What Does 2 Kings 3:24 Mean in the King James?
And when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites, so that they fled before them: but they went forward smiting the Moabites, even in their country.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Moabites’ flight does not end the violence: the blows follow them into their own country.
THE MEANING
The Israelites keep striking the Moabites after they flee, carrying the assault into Moab’s own country. Retreat does not end the harm; pursuit extends it beyond the first clash.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that fleeing automatically brings safety is undone here: the attack follows the Moabites into their own land.
THE ROOT
וַיַּכּוּ
vayyakku
GROWS FROM
נכה
To strike, smite, or deal a blow.
The KJV’s “smote” and “smiting” carry the same strike-root, making the continued violence concrete: these are repeated blows, not an abstract description of victory. A related form can name the person who strikes, keeping the action and its agent together.
ALSO GROWS
makkāh: A blow, wound, or striking.
מַכָּה
The blow-noun grows from the same root as “smote,” bringing the repeated action into view.
makkēh: One who strikes; a smiter.
מַכֵּה
This form names the one delivering the blow, clarifying the physical force behind the verse’s action.
וַיָּנֻסוּ
vayyanusu
GROWS FROM
נוס
To flee or escape.
“fled” in this verse is vayyanusu. This root also appears in words for flight and refuge, linking escape with the shelter it seeks. Here the Moabites flee, but the verse shows no refuge in that movement: the assault continues inside their own land.
ALSO GROWS
mānōs: Refuge or place of escape.
מָנוֹס
This related word shows how the root of fleeing can also name the refuge flight seeks; in this scene, flight does not secure it.
menūsāh: Flight or rout.
מְנוּסָה
This noun names the state of being driven into flight, echoing the Moabites’ retreat.
THE PATTERN
Once flight begins, pursuit can carry violence across the fleeing side’s own ground.
And the LORD discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Beth-horon, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah.But Barak pursued after the chariots, and after the host, unto Harosheth of the Gentiles: and all the host of Sisera fell upon the edge of the sword; and there was not a man left.And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels, and fled.THE THREAD
He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.“Smiteth” comes from נכה, the same strike-root behind “smote” here. The connection keeps the word grounded in bodily violence: the blow lands on a cheek, not in an abstract victory.
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