Kir-hareseth

Biblical Text

Kir-hareseth first appears in 2 Kings 3. After the death of Ahab, King Mesha of Moab rebelled against Israel (2 Kings 3:4-5). Jehoram king of Israel set out against Moab together with Jehoshaphat king of Judah and the king of Edom. The allied army ran out of water in the wilderness and was in distress, but the crisis passed when the valley filled with water, as Elisha had prophesied. The allies then defeated the Moabite army, beat down the cities, filled the fields with stones, stopped up the springs, and cut down the trees.

Second Kings 3:25 records that amid all this, "only in Kirharaseth left they the stones thereof; howbeit the slingers went about it, and smote it." A sling is a weapon in which a stone is placed in a leather strap, whirled, and released. Mesha took seven hundred swordsmen and tried to break through to the king of Edom, but failed. He then offered his eldest son, the heir to his throne, as a burnt offering on the city wall. The text records that "there was great indignation against Israel," and the allied forces withdrew (2 Kings 3:26-27).

In a prophecy concerning Moab, Isaiah 16:7 depicts mourning over the loss of the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth. Isaiah 16:11 and Jeremiah 48:31, 36 contain the forms Kir-haresh and Kir-heres, which are generally taken to refer to the same place. The spelling of the name varies somewhat among Bible translations. "Kir of Moab" in Isaiah 15:1 is also commonly identified with the same city.

Background

Moab was a kingdom on the plateau east of the Dead Sea that had a long history of both conflict and contact with Israel. Kir-hareseth is regarded as its chief fortress. Its location is widely identified with present-day Kerak (al-Karak) in Jordan, although this has not been archaeologically confirmed.

The first element of the name, kir, is understood to mean "wall" or "city." The second element has been interpreted as "potsherd" or "brick," but its meaning is uncertain.

Mesha's resistance to Israel is also recorded, from Mesha's own perspective, on the stele of King Mesha of Moab (commonly called the Moabite Stone), discovered in the nineteenth century. Scholars differ, however, on whether the stele refers directly to the war described in 2 Kings 3.

Significance in the Bible as a Whole

In Kings, Kir-hareseth appears as a battleground between Israel and a neighboring people. In the prophetic books, the name serves to represent Moab under the judgment of God. In Isaiah 16:11 the prophet declares, "my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kirharesh." This passage is frequently cited as showing the prophet's grief even over the destruction of a foreign nation. The place name does not appear in the New Testament.

Interpretation and Issues

The most widely discussed question concerns whose "great indignation" is meant in 2 Kings 3:27. The principal views are as follows:

• The wrath of God: this view holds that it was divine wrath against Israel for going beyond the scope of Elisha's prophecy and acting excessively.
• The fury of the Moabites: this view holds that the Moabites, seeing the sacrifice of their prince, were enraged and counterattacked fiercely.
• A reaction on Israel's side: this view holds that the Israelite army was deeply shaken and lost its morale in the face of the horror of human sacrifice.

The text does not say that Mesha's sacrifice was effective. For this reason many interpreters caution against reading the episode as an acknowledgment of the power of Moab's god. In addition, the account of the slingers in 3:25 is a brief description of the tactics used in besieging the city; the text does not say that the slingers' attack brought the city down.