The Moabite Rebellion and the Mesha Stele/0

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The Moabite Rebellion and the Mesha Stele

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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. As a result, Yehoram made an alliance with Yehoshafat, the king of Judah, and with Edom to retaliate. With Hashem's aid,  Israel was able to smite Moav, but despite the initial success, the battle ended without a clear victor. The verses are ambiguous, but suggest that, in desperation, the King of Moav had offered his son as a sacrifice,1 leading to "great wrath on Israel."  Though the nature and reason for this "wrath" is unclear, it led to the premature end of the battle and the return of the troops to Israel.

Extra-Biblical Sources: The Mesha Stele

The Moabite rebellion is attested to outside of Tanakh, as it is discussed in detail in an inscription known as the Mesha Stele or the Moabite Stone, a victory monument erected by Mesha, King of Moav. The monument was discovered by a missionary named Frederick Klein in 1868 in Dhiban (Biblical Dibon)2 and is presently in the Louvre Museum in Paris.3

The inscription opens by describing Moav's servitude to Israel, declaring that Omri, King of Israel had "humbled Moav many years, for Chemosh4 was angry at his land". Mesha then tells how, in the days of Omri's son, he was able to triumph over Israel and end their oppression, claiming: "Israel has perished forever".  The rest of the stele discusses both Mesha's victories (including his defeat of Medeba, Atarot, Yahaz, and Nevo, cities north of the Arnon River) and his fortifications and building projects. It ends with a description of his attack against the Horanim, in the south.5

Relationship Between the Sources

The Biblical and Moabite accounts of the war differ drastically. Sefer Melakhim gives the impression that Moav was almost decimated, and includes no account of any Moabite victories. The Mesha Stele, in contrast, says nothing of Moav's near-defeat, and, instead, reports the capture of Israelite territory and the slaughter of its citizens. As such, scholars debate the relationship between the sources and whether the campaign described in the stele occurred during, before, or after the events mentioned in Tanakh:

I. Mesha's campaign preceded the battle described in Tanakh

  • Suggested reconstruction of events – According to Y. Liver,6 the Moabite campaign described on the stele preceded the battle with the three kings, and constituted the revolt which prompted their attack.7 If so, Moav's rebellion was marked not only by his ceasing to pay tribute, but by his embarking on a military campaign in which he managed to conquer significant Israelite territory.  Liver suggests that the Moabite conquests began towards the end of Achav's reign8 when he was preoccupied with Aram, and unable to retaliate. Mesha took advantage of the situation to re-occupy land previously held by Moav, and conquer several new areas.9 He then fortified the region to prevent the anticipated counter-attack by Israel. The attack on Horanim, described at the end of the stele, might have been slightly distinct, as the city, lying on the border with Edom, was likely conquered from them rather than from Israel.
  • Impact on understanding Tanakh – This reconstruction might shed light on several aspects of the Biblical account:
    • Attack from south – Liver explains that Yehoram's seemingly odd decision to attack from the south was likely prompted by Mesha's newly built fortifications in the north, and the desire to avoid the drawn out sieges which would be needed to conquer them.10
    • Edom's participation –  The Edomites joined the alliance not simply because they were vassals of Yehoshafat11 but because they had a personal interest in fighting Moav, as their land, too, had been taken by Mesha.
    • Yehoshafat's participation – R"E Samet12 suggests that Yehoshafat viewed the battle as a religious war.  According to the stele, Mesha had taken the "vessels of Hashem" from what was apparently some holy site in Nevo, and placed them before his god, Chemosh.  Yehoshafat joined Yehoram mainly to rectify this desecration of Hashem's name.13 
    • Harshness of attack – If Moav's revolt was military in nature, and included both the slaughter of many Israelites and a desecration of Hashem's name, this could explain why Yehoram did not suffice with conquest, but also took  harsh punitive measures to ruin Moav's land, destroy its trees and close up their wells.14
    • Moav maintains independence – Liver suggests that the decision to attack from the south meant that the outcome of the battle needed to be "all or nothing".  Israel had managed to subdue the southern region of Moav, but never reached the northern areas which Moav had re-occupied. As such, despite the initial victories, there was no contiguous Israelite territory, and thus, no way to hold onto the defeated towns.

II. Mesha's campaign followed the battle described in Tanakh 

  • Suggested reconstruction of events – In contrast to the reading proposed above, S. Horn15 and N. Na'aman16 suggest that the military victories described in the stele took place after the events described in Tanakh. According to Horn, Moav emerged from the battle against Israel ravaged, but still independent, and quickly went from the defensive to the offensive.17 Na'aman suggests instead, that some of the events mentioned in the stele might have first occurred during the reign of Yehu, when Mesha allied with Chazael of Aram as he attacked Israel.18  To support this reconstruction, Horn argues that the fortifications described in the stele must have taken many years to build, and this could not have been accomplished in the short time span between Achav's death and Yehoram's attack.19 It is more likely that they were built after the battle to ensure that Israel did not attempt a second attack. The stone's descriptions of the rebuilding of destroyed cities also suggest that the events took place in the aftermath of the war, as the need to rebuild was a direct result of the devastation wreaked by the Israelite alliance. Similarly, Mesha's building of water reservoirs and cisterns might have stemmed from Yehoram's having plugged the Moabite springs ("וְכׇל מַעְיַן מַיִם יִסְתֹּמוּ").
  • Impact on understanding Tanakh

Chronology

According to Sefer Melakhim, Moav rebelled after the death of Achav, and the Israelites attempted to re-subjugate them in the time of Yehoram. The Mesha Inscription, on the other hand, records that Omri dominated Moav "in his days and half the days of his son: 40 years," at which point Chemosh returned it to Moav's hands.

  • At first glance, the stele's dating appears to be internally contradictory.  According to the first part of Mesha's words, the rebellion occurred in the middle of Achav's reign ("half the days of his son").  On the other hand, the phrase "forty years" suggests that the revolt occurred about 6 years after Achav's death, since Omri and Achav reigned for only 34 years between them.20  The discrepancy suggests that at least one of the two phrases needs to be reinterpreted.
  • Many, thus, suggest that the number forty should be understood as "generation," and that the phrase "half the days of his son" might not be meant literally, but rather expresses reign.  If so, the inscription sets the revolt either midway or towards the end of Achav's reign.21 This is quite close to Tanakh's dating, and it is possible that Tanakh presents it as taking place after his death, since that is when it succeeded, even if it had begun beforehand.
  • Others have suggested that "בנה" means descendant rather than son, and posit that the inscription is saying that Israel dominated Moav during the reigns of Omri, Achav, Achazyah and halfway through the reign of Yehoram, which would amount to about 42 years.  The number forty mentioned in the inscription would then be a round number.22 As Melakhim presents Yehoram as retaliating soon after the revolt began, this reconstruction also fits the description in Tanakh.  It might suggest that Tanakh dates the revolt to the death of Achav, since that was what spurred the rebellion, even if it did not gain full strength and lead to retaliation until a few years later.23 

Additional Significance of the Stele

  • Earliest extra-Biblical reference to Hashem -– The inscription bears the earliest extra-Biblical reference to Hashem, with lines 17-18 reading: "ואקח. משמ. א[ת כ]לי יהו-ה "
  • Earliest extra-Biblical reference to the House of David – According to the reconstruction of Andre Lemaire,24 line 31 contains a reference to the House of David.25  If he is correct, this is the earliest extra-Biblical reference to the Davidic dynasty.