Verse 4
And Mesha king of Moab was a sheep master ,.... With which his country abounded; he kept great numbers of them, and shepherds to take care of them; he traded in them, and got great riches by them; his substance chiefly consisted in them:
and rendered unto the king of Israel : either as a present, or as an annual tribute:
an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool ; that is, upon them, unshorn, and so the more valuable; and it was usual for tributary nations to pay their tribute to those to whom they were subject in such commodities which they most abounded with; so the Cappadocians, as Strabo F3 Geograph. l. 11. p. 362. relates, used to pay, as a tribute to the Persians, every year, 1500 horses and 2000 mules, and five myriads of sheep, or 50,000; and formerly, Pliny F4 Nat. Hist. l. 18. c. 3. says, the only tribute was from the pastures.
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