John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 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 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 says, the only tribute was from the pastures.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-5 - Jehoram took warning by God's judgment, and put away the image of Baal yet he maintained the worship of the calves. Those do not truly repen or reform, who only part with the sins they lose by, but continue to love the sins that they think to gain by.
Original Hebrew ומישׁע4338 מלך4428 מואב4124 היה1961 נקד5349 והשׁיב7725 למלך4428 ישׂראל3478 מאה3967 אלף505 כרים3733 ומאה3967 אלף505 אילים352 צמר׃6785
