2 Kings 3:9 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The king of Edom Properly speaking, there was no king at this time in Edom, as we read in the last chapter of the foregoing book, 1 Kings 22:47; but the viceroy, under Jehoshaphat, is here called king, that word being often used for any prince or chief ruler. Of seven days' journey Because they made a great army, which could move but slowly; and they fetched a greater compass than usual, that they might come upon the backs of the Moabites, where they did not expect them, or for some other advantage which they hoped to reap by it. There was no water for the host A frequent want in those parts; and now, it seems, increased by the extraordinary heat and dryness of the season. And for the cattle that followed them Which drew their carriages.