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The Ugaritic letter places Elisha's instructions in 2 Kings 3 to ruin Moab's farmland within a known siege practice, showing how attacks on food supplies could extend the harm beyond the battle.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 2.61:8
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
To Grdn, my lord, say: The son of Hrn, when he arrived […] he struck, the troops and […] the town. The grain on the threshing floors he burned; the vineyards too he destroyed. Our town is destroyed. So know it, know it.
2 Kings 3:19
Hebrew Bible
19 You will defeat every fortified city and every important city. You must chop down every productive tree, stop up all the springs, and cover all the cultivated land with stones.” 20 Sure enough, the next morning, at the time of the morning sacrifice, water came flowing down from Edom and filled the land. 21 Now all Moab had heard that the kings were attacking, so everyone old enough to fight was mustered and placed at the border. 22 When they got up early the next morning, the sun was shining on the water. To the Moabites, who were some distance away, the water looked red like blood. 23 The Moabites said, “It’s blood! The kings must have fought one another! The soldiers have struck one another down! Now, Moab, seize the plunder!” 24 When they approached the Israelite camp, the Israelites rose up and struck down the Moabites, who then ran from them. The Israelites thoroughly defeated Moab.
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Notes and References
“... This destruction of food resources is implied by KTU 2.61, which seems to be a letter
from another settlement in the kingdom to the capital and reports:
When your messenger arrived, the army was humiliated and the city was sacked. Our
food in the threshing floors was burnt and the vineyards were also destroyed. Our city
is sacked. [...] For example, 2 Kings 3, 19: ‘You shall conquer every fortified town and every splendid city, you shall
fell every good tree and stop up every spring, and every fertile field you shall ruin with stones’. [...] Cf.
Deuteronomy 20, 19–20, which bans the destruction of fruit trees during a siege, or Tiglath-Pileser
III’s boast that he cut down all the gardens and orchards of Damascus when he besieged it in 733
BC (Tadmor 1994, 78, cited by Eph’al 2009, 52, see also 14–15). ...”
Boyes, Philip J.
Script and Society: The Social Context of Writing Practices in Late Bronze Age Ugarit
(p. 267) Oxbow Books, 2021
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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