Around 849 b.c., a coalition army marches seven days into the cracked barrens of the Edomite wilderness. Men strike iron picks against baked earth to carve trenches in a dry riverbed. The sun beats down on skin stretched tight over bone. Thirst hollows out the pack animals and the infantry alike. A heavy dread settles over the camp as leather canteens run completely empty. The kings expect death in the sand, but an unexpected flood from the highlands brings sudden, overwhelming relief.
Joram of Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah march against King Mesha of Moab. Moab stopped paying a massive annual tribute of 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams. The allied forces take the southern route through Edom to flank the rebellion. They run out of water. Elisha the prophet demands a musician to bring the word of the Lord upon him. He commands the exhausted soldiers to dig ditches. The Lord fills the valley with water from unseen rains without wind. The Moabites mistake the morning sun reflecting off the flood for blood. They charge an unbroken line and face slaughter.
The dug trenches demonstrate that survival often requires grueling labor before the supply ever arrives. Men dying of thirst must first dig holes in the dirt to catch the water. The Moabite rout exposes a basic flaw in human perception. Greed for easy plunder blinds soldiers to the physical reality of the terrain. They see a battlefield of dead rivals because they desperately want to see it.
Men will march straight to their own slaughter if they mistake a trick of the morning light for an easy victory.
A desperate Moabite king sacrificed his firstborn son on the city stone, breaking the Israelite siege through sheer revulsion. The coalition splintered and withdrew, leaving Moab to rebuild on scorched earth.