Mesha Stele

The Mesha Stele is also called the "Moabite Stone." It is a monument on which Mesha, king of Moab, recorded his achievements, and it is generally dated to around 840 BC. Because it is an early extrabiblical record that mentions biblical kings and places as well as the name of the God of Israel, Yahweh, it is frequently discussed in biblical archaeology.

Background

Moab was a kingdom on the plateau east of the Dead Sea, and its god was Chemosh. The Bible records that the northern kingdom of Israel once ruled Moab. According to this account, Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster who paid the king of Israel a large annual tribute of lambs and wool. After the death of Ahab, however, he rebelled against Israel (2 Kings 1:1; 2 Kings 3:4–5).

According to 2 Kings 3, Jehoram the son of Ahab joined with Jehoshaphat king of Judah and the king of Edom to attack Moab. On this occasion Elisha prophesied victory. Hard pressed, Mesha offered his eldest son as a burnt offering on the city wall, and the allied forces withdrew (2 Kings 3:27).

Discovery and Subsequent History

• 1868: F. A. Klein, a German-born Anglican missionary, is reported to have seen the stele near Dhiban (ancient Dibon) in Jordan.
• Around 1869: Several European nations competed to acquire the stele. Meanwhile, agents acting for the French scholar Charles Clermont-Ganneau made a squeeze (paper impression) of the inscription. The stele was later broken into several pieces by local inhabitants.
• Later: The scattered fragments were collected, and the stele was reconstructed with the help of the squeeze. It is now housed in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

The inscription is written in the Moabite language. Its script is a Phoenician-type alphabet closely related to the Old Hebrew script, and the text is generally said to comprise about 34 lines.

Contents of the Inscription

In the inscription, Mesha introduces himself as a Dibonite. He then records the following:

• Omri king of Israel oppressed Moab for a long time. Mesha attributes this to the anger of Chemosh against his land.
• In the time of Omri's son, Mesha threw off Israelite rule.
• He captured towns such as Ataroth and Nebo. At Nebo he devoted the inhabitants to Chemosh and utterly destroyed them.
• He took the vessels of Yahweh and set them before Chemosh.
• He built and restored a number of towns.

Significance

The Mesha Stele is significant for the following reasons:

• It sheds light, from an extrabiblical source, on the relationship between the Omride dynasty and Moab.
• It is an early extrabiblical record in which the name Yahweh appears.
• It is an important source for the study of a language closely related to ancient Hebrew.

In 1994 the French scholar André Lemaire proposed reading the damaged line 31 as "the House of David." This reading, however, remains disputed. The Mesha Stele is also frequently presented in Korean church Bible study and apologetics materials as archaeological evidence illuminating the historical background of the Old Testament.

Assessment

Conservative scholars and many churches regard the Mesha Stele as extrabiblical corroboration of biblical persons and events.

Critical scholars emphasize that the inscription is royal propaganda glorifying the king's achievements. They therefore hold that, like the biblical record, it must be read with its author's perspective in mind.

The inscription and 2 Kings 3 differ in certain respects. Regarding the timing of the rebellion, the inscription places it "in the time of Omri's son," whereas the Bible places it after the death of Ahab. In addition, the inscription records only Mesha's victories, while the Bible describes the campaign of the allied forces. These differences have been explained in several ways:

• Reading "son" broadly in the sense of "descendant."
• Holding that the rebellion took place in stages.
• Holding that the two records refer to different points in time.