Again,
when the united forces of Judah and Ephraim were traversing the
wilderness of Moab in pursuit of the enemy, they could find no water
for three days, and were like to die of thirst, they and the beasts
of burden. In this emergency the prophet Elisha, who was with the
army, called for a minstrel and bade him play. Under the influence
of the music he ordered the soldiers to dig trenches in the sandy
bed of the waterless waddy through which lay the line of march. They
did so, and next morning the trenches were full of the water that
had drained down into them underground from the desolate, forbidding
mountains on either hand. The prophet's success in striking water in
the wilderness resembles the reported success of modern dowsers,
though his mode of procedure was different. Incidentally he rendered
another service to his countrymen. For the skulking Moabites from
their lairs among the rocks saw the red sun of the desert reflected
in the water, and taking it for the blood, or perhaps rather for an
omen of the blood, of their enemies, they plucked up heart to attack
the camp and were defeated with great slaughter.
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