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The stone was discovered intact by [[Frederick Augustus Klein]], an Anglican missionary, at the site of ancient [[Dibon]] (now [[Dhiban, Jordan]]), in August 1868.<ref>{{cite book|last=Anderson|first=Gerald|title=Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions|year=1998|publisher=Eerdmans|location=Grand Rapids}}</ref> The next year it was smashed by [[Bani Hamida|local villagers]] during a dispute over its ownership, but a "squeeze" (a [[papier-mâché]] impression) had been obtained, and fragments containing most of the inscription (613 letters out of about a thousand) were later recovered and pieced together. The squeeze and the reassembled stele are now in the [[Louvre Museum]].{{sfn|Lemaire|1994|p=30–37}}
The stone was discovered intact by [[Frederick Augustus Klein]], an Anglican missionary, at the site of ancient [[Dibon]] (now [[Dhiban, Jordan]]), in August 1868.<ref>{{cite book|last=Anderson|first=Gerald|title=Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions|year=1998|publisher=Eerdmans|location=Grand Rapids}}</ref> The next year it was smashed by [[Bani Hamida|local villagers]] during a dispute over its ownership, but a "squeeze" (a [[papier-mâché]] impression) had been obtained, and fragments containing most of the inscription (613 letters out of about a thousand) were later recovered and pieced together. The squeeze and the reassembled stele are now in the [[Louvre Museum]].{{sfn|Lemaire|1994|p=30–37}}


The stele, whose story parallels, with some differences, an episode in the bible's ''[[Books of Kings]]'' (2 Kings 3:4-8), provides invaluable information on the Moabite language and the political relationship between Moab and Israel at one moment in the 9th century BCE.{{sfn|Rollston|2010|p=54}} It is the most extensive inscription ever recovered that refers to the [[ancient Israel and Judah|kingdom of Israel]] (the "House of Omri"), it bears the earliest certain extra-biblical reference to the Israelite god ''[[Yahweh]]'', and — if French scholar André Lemaire's reconstruction of a portion of line 31 is correct — the earliest mention of the "House of [[David]]" (i.e., the [[kingdom of Judah]]).{{sfn|Lemaire|1994|p=30–37}}


==Description and translation==
==Description and translation==

Revision as of 23:28, 9 May 2013

Mesha Stele in the Louvre Museum.

The Mesha Stele (also known as the "Moabite Stone") is a stele (inscribed stone) set up around 840 BCE by King Mesha of Moab (a kingdom located in modern Jordan). Mesha tells how Kemosh, the God of Moab, had been angry with his people and had allowed them to be subjugated to Israel, but at length Kemosh returned and assisted Mesha to throw off the yoke of Israel and restore the lands of Moab. Mesha then describes his many building projects.[1]

The stone was discovered intact by Frederick Augustus Klein, an Anglican missionary, at the site of ancient Dibon (now Dhiban, Jordan), in August 1868.[2] The next year it was smashed by local villagers during a dispute over its ownership, but a "squeeze" (a papier-mâché impression) had been obtained, and fragments containing most of the inscription (613 letters out of about a thousand) were later recovered and pieced together. The squeeze and the reassembled stele are now in the Louvre Museum.[3]


Description and translation

The stele is a smoothed block of basalt approximately one meter tall, 60 cm wide and 60 cm thick, bearing a surviving inscription of 34 lines.[4] It describes:

  • How Moab was oppressed by Omri King of Israel and his son as the result of the anger of the god Chemosh
  • Mesha's victories over Omri's son (not named) and the men of Gad at Ataroth, Nebo and Jehaz;
  • His building projects, restoring the fortifications of his strong places and building a palace and reservoirs for water;
  • His wars against the Horonaim;
  • A now-lost conclusion in the destroyed final lines.

There is no authoritative full edition of the Moabite inscription.[5] The translation used here is that published by James King (1878), based on translations by M. Ganneau and Dr. Ginsberg.[6] Line numbers added to the published version have been removed.

I am Mesha, son of Chemosh-gad, king of Moab, the Dibonite. My father reigned over Moab thirty years, and I have reigned after my father. And I have built this sanctuary for Chemosh in Karchah, a sanctuary of salvation, for he saved me from all aggressors, and made me look upon all mine enemies with contempt. Omri was king of Israel, and oppressed Moab during many days, and Chemosh was angry with his aggressions. His son succeeded him, and he also said, I will oppress Moab. In my days he said, Let us go, and I will see my desire upon him and his house, and Israel said, I shall destroy it for ever. Now Omri took the land of Madeba, and occupied it in his day, and in the days of his son, forty years. And Chemosh had mercy on it in my time. And I built Baal-meon and made therein the ditch, and I built Kiriathaim. And the men of Gad dwelled in the country of Ataroth from ancient times, and the king of Israel fortified Ataroth. I assaulted the wall and captured it, and killed all the warriors of the city for the well-pleasing of Chemosh and Moab, and I removed from it all the spoil, and offered it before Chemosh in Kirjath; and I placed therein the men of Siran, and the men of Mochrath. And Chemosh said to me, Go take Nebo against Israel, and I went in the night and I fought against it from the break of day till noon, and I took it: and I killed in all seven thousand men, but I did not kill the women and maidens, for I devoted them to Ashtar-Chemosh; and I took from it the vessels of Jehovah, and offered them before Chemosh. And the king of Israel fortified Jahaz, and occupied it, when he made war against me, and Chemosh drove him out before me, and I took from Moab two hundred men in all, and placed them in Jahaz, and took it to annex it to Dibon. I built Karchah the wall of the forest, and the wall of the Hill. I have built its gates and I have built its towers. I have built the palace of the king, and I made the prisons for the criminals within the wall. And there were no wells in the interior of the wall in Karchah. And I said to all the people, ‘Make you every man a well in his house.’ And I dug the ditch for Karchah with the chosen men of Israel. I built Aroer, and I made the road across the Arnon. I took Beth-Bamoth for it was destroyed. I built Bezer for it was cut down by the armed men of Daybon, for all Daybon was now loyal; and I reigned from Bikran, which I added to my land. And I built Beth-Gamul, and Beth-Diblathaim, and Beth Baal-Meon, and I placed there the poor people of the land. And as to Horonaim, the men of Edom dwelt therein, on the descent from old. And Chemosh said to me, Go down, make war against Horonaim, and take it. And I assaulted it, And I took it, for Chemosh restored it in my days. Wherefore I made.... ...year...and I....

Interpretation

Analysis

The Mesha stele is the longest Iron Age inscription ever found in the region, the major evidence for the Moabite language, and a unique record of military campaigns. The occasion was the erection of a sanctuary for Kemosh in Qarho, the acropolis (citadel) of Dibon, Mesha's capital, in thanks for his aid against Mesha's enemies. Kemosh plays an important role in the wars of Mesha, but is not mentioned in connection with his building activities, reflecting the crucial need to give recognition to the nation's god in the life and death national struggle. The fact that the numerous building projects would have taken years to complete seems to indicate that the inscription was made long after the military campaigns, or at least most of them, and the account of those campaigns reflects a royal ideology which wishes to reflect the king as the obedient servant of the god. The king also claims to be acting in the national interest by removing Israelite oppression and restoring lost lands, but a close reading of the narrative leaves it unclear whether all the conquered territories were in fact previously Moabite - in three campaign stories there is no explicit reference to prior Moabite control.[7]

Parallel to 2 Kings 3

The inscription seems to parallel an episode in 2 Kings 3: Jehoram of Israel makes an alliance with Jehoshaphat king of Judah and an unnamed king of Edom (south of Judah) to put down his rebellious vassal Mesha; the three kings have the best of the campaign until Mesha, in desperation, sacrifices to his god Kemosh either his eldest son or the eldest son of the king of Edom; the sacrifice turns the tide, "there came great wrath against Israel", and Mesha is apparently left victorious. This supposed correspondence lies behind the usual dating of the inscription to about 840 BCE, but Andre Lemaire has cautioned the identification is not certain and the stele may be as late as 810 BCE. In any case, neither the Mesha inscription nor the Books of Kings are objective historical accounts; the Mesha stele was written to glorify king Mesha and Kemosh the god of Moab, and the Book of Kings to glorify Yahweh the God of Israel.[8]

Proposed references to David and "House of David"

In 2001 Anson Rainey proposed that a two-word phrase in line 12 - 'R'L DWDH - should be read as a reference an "altar hearth of David" at Ataroth, one of the towns captured by Mesha. [9] The sentence reads: "I (i.e. Mesha) carried from there (Atartoth) the 'R'L of its DWD (or: its 'R'L of DVD) and I dragged it before Kemosh in Qeriot". The meaning of both words is unclear. One line of thought sees 'R'L as the name of a man (literally "El is my light") and translates DWD as "defender", so that the sense of the passage is that Mesha, having conquered Ataroth, dragged its "defender", whose name was "El is my light", to the altar of Kemosh, where he was presumably sacrificed.[10] it seems more likely that some kind of cult-vessel is meant, and other suggestions have included "the lion-statue of its beloved", meaning the city god.[11]

A more widely accepted instance of the word DWD appears in line 31. This section is badly damaged, but appears to deal with Mesha's reconquest of the southern lands of Moab, just as the earlier part dealt with victories in the north. Line 31 says that he captured Horonen from someone who was occupying it. Just who the occupants were is unclear. The clearly readable letters are BT[*]WD, with the square brackets representing a damaged space that probably contained just one letter. Andre Lemaire has reconstructed this as BT[D]WD, "House of David", meaning Judah. This is not universally accepted - Nadav Na'aman, for instance, reads it as BT[D]WD[H], "House of Daodoh", a local ruling family;[12] but if Lemaire is correct then this is the earliest evidence of the existence of the Judean kingdom and its Davidic dynasty.

See also

References

  1. ^ Rollston 2010, p. 53-54.
  2. ^ Anderson, Gerald (1998). Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
  3. ^ Lemaire 1994, p. 30–37.
  4. ^ Mykytiuk 2004, p. 95.
  5. ^ Parker 1997, p. 44.
  6. ^ King 1878, p. 55-58.
  7. ^ Parker 1997, p. 44-58.
  8. ^ Lemaire 2007, p. 136-137, 142.
  9. ^ Rainey 2001, p. 300-306.
  10. ^ Lipiński 2006, p. 339-340.
  11. ^ Schmidt 2006, p. 315.
  12. ^ Green 2004, p. 118 fn.84.

External links

Bibliography

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