And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred men that drew swords, to break through even unto the king of Edom: but they could not.
When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him, х chaazaq (H2388), strong, violent, obstinate]. For a time he sustained a siege, but perceiving the imminent peril in which his city was placed, and the alarming advances the besiegers were making, he determined to attempt a sally. Putting himself at the head of his 700 men х sholeep (H8025) chereb (H2719), drawing sword - i:e., armed warriors], he endeavoured to break through the enemy's camp at a point where; as Josephus says, 'the watch seemed to be negligently kept.'
To break through even unto the king of Edom. His object was not to effect his escape through the Edomite lines into the desert, though Josephus represents that as his motive ('Antiquities,' b. 9:, ch. 3:, sec. 2), but to be avenged on the king of Edom alone. Against that foe his irrepressible rage was directed, because, having been a former ally, he had forsaken him, and joined confederacy with the kings of Israel and Judah against him. Hatred and revenge, when they are roused, commonly discharge their intensest violence against former friends or allies. Mesha, however, in his effort to penetrate to the king of Edom, met with a disastrous repulse; and now, findings himself reduced to the last extremities, he resolved on an act which, among the ancient Rephaites and Phoenicians, betokened the depth of desperation.