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King Mesha of Moab boasts on his victory stele that he slaughtered a captured town and devoted it to his god under the ban. 1 Kings 20 condemns Ahab for refusing that same ban when he spares the defeated king Ben Hadad.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Mesha Stele
Moabite Stone
Ancient Near East
And I built Baal-Meon, and I built a water reservoir in it. And I built Qiryaten. And the men of Gad lived in the land of Atarot from ancient times; and the king of Israel built Atarot for himself, and I fought against the city and captured it. And I killed all the people of the city as a sacrifice for Chemosh and for Moab. And I brought back the fire-hearth of his uncle from there; and I brought it before the face of Chemosh in Qerioit, and I made the men of Sharon live there, as well as the men of Maharit. And Chemosh said to me, “Go, take Nebo from Israel.” And I went in the night and fought against it from daybreak until midday, and I took it and I killed the whole population: seven thousand male subjects and aliens, and female subjects, aliens, and servant girls. For I had put it to the ban for Ashtar Chemosh. And from there I took Yahweh’s vessels, and I presented them before Chemosh’s face. And the king of Israel had built Yahaz, and he stayed there throughout his campaign against me; and Chemosh drove him away before my face. And I took two hundred Moabite men, its entire division, and I led it up to Yahaz. And I have taken it in order to add it to Dhiban. I have built Qarcho, the wall of the woods, and the wall of the citadel; and I have built its gates; and I have built its towers; and I have built the king’s house; and I have made the double reservoir for the spring in the innermost part of the city.
Date: 830 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
1 Kings 20:42
Hebrew Bible
40 Well, it just so happened that while your servant was doing this and that, he disappeared.” The king of Israel said to him, “Your punishment is already determined by your own testimony.” 41 The prophet quickly removed the bandage from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized he was one of the prophets. 42 The prophet then said to him, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Because you released a man I had determined should die, you will pay with your life, and your people will suffer instead of his people.’” 43 The king of Israel went home to Samaria bitter and angry.
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Notes and References
... The idea of *ḥrm as divine battle underlies not only Anat’s warfare but also the ban language in the Moabite stele (KAI 181), as well as Israelite battles described as ḥerem. In both Moab and Israel this language was used for warfare against royal enemies. The Mesha stele is explicit in the royal use of ḥerem. In 1 Kings 20:42, following Ahab’s defeat of Ben-hadad, Ahab spares his life. An unnamed prophet meets the king of Israel and announces to him: ‘Thus said the Lord: “Because you have set free the man whom I doomed [literally, the man of my ḥerem], your life shall be forfeit for his life and your people for his people.”’ J. Lust notes of this verse, ‘The reader is supposed to know that the king of Israel had to consider his defeated antagonist, the king of Damascus, as ḥrm to the Lord.’ Similarly, Samuel, after anointing Saul, commands him to ‘utterly destroy’ (the Revised Standard Version)—that is *ḥrm—the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:3). ...
Smith, Mark S.
The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts
(p. 162) Oxford University Press, 2001
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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