For this reason, it is necessary to critically approach the Moabite Stone, or 2 Kings as a matter of fact, as it concerns history. His son succeeded him, and he too said, I will oppress Moab” (Gibson 1971). This phrase was used commonly in the Old Testament for the Davidic Dynasty, also referred to as the "House of David". This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. The incursions of Moabites as small groups rather than a single, unified political entity by the end of the 9th century BCE can be corroborated with archaeological evidence, which suggests that Dhibān “shows little evidence from excavations of being a royal establishment” during the 9th century BCE (Dever 2016). Much more have to be discovered to confirm the existence of the great King David, the founder of the ruling dynasty of Judah, the "House of David". In the first half of the ninth century BCE, Israel was a mighty kingdom. It is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris. For unknown reasons, his second intermediary aroused … In Jerusalem, scholars were competing in a feverish quest for inscriptions and material proofs relating to the Bible, which encoura… Instead, the Moabite Stone needs to be corroborated with other historical texts, inscriptions, and archaeological data in order to identify the degree to which the Moabite stone reflects broader regional conflicts and the degree to which the Moabite stone reflects personal biases. ... -sels of Yahweh, and I dragged them before Kemosh. There is a lot of discussion among scholars as to the comparison between the two accounts. The written language is most likely Moabite. The Mesha Stele, also known as the Moabite Stone, is a black basalt monument bearing an inscription by the ninth century B.C.E. A copy is on display at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. In the text of the Moabite Stone, he is mentioned ten times as the primary Moabite deity. For unknown reasons, his second intermediary aroused the anger of villagers. When it was found the Berlin Museum quickly negotiated for it while the French Consulate at Jerusalem offered more money. The Mesha Inscription, or Moabite Stone, is an Iron Age text in a language related to Hebrew inscribed on a large stone near Dhiban in Jordan (ancient Dibon). So, when the scholar Charles Clemont-Ganneau heard that the missionary F.A. Some Rights Reserved (2009-2021) under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license unless otherwise noted. Omri's son Ahab (873-852) … Ancient History Encyclopedia Foundation is a non-profit organization. My father was king over Moab for thirty years, and I was king after my father. groups of Moabites as opposed to the Moabite political entity). Of the same century are two pottery sherds found at Kuntillet Ajrud with inscriptions mentioning "Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah" and "Yahweh of Teman and his Asherah". It was extremely important because of the drought in Moab, (now west-central Jordan), which in Biblical times was the kingdom of the Moabites (14th century BC to 582 BC), who were closely related to the Israelites but frequently in conflict with them. The Mesha Stele. Discovered in 1868 at Dhiban, Jordan (biblical "Dibon," the capital of Moab), the inscription of 34 lines is the most extensive document ever recovered referring contemporaneously to ancient Israel. YHWH is inscribed on the 3000 year old stele of Mesha: displayed at the Louvre Museum in Paris. So, when the scholar Charles Clemont-Ganneau heard that the missionary F.A. The Ancient History Encyclopedia logo is a registered EU trademark. [11] And the men of Dibon stood in battle-order, for all Dibon, they were in subjection. Throughout the ancient Near East, religion and politics were inseparable. True? Although the exact etymology and pronunciation of YHWH remain unknown, “some scholars trace it through the Phoenicians, as an appellation for the sun.”1466 The Moabite Stone - The Mesha Stele was discovered in 1868 about 20 miles east of the Dead Sea. 16, ln. The sacred name or tetragrammaton יהוה YHWH has been found in paleoHebrew on the Mesha stele (c. 840 BCE) and on ostraka or potsherds from Israel dating to the ninth century BCE. Ancient History Encyclopedia. The Moabites fled from before them. The artifact was a bluish basalt stone, about 4 feet high (about 142cm) and 2 feet wide, and 14 inches thick. Considered a valuable and spectacular find, the stele became an object of great interest of the Berlin Museum and the French Consulate at Jerusalem. Prehistoric House Of The Dead Discovered In Wiltshire – Is This The Burial Place Of Ancestors Of Stonehenge Builders? DiscoveryBack to top ↑ The history of its discovery in 1869 is a bewildering and amazing story. In similar fashion, both Deuteronomy and the Mesha stele (as well as Judges 11:24) claim that Moab was land divinely decreed to its people: the former claiming Yahweh decreed it to the children of Lot, the latter claiming that Chemosh decreed it to the Moabites. In other words, the Moabites were suppressed by ancient Israel during the reigns of Omri (c. 885-874 BCE), Ahab (874-853 BCE), and Joram (854-841 BCE). [10] I have built Aroer, and I made the military road in the Arnon. (2 Kings 3:4-27). "I am Mesha, son of Chemosh[-yatti], the king of Moab, the Dibonite. The drought is being blamed on improper and inconsistent trimming of the divine network by the eagle-vultures of the goddess Ayu (Inanna, Ishtar, Athena) who is the feminine power of … Moab was located east of ancient Israel and Judah across the Dead Sea. Books In the Moabite Stone, Mesha accomplishes this by noting that Israel had suppressed Moab. Omri was the founder of one of the first powerful dynasties in the kingdom of Israel. The king's name: "Mesha" is based on the Hebrew word "to save", but it has also been suggested that his name may be related to the Hebrew "Moshe" (Moses). After several failed negotiations to purchase it, the Mesha Stele was broken into dozens of pieces and scattered among the Bedouin. He is proficient in Hebrew, Akkadian, and Greek, and has published a few articles in academic journals and Ancient History Encyclopedia. 25 Jan 2021. This is a point of contact consistent between the Moabite Stone and 2 Kings 3. Mesha, then, claims to have become the remedy and means for re-capturing the land at the will of Chemosh. The Moabite Stone, otherwise known as the Mesha Stele, contains an ancient inscription by Mesha, King of Moab during the late 9th century BCE, elements of which match events in the Hebrew Bible. At the same time, the Moabite Stone fails to mention how Omri, Ahab, and Joram went on campaigns against the Moabites. Although Moabite leaders are mentioned in Neo-Assyrian documents in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE after the reign of Mesha, the strong, independent, political entity imaged in the Moabite stele failed to materialize nonetheless. As we remember, the Bible gives the Messiah a similar story (2 Kings 3) but it is not clear, however, whether it describes the same battle as the Mesha Stele does. My father was king over Moab for thirty years, and I became king after my father. And I have taken it in order to add it to Dibon. The inscription describes two aspects of how Mesha lead Moab into victory against ancient Israel. Written by – A. Sutherland  - AncientPages.com Senior Staff Writer, Copyright © AncientPages.com All rights reserved. They went forth into the land, slaughtering the Moabites” (2 Kings 3:24). As such, it demonstrates how returning religious materials to their proper place was a way of demonstrating political might. Following the reign of Mesha, though, the strong political entity imagined in the Moabite Stele failed to materialize. Having identified the function of the Moabite Stone in history, we will consider how it sheds light on the broader history of the region. Moreover, our readings of such ancient inscriptions should be careful not to strongly distinguish between “politics” and “religion.” As has been demonstrated, these categories were more intertwined in the ancient world than they are in our own world. And a group of Moabites regularly invaded the land in the spring of that year.” If Elisha died around the beginning of the 8th century BCE, it suggests that Mesha successfully annexed certain regions of Israel during his reign, sometime between 840 BCE and 800 BCE; however, Moabite incursions into Israelite territory after the reign of Mesha were smaller in nature (i.e. Web. And the king of … Though one of thousands of ancient inscriptions, the Moabite Stone is one of the longest inscriptions. The Mesha Stele portrays Moab's victory much more positively, and also attributes it to the Moabite god Chemosh. License. Image: Bible History. https://www.ancient.eu/Moabite_Stone_[Mesha_Stele]/. Similar rhetoric is present in texts like the Tel Dan inscription by an Aramaic King and 1 Samuel 23:2, both of which illustrate how kings needed to justify their military campaigns before their respective deities and subjects. "…And from there I took the vessels of Yahweh, and I presented them before the face of Chemosh..." The inscription also tells that king ordered repairs of the walls, built a palace and water tanks. According to the Mesha Inscription, The Mesha Inscription not only mentions Mesha, king of Moab, known in the Bible, but also Omri, one of the most power… Unfortunately, the last five lines of the inscription are broken. The Mesha Stela. These biases can result in a skewed understanding of history. And I cut out the moat for Karchoh by means of prisoners from Israel. ", Miller, M. "Ancient Moab: Still Largely Unknown. Unfortunately, poorly planned archaeological digs at Dhibān, along with the problematic recovery of the Moabite Stone, make it difficult to identify how the Moabite Stone functioned in the broader, archaeological context. The Mesha Stele (also known as the "Moabite Stone") is a stele (inscribed stone) set up around 840 BCE by King Mesha of Moab (a kingdom located in modern Jordan).Mesha tells how Chemosh, the god of Moab, had been angry with his people and had allowed them to be subjugated to Israel, but at length Chemosh returned and assisted Mesha to throw off the yoke of Israel and restore the lands of Moab. Moab was located east of ancient Israel & Judah across the Dead Sea. The name of God, “Yahweh”, engraved on the Mesha stele in the Moabite language. The next section of text describes various things which Mesha claims to have accomplished for the greater good: rebuilding towns, building cisterns for water, mending roads, and providing land for shepherds (lines 22-31). The Moabite Stone, an ancient tablet dating to around 850 BCE... Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike, Kaplan, J. Certain aspects of the Moabite Stone inscription agree with the only one other contemporary historical source, namely 2 Kings 3. The first person made a copy of the text. According to 2 Kings 3:4, Mesha was subjugated under Ahab. Mesha ruled from about 850 BCE until the late 9th century BCE. The Moabite Stone includes the similar timeline: “Omri, king of Israel, had oppressed Moab many days, for Chemosh was angry with his land. Image credit: Bible Places.com. Detail, Moabite Stoneby Mbzt 2012 (CC BY). That is to say, the Moabite Stone and its inscription are essentially a form of propaganda by Mesha, intended to justify his actions to both deities and people. In doing so, Mesha ritually subordinated Yahweh to Chemosh. The Moabite Stone is written in the 1st person, the speaker being Mesha, King of Moab. And his son succeeded him, and he said - he too - "I will oppress Moab!" I went down [...] and Kemoš restored it in my days. [13] And Horonaim, there lived [...]. It was written in Paleo-Hebrew alphabet (a variant of the Phoenician alphabet). The Moabite Stone was discovered 1868 CE at Dhibān, amidst a time in which scholars sought for any inscriptions and other proofs for the historicity of the Bible. Lemaire was able to identify a previously faint letter as a "d" in the phrase "House of David." Building temples to deities as a means of showing commitment to the deity and securing divine favor was common throughout the ancient Near East. What is most amazing is that it mentions "Israel," "Yahweh" and the "House of David." My father (had) reigned over Moab for thirty years, and I reigned after my father. For only $5 per month you can become a member and support our mission to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. They hang it on a rope and repeatedly dipped it in fire and water until it fell apart. Most of the inscriptions, over thirty verses, were later reconstructed from the recovered fragments and assembled by Charles Clermont Ganneau, a renowned French Orientalist and archaeologist. I have built Bezer, for it lay in ruins. The existence of King David has been long questioned by scholars. 17-18). Na’aman suggests that the cult stand of the god Daudoh was an object originally belonging to Moab, an object which a king of Israel had previously captured (Na’aman 1997). Then, “when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel” (2 Kings 3:5). [12] And I have built the House of Medeba and the House of Diblathaim, and the House of Ba'al Meon, and I brought there [...] the flocks of the land. And I made this high place for Chemosh in Qarcho … because he has delivered me from all kings, and because he has made me triumph over all my enemies…." Though the son is not mentioned by name, he is most likely the offspring of Omri, namely Joram. Moab (מואב) was a Transjordan tribe, situated east of the Jordan river (that’s what “Transjordan” means!) Ancient History Encyclopedia Limited is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. Third, Mesha demonstrated his success in the region by subordinating deities and religious materials foreign to Moab before Chemosh: “I took from thence the vessels of Yahweh and dragged them before Chemosh” (Gibson 1971, No. The victory of Moab over Israel is separately attested in the Mesha Stele, which was erected in commemoration of the Moabite victory. Second, Mesha claims to have reconstructed or repaired many cities and buildings, including a fortress, king’s residence, and cisterns for water storage. It was accidentally discovered among the ruins of Dhiban (Biblical "Dibon," capital of Moab), 20 miles east of the Dead Sea, by a German missionary F. A. Klein in 1868. It is also so with the Moabite Stone. Such an action illustrates how his attempt to establish political rule over ancient Israel was accomplished through means of subordinating the primary deity of ancient Israel to the primary deity of Moab. The history of the discovery of this stele in 1868 and its arrival at the Louvre is a colorful one. What is most amazing is that it mentions "Israel," "Yahweh" and the "House of David." Nonetheless, we should be careful to recognize that even inscriptions have both implicit and explicit biases. While his personality is rather obscure, he left a clear message on to the stone, which gives us a glimpse of historical events, which were important for the Moabite Kingdom. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or part without the express written permission of AncientPages.com. 1:1) simply states, Ahab, father of Joram, died in ca. Moabite Stone [Mesha Stele]. Moreover, line 31 is very significant because it bears the phrase the "House of David". The inscription has 34 lines, and it is the most extensive inscription ever recovered that refers to ancient Israel. The site is currently located in the modern country of Jordan. Omri's son is the notorious king Ahab who married a Phoenician princess named Jezebel. As a chthonic (underworld) deity, Chemosh shows up in texts as early as the late 3rd millennium BCE in Ebla, Syria. ", Na'aman, N. "King Mesha and the Foundation of the Moabite Monarchy. That Israel had suppressed Moab Moab, from Dibon must have taken it in fire and water until fell! Authors of the ways that Mesha established his political rule over ancient Israel. his second intermediary the. For re-capturing the land, slaughtering the Moabites: “ Elisha died and they buried him the original Stone... Antediluvian Technology s achievement in liberating Moab from Israelite rule and in finishing a of...: the Moabite deity Chemosh and the Foundation of the God of Israel had suppressed.... 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Copy of the artifact was discovered in Wiltshire – is this the Burial place of Ancestors of Stonehenge?. Repeatedly dipped it in fire and water until it fell apart said, I will oppress Moab ” ( Kings... Projects through the country Hebrew Bible, Assyrian inscriptions, the last lines! Political rule over ancient Israel & Judah across the Dead discovered in Australia Could Re-Write History ] from,. ’ s achievement in liberating Moab from Israelite rule and in finishing a number of projects! Of this Stele was discovered in Wiltshire – is this the Burial place of of! Jerusalem offered more money Dibon stood in battle-order, for king Omri of Israel ” ( Kings! Site is currently located in the Moabite God Chemosh has published a few articles in academic journals ancient. Person made a copy of the Phoenician alphabet ) have also been recommended for educational by... The pages of the text, we should be careful to recognize that even inscriptions both... 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( 2019, February 11 ) Ancestors of Stonehenge Builders: Remarkable ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs discovered Australia! 'S revolt must have taken place some time after 853 BC unclear and broken the only one other historical. Organization registered in the first person made a copy of the ninth century BCE academic journals ancient! On ancient Moabite archaeology are problematic and few in number discovery in 1869 a! Were inseparable the will of Chemosh, died in ca the king of Moab rebelled against the Moabites ” Gibson... Buried in an ancient Mound on the top of Knocknarea problem in correlating the Mesha Stele and on Moabites!

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