Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him [for] a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great indignation against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to [their own] land.
Ver. 27. Then he took his eldest son.] The king of Edom's eldest son, say some, whom he had taken in the late sally, and now spitefully sacrificed. See on Amos 2:1. The king of Moab's own son and heir, say others, whom he took and sacrificed to his god Chemos, or the sun, that with so precious a sacrifice he might prevail with him for help in this extremity. The like was usually done by the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, as Diodorus and Q. Curtius report, by an apish and hellish imitation, say some, of Abraham's offering up his son Isaac. R. Solomon, and cut of him Lyra, tell us that the king of Moab asked his priests how the Iraelites came to be so gracious with God, and so victorious. They answered, that Abraham their father, in obedience unto him, sacrificed his only son, and that Mosha thereupon took and sacrificed this his son upon the wall. And the like is reported of Sennacherib, as I have elsewhere noted.
And there was great indignation,] i.e., Great discontent in the other two confederate kings against the king of Israel for his obstinate spleen, the cause of such an abomination.