MESA (Stele)
Stone with inscriptions. It was discovered in the territory of Moab, and relates some historical facts. On August 19, 1868, the Alsatian missionary F. Kelin, in the service of the Church Missionary Society, was camping at Dhîbãn, in the ruins of the ancient Moabite city of Dibon.
A sheikh informed him that ten minutes away there was a stone covered with inscriptions. It was an overturned stele, made of black basalt, with a rounded top; It measured just over 1.13 m. high, 70 cm. in length and 35 cm. thick.
The inscription had 34 horizontal lines of unknown characters, arranged at about 3 cm. of interval. M. Klein made some notes, and reported his discovery to the Prussian consulate in Jerusalem.
The following year, M. Clermont Ganneau, of the French consulate, had the inscription stamped, and the two consulates offered a large sum of money for the stele. The Turkish governor and the Arabs complained about her.
The latter proposed breaking the stone to get more money by selling fragments to more bidders. To do this, they lit a fire at the base, and broke it by throwing cold water on it when it was hot.
A considerable amount of these pieces could be recovered (669 of the 1,100 characters of the inscription) and the stone could be restored almost entirely, thanks to the stamping, despite the fact that it had been made in haste and in poor conditions.
The stele is currently in the Louvre museum in Paris, and a plaster mounting makes up for what is missing from the original. Despite some gaps, the inscription is perfectly intelligible.
It comes from Mesha, king of Moab, mentioned in 2 Kings 3:427. Text of the Esthete of Moab: 1. I am the son of Mesha, son of Chemosh… king of Moab, the God- 2. pretty. My father reigned over Moab for 30 years, and I have become king 3. succeeding my father.
And I have erected this sanctuary for Chemosh in Krkk… as a sign of salvation, 4. because he has saved me from all kings and made me triumph over all those who hated me. Omr- 5. i, king of Israel, oppressed Moab for a long time, because Chemosh was angry with his 6. country.
And his son succeeded him; And he also said, “I am going to afflict Moab.” In my time he said this… 7. But I have triumphed over him and over his house, and Israel has perished forever.
Since Omri possessed the entire 8. country of Mehêdeba, and (Israel) he stayed there during his days and half the days of his children, 40 years; but 9. Chemosh has returned it to us in my days. And I have built Ba’alme’on and I have made the deposit (?) and I have built 10.
Kiriathãn (Kiryathaim). And the men of Gad dwelt in the country of Ataroth from all ancient times and the king of Israel had built 11. Ataroth. And I attacked the city and took it, and killed all the inhabitants 12. of the city, a spectacle for Chemosh and Moab.
And I seized the altar of his home from Daudoh (?) and dragged it 13. before Chemosh in Keriyyoth (Derioth). And I settled the men of Srn (Sharon) and the men of 14. Mnrth (Makharath). And Chemosh said to me, “Go, take Nebo away from Israel,” and I 15.
I went at night, and I fought against him from dawn until noon, and I took him. 16. I killed them all, seven thousand men and… the women and… 17. and the servants; for I had handed them over to the interdict for ‘Ashtar-Chemosh, and from there I took the vessels 18. of Yahweh, and dragged them before Chemosh.
The king of Israel had built. 19. Yahas (Jahats), and he was there while he fought against me. But Chemosh drove him out before me. And 20. I took two hundred men from Moab, all his chiefs; I led them against Yahas and took it 21. to join it to Dibon.
It is I who has built Krhh (Korkha), the wall of the gardens and the wall 22. of the counter-city. It is I who has built its gates and its towers. And 23. I am the one who built the royal palace and made the gutters (?) for the water tank (?) in the middle 24. of the city.
And there was no cistern in the middle of the city, in Krhh. And I said to all the people: “Let each one make a cistern for himself in his house.” And I had the graves of Krhh dug for the prisoners 26. of Israel.
It is I who have built ‘Aro-er and made the path of the Arnon. 27. It is I who built Beth-Bamoth, because it was annihilated. It is I who built Beser, which was in ruins, 28. … with the men of Dibon, fifty in number, for all Dibon obeyed me.
And I have reigned 29. over a hundred in the cities that I have added to the country. And I have built 30. Mehêdeba (Medeba) in Beth-diblathen and Beth-ba’alme’on, there I have brought shepherds 31. … the sheep of the country.
I have built Hauronãn where the (son) lived… And 32. … Quemós told me: “Go down, attack Hauronãn”, and I descended and. 33. … … … and Chemosh has given it to us in my days. And I… from there ten (?) 34. … …
Thus, this inscription confirms and complements in a remarkable way the account of 2 Kings 3. It constituted one of the first proofs that alphabetic writing was already known at a relatively early time in the country of Jordan.
«The art of writing and reading could not be recent. At the moment when Mesha shakes off the yoke of the foreigner, he erects a monument commemorating in writing his victories…
This is for him the first and most natural thing to do, and he expects that his inscription will have many readers… On the other hand, the shape of the letters of Moab give proof that alphabetic writing had long been in existence. use in the kingdom of Mesha.
Forms are seen that presuppose a long habit in the art of engraving inscriptions on stone, and that are very far from the most ancient characters. Finally, the language of the inscription is notable; between it and Hebrew the differences are infrequent and small.
This shows that the Moabites were related to the Hebrews both linguistically and racially, and that they had adopted the old “language of Canaan.” The similarity in the language of the Hebrews and the Moabites goes beyond grammatical expressions and syntax.
It is a similarity that exists even in the way of thinking” (Sayce, “Higher Criticism and the Monuments”, PP. 364 ff.). The erection of the stele is placed towards the end of Mesha’s reign, after the death of Ahab and the decline of his dynasty (around the year 850 BC); This probably took place after Jehu had exterminated the dynasty of Omri, when Israel entered fully into its period of great difficulty.
According to 2 Kings 1:1 and 3:5, the Moab revolt took place after Ahab’s death (see OMRI, MESA proper name, d).