The Moabite Rebellion and the Mesha Stele/0

The Moabite Rebellion and the Mesha Stele

This topic has not yet undergone editorial review

Biblical Sources

Melakhim II 3 tells how Mesha, the King of Moav, had originally paid tribute to Israel, but rebelled after the death of Achav. His descendant, Yehoram, makes an alliance with Yehoshafat, the King of Yehuda, and Edom to retaliate. They plan an attack from the south, but en route find themselves without water. Hashem intervenes by bringing a flash flood, taking care of their thirst.  The Moabites mistake the reddish hue of the water as blood and erroneously conclude that the allies have turned on each other, leading them to rush into the Israelite camp to plunder.  Israel is thus able to smite them, but despite the initial success, the battle ends without a clear victor. The verses are ambiguous but suggest that in desperation the King of Moav had offered his son as a sacrifice, leading to "great wrath on Israel."¹ Though the nature and reason for this "wrath" is unclear, the verses declare that it marked the end of battle and the return of the troops to Israel.

The Mesha Stele

The Moabite rebellion is attested to outside of Tanakh, as it is discussed in detail in an inscription dictated by Mesha, known as either the Mesha Stele or the Moabite Stone. The monument was discovered by a missionary named F. Klein in 1868 in Dibon and is presently in the Louvre Museum in Paris.²

¹ See.  Others suggest that he sacrificed the heir to the throne of Edom, which caused Edom to get angry at his allies and the alliance to break up.

² Although Kelin saw the stone intact, unfortunately before it was purchased it was smashed into many fragments by local Bedouin. Many of these (about 613 of 1000 words of the original) were later recovered and pieced together, and the missing sections were reconstructed based on a freeze (a paper mâché impression) done of the inscription before it was broken.  For a full discussion of the story behind the discovery and breaking of the stone, see S.H Horn, "The Discovery of the Moabite Stone" in The Word of the Lord Shall Go  Forth, Essays in Honor of David Noel Freedman (Indianna, 1983):497-505.