MESHA (Heb. Měša', 2 Kgs 3; stele: Meša'). — King of Moab, son of Kémôl (bánâh?), from Dibon; enterprising and tenacious, he is famous for the stele in which he described his deeds. His father, subjected by Omri (q.v.), paid to Israel an annual tribute of 100,000 lambs and as many rams with wool (2 Kgs 3:4; cf. stele, ll. 4 f., 7 f.). At the death of Ahab (854 B.C.), M. rebelled against Israel (2 Kgs 1:1), taking advantage of the precarious situation of Ahaziah. Together with the Ammonites and the inhabitants of Maon, he surprised Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, who was already allied with Ahab; but they were routed by an intervention of the Lord (2 Chr 20:1-30). From the stele (ll. 10-21) it is learned that M. succeeded in gaining independence. He freed the entire region from Nebo to the Arnon. He conquered the Moabite cities Medeba, Baal-meon; the Israelite ones Ataroth, Nebo. He fortified Baalmeon, Qarithaim, and Kerak south of the Arnon. He killed the population of Nebo (7,000 people), devoted to death (herem) in honor of the goddess 'Aštar-Kémôš, bringing the cult objects found there to Chemosh.
Joram, king of Israel (853-842 B.C.), at war with the Syrians, unable to intervene, for the moment stationed a garrison at Jahaz, which was to serve as a bridgehead for a future attack; but he had to withdraw it, and M. installed himself there with 200 men (ll. 18-21). Finally, a little freer in the north, Joram resolved to strike M. resolutely. With the help of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and the Edomites, around 840 B.C. he marched against Moab from the south, crossing the desert of Edom and adding the southern tip of the Dead Sea. Having overcome thirst with the intervention of the prophet Elisha, the allies defeated the Moabites, devastated all the land of Moab south of the Arnon, and besieged Hâreseth, today’s Kerak, which M., because of its elevated position (ca. 1,000 m. above sea level), had begun to fortify, choosing it as his residence. Seeing the impossibility of sustaining a prolonged siege, M. attempted a sortie with 700 men to break through to the north and join the Syrians of Damascus; but driven back by the besiegers, he resorted to the desperate expedient of sacrificing his firstborn and heir, immolating him to Chemosh on the city wall, both to impress the attackers and to consecrate the walls with that blood. “And there went out a great indignation (from Yahweh; cf. Num 1:53; 18:5; etc.) against the Israelites, so that they departed from him (M.) and returned to their own land” (2 Kgs 3:4-27). Whatever explanation is given for this mysterious phrase, it attests to the failure of Joram’s campaign and the salvation of M., who remained independent.
The agreement with what is narrated in the stele is therefore perfect; which, if it does not describe the devastations, the initial setback, and the siege—as naturally happens in official documents, which extol victories and omit defeats—contains sufficiently significant references (ll. 3-4, 21-26). The preparations made by M. at Kerak, especially for water supply, are entirely analogous to those carried out by Hezekiah at Jerusalem under the looming threat of Sennacherib (2 Chr 32).
The stele, which made M. so famous, was seen in Aug. 1868 at Dibon by the German F. A. Klein; Ch. Clermont-Ganneau (q.v.) had casts made and then attempted (1869) to purchase the fragments; for meanwhile the Bedouins had shattered II. It is now in the Louvre, along with the casts that enabled and facilitated its reconstruction and reading. It is a basalt stele, m. 1 x 0.60; initially it was (Klein) m. 1.13 x 0.70, with 0.30 of thickness. The upper part is rounded. It was probably written after the destruction of the dynasty of Omri carried out by Jehu (cf. l. 7); it is in the Moabite language, which differs little from Hebrew; the shape of the letters is that of the ancient Phoenician alphabet. It is the oldest Semitic document found in Palestine; remarkable for history (customs and religion), language, and script.