Mesha

MESHA (Hebrew Mēša', 2 Kings 3; Stele: Meša'). - King of Moab, son of Kēmōš [bānāh?], a native of Dibon; enterprising and tenacious, he is famous for the stele on which he described his exploits. His father, subjugated by Omri (v.), paid Israel an annual tribute of 100,000 lambs and as many wool-bearing rams (II Kings 3:4; cf. stele, lines 4 f., 7 f.). On the death of Ahab (854 B.C.), M. rebelled against Israel (II Kings 1:1), exploiting the precarious situation of Ahaziah. Together with the Ammonites and the inhabitants of Maon, he attacked by surprise Jehoshaphat king of Judah, already an ally of Ahab; but they were routed by an intervention of the Lord (II Chron. 20:1-30). From the stele (lines 10-21) we learn that M. succeeded in winning independence. He freed the whole region from Nebo to the Arnon. He conquered the Moabite cities of Medeba and Baal-meon, and the Israelite ones of Ataroth and Nebo. He fortified Baal-meon, Kiriathaim and Kerak south of the Arnon. He killed the population of Nebo (7,000 persons), devoted to death (herem) in honor of the goddess 'Aštar-Kēmōš, bringing to the feet of Chemosh the objects of worship that existed there.

Joram, king of Israel (853-842 B.C.), being at war with the Syrians and unable to intervene, for the time being placed 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 (lines 18-21). Finally, somewhat freer in the north, Joram decided to strike M. decisively. With the help of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and with the Edomites, around 840 B.C. he marched against Moab from the south, crossing the desert of Edom and going around the southern tip of the Dead Sea. Having overcome their thirst through the intervention of the prophet Elisha, the allies defeated the Moabites, devastated the whole country of Moab south of the Arnon, and besieged Harešeth, present-day Kerak, which M. had begun to fortify because of its elevated position (about 1,000 m. above the sea), choosing it as his residence. Seeing the impossibility of sustaining a prolonged siege, M. attempted a sortie with 700 men to open a passage toward the north and join the Syrians of Damascus; driven back, however, by the besiegers, he resorted as a last expedient to the sacrifice of his firstborn and heir, immolating him to Chemosh on the wall of the city, both to impress the attackers and to consecrate the walls with that blood. "And there came great wrath (from Yahweh; cf. Num. 1:53; 18:5; etc.) against the Israelites, who departed from him (M.) and returned to their own land" (II Kings 3:4-27). However this mysterious phrase is explained, it attests the failure of Joram's campaign and the salvation of M., who remained independent.

There is therefore perfect agreement with what is narrated on the stele; which, if it does not describe the devastations, the initial setback and the siege, as naturally happens in court documents, which exalt victories and pass over defeats in silence, has sufficiently significant references (lines 3-4, 21-26). The preparations made by M. at Kerak, especially for the supply of water, are entirely analogous to those carried out by Hezekiah at Jerusalem, under the looming threat of Sennacherib (II Chron. 32).

The stele, which has made M. so famous, was seen in Aug. 1868 at Dibon by the German F. A. Klein; Ch. Clermont-Ganneau (v.) had casts made of it and then succeeded (1869) in purchasing the pieces; for the Bedouins, in the meantime, had shattered it. It is currently in the Louvre, with the casts that made its reconstruction and reading possible and easier. It is a basalt stele, 1 x 0.60 m. in size; initially it was (Klein) 1.13 x 0.70 m., with a thickness of 0.30. The upper part is rounded. It was probably written after the destruction of the dynasty of Omri carried out by Jehu (cf. line 7); it is in the Moabite language, which differs very little from Hebrew; the form of the letters is that of the ancient Phoenician alphabetic script. It is the oldest Semitic document found in Palestine; notable for history (customs and religion), language and script.

Francesco Spadafora