Elisha’s prophecy reads: “This is only a trifle in the sight of Hashem, for he will also hand Moab over to you. You shall conquer every fortified city and every choice city; every good tree you shall fell, all springs of water you shall stop up, and every good piece of land you shall ruin with stones” (2 Kings 3:18-19).
Then later, the text says, “The cities they overturned, and on every good piece of land everyone threw a stone, until it was covered; every spring of water they stopped up, and every good tree they felled. Only at Kir-hareseth did the stone walls remain, until the slingers surrounded and attacked it” (2 Kings 3:25-26).
The question is whether the wall was destroyed or not. The conjunction ‘ad (“until”) in v.26 seems to indicate that it was destroyed, but the next verse says that Mesha sacrificed his son on the wall. If the wall was indeed destroyed, then we should read v. 27 as indicating that Mesha sacrificed his son on the rubble of the wall. If not destroyed, then the prophecy was not technically totally fulfilled.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that the Moabites subsequently routed their enemies after the sacrifice of the son, and since this was not expected according to the prophecy, it might be classed as a failure.
2 Kings 3:27 says that the Israelites withdrew from Moab after Mesha sacrificed his eldest son.
