Friendships among the peoples of Palestine were not always strong and alliances did not endure for long. Confederates of different races might thus fall out among themselves and turn upon one another. In view of the mutual jealousies that existed between Judah, Israel, and Edom, it appeared likely to Moab that the three kings who had come up for the attack on Moab had turned against one another.

Believing that their enemies had succeeded in destroying one another, the Moabites plunged forward, eager for plunder. They were probably no longer a disciplined army, but a wild, disorderly mob, with only one thought in mind, the stripping of the slain.