Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 3:24

"And when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites, so that they fled before them; and they went forward into the land smiting the Moabites." — 2 Kings 3:24 (ASV)

Smote the Moabites. —Who were unprepared for resistance.

But they went forward smiting ... country. —The Hebrew text (Kethib) has, and he went (way-yâbô, spelled defectively, as in 1 Kings 12:12) into it (i.e., the land of Moab), and smote (literally, smiting, an infinitive for a finite form) Moab. This is better than the Hebrew margin (Qeri), and they smote it (i.e., Moab), or the reading of some manuscripts and the Targum and Syriac, “and they smote them, and smote Moab,” which is tautologous. The original reading is perhaps represented by that of the Septuagint, καὶ ἐπάταξαν εἰσπορευόμενοι καὶτύπτοντες τὴν Μωαβ, meaning and they entered the country, destroying as they went on. (In Hebrew, the participles would be infinitives.)