Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:
For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime. When Jehoram of Israel, Jehoshaphat of Judah, and the King of Edom, combined against Mesha, king of Moab, the latter failing in battle to break through to the King of Edom, took the oldest son of the latter, whom the Moabites had taken prisoner (Theodoret), and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall (2 Kin. 2:27). Thus, by the term "the king of Edom" here is meant the heir-apparent to the throne of Edom (Michaelis). "The king of Edom" is taken as the heir to the throne of Edom. Or else 'his son' is the King of Moab's own son, whom the father offered to Moloch (Josephus' 'Antiquities,' 9: 3).
Thus the reference here in Amos is not to that fact, but to the revenge which probably the King of Moab took on the King of Edom, when the forces of Israel and Judah had retired after their successful campaign against Moab, leaving Edom without allies. The Hebrew tradition is, that Moab in revenge tore from their grave, and burned the bones of the King of Edom, the ally of Jehoram and Jehoshaphat, who was already buried. Probably the 'burning of the bones' means, he burned the King of Edom alive, reducing his very bones to lime (Maurer). Pusey takes Michaelis' view. An ally, such as was the King of Edom formerly to Moab, when he makes terms with those whom men hate, is often regarded with more indignation by them than is even their enemy. 'When the King of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him,' he was furious with the King of Edom. 'He took with him 700 men to cut through to the King of Edom, and they could not. Escape was not their object. They sought not to cut through the Edomite contingent to the desert, but to the King of Edom. Failing in this, he offered as a sacrifice the King of Edom's son and heir, whom he had taken prisoner. So there was great indignation against Israel' on the part of Edom, since it was through Israel's attack on Moab, in which Judah's tributary, Edom, had taken a part by constraint, that the sacrifice of the Edomite king's son had been occasioned.