have seen the like sight when there was no reason to suspect supernatural agency. The Moabites had never seen that valley full of water, and therefore did not suspect that their eyes deceived them, but took it for the blood of the confederate hosts, who they thought might have fallen into confusion in the darkness of night and destroyed each other, as the Midianites had formerly done, Jdg 7:22, and the Philistines lately, 1Sa 14:20.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(22) They rose up early.—The Moabite camp on the frontier mountains.

And the sun shone upon the water.—A parenthesis (now the sun had risen upon the water). The red sunrise tinged the water with the same colour.

On the other side.—Min-nèged, “opposite,” “over against them” (2Ki_2:7; 2Ki_2:15). The sun rose behind the Moabites.

Red.—’Adôm. There may be an allusion to the red earth of the locality (Edom), which would further redden the water.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22. they rose up early in the morning] When the rays of the sun would be shining obliquely on the water, and would cause it to have an unusual colour.

the water on the other side] R.V. over against them. See above on 2Ki_2:7

as red as blood] This would be partly due to the slanting rays of the sun, and partly perhaps to the redness of the land through which the water had flowed. It was impossible for the Moabites to think what they saw to be water, for no signs of rain had been observable.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And they beat down the cities,.... Demolished the walls of them, and houses in them, wherever they came:

and on every good piece of land cast every man his stone, and filled it; which they had taken out of the walls and houses they pulled down; or which they picked up in the highway, as they passed along, being a stony country; or which being laid in heaps, gathered out of the fields, they took and scattered them all over them:

and they stopped all the wells of water; with stones and dirt:

and felled all the good trees; fruit bearing ones; See Gill on Kg2 3:19,

only in Kirharaseth left they the stones thereof; not able to demolish it, it being a strong fortified city, the principal of the kingdom, and into which the king of Moab had thrown himself, and the remains of his forces; of which see Isa 16:7,

howbeit, the slingers went about it, and smote it; smote the soldiers that appeared upon the walls of it; though Kimchi, and other Jewish writers, understand it of engineers, who cast out large stones from a sort of machines then in use, to batter down and break through the walls of cities.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Blood. The clouds have frequently a reddish colour at sun-rise, which would be reflected in the waters: the sand might also be red. As the Moabites knew that no water could be expected there at that season of the year, and as some examples had occurred of people turning their arms one against another in the night, (Judges vii. 11., and 1 Kings xiv. 20.) they concluded that what they saw was blood. (Calmet) --- God had also destined them for slaughter, (Abulensis, q. 21.) and suffered their imagination and judgment to be deluded. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Because of the morning sun, which meeting with the vapours that arose from the earth, and shining through them upon the water, gave it a reddish tincture. God also so ordered things, that their senses and fancies were disturbed, or the air so disposed, that it might seem of this colour. And they might more easily mistake this for blood, because they knew that that ground was generally dry, and without any trenches or streams of water, now especially in this dry season, there being no noise of wind and rain, 2Ki 3:17. And they might justly think that the three kings being divided in their religion and interests, and discontented for want of water, might fall into dissensions, and heats, and mutual slaughters, of which they had a late example, 2Ch 20:22,23.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

22. Saw the water… red as blood — “As the suddenly appearing mass of waters was effected in a natural way by a violent rain in the distance, so also the illusion, that was so fatal to the Moabites, is explained in a natural way, indicated even in the text. From the red earth of the pits the water collected in them had assumed a reddish colour, which was considerably increased by the rays of the rising sun falling upon it, so that, seen from the distance, it must have appeared like blood. But the Moabites might be the less disposed to think of an optical illusion, as by their familiar acquaintance with the region they knew that the wady had at that time no water, and they had seen or learned nothing of the rain which had fallen far from them in the Edomite mountains.” — Keil.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And they rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone upon the water, and the Moabites saw the water on the other side as red as blood. The red hue of the water is ascribed by Ewald to "the red tinge of the soil" in the part of Edom where the rain had fallen ("History of Israel," vol. 4. p. 88); by Keil, to "the reddish earth of the freshly dug trenches," or pits ("Commentary on 2 Kings," p. 305); but the only cause of the redness mentioned either in Kings or in Josephus is the ruddy hue of the sunrise. A ruddy sunrise is common in the East, more especially in stormy weather; (see Mat_16:3) and the red light, falling upon the water in the pits, and reflected thence to the opposite side of the wady, would quite sufficiently account for the mistake of the Moabites, without supposing that the water was actually stained and discolored. The Moabites concluded that the red-looking liquid was blood, from knowing that the wady was dry the day before, and from not suspecting that there had been any change in the night, as the storm which had caused the change was at such a distance.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Red as blood. Such is the nature of water; when the sun shines on it in the morning, causes it to appear red.

From a distance. At a distance, but because they had never seen water in that valley, they, therefore, thought that it was blood.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.