2 Kings 3:27 Did Israel depart in victory or flee without the spoils?
I think it was a case of take your accumulated profits and cut your current minor losses and go home.
2 Kings 3:27
Then he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him as a sacrifice on the city wall. The fury against Israel was great; they withdrew and returned to their own land.
so they withdrew
וַיִּסְעוּ֙ (way·yis·‘ū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's Hebrew 5265: To pull up, the tent-pins, start on a journey
The verb indicates some kind of orderly withdrawal.
Elisha prophecied earlier starting in verse 18b
he will also deliver Moab into your hands. 19You will overthrow every fortified city and every major town. You will cut down every good tree, stop up all the springs, and ruin every good field with stones.”
It was quickly fulfilled in
25They destroyed the towns, and each man threw a stone on every good field until it was covered. They stopped up all the springs and cut down every good tree.
This was where the allied forces, Edom, Israel, and Judah took their spoils.
The alliance was not so tight and strong and withdrew in verse 27 with at least some of the winning spoils.
Some centuries later, a final prophecy appears in Jeremiah 48
46Woe to you, Moab!
The people of Chemosh are destroyed;
your sons are taken into exile
and your daughters into captivity.
47“Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moabin days to come,” declares the Lord.
Here ends the judgment on Moab.