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Mesha Stele

Moabite Stone

I am Mesha, son of Chemosh, the king of Moab, the Dhibanite. My father was king over Moab for thirty years, and I became king after my father. And I made this high-place for Chemosh in Qarcho ... because he has delivered me from all kings, and because he has made me look down on all my enemies. Omri was the king of Israel, and he oppressed Moab for many days, for Chemosh was angry with his land. And his son reigned in his place; and he also said, “I will oppress Moab!” In my days he said so. But I looked down on him and on his house, and Israel has been defeated; it has been defeated forever! And Omri took possession of the whole land of Medeba, and he lived there in his days and half the days of his son: forty years. But Chemosh restored it in my days. 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. Now the innermost part of the city had no cistern, in Qarcho, and I said to all the people, “Each one of you shall make a cistern in his house.” And I cut the moat for Qarcho by using Israelite prisoners. I have built Aroer, and I constructed the military road in Arnon. I have built Beth-Bamot, for it had been destroyed. I have built Bezer, for it lay in ruins. And the men of Dhiban stood in battle formation, for all Dhiban were in subjection. And I am the king over the hundreds in the towns that I have added to the land. And I have built Beth-Medeba and Beth-Diblaten and Beth-Baal-Meon, and I brought there ... flocks of the the land. And Hauranen, there lived ... Chemosh said to me, “Go down, fight against Hauranen!” I went down ... and Chemosh restored it in my days ...

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Compare Mesha Stele and 2 Kings 3:26

Ancient Near East, Northwest Semitic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

The Mesha Stele says King Mesha defeated Israel and credits the victory to the god Chemosh, who received items taken from Israel’s god. 2 Kings describes a Moabite win linked to Chemosh, showing both accounts describe the same event from opposite sides.

Passages

Mesha Stele

Ancient Near East, Northwest Semitic · Moabite Stone
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.
830 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Mesha Stele

2 Kings 3:26

Hebrew Bible
24 When they approached the Israelite camp, the Israelites rose up and struck down the Moabites, who then ran from them. The Israelites thoroughly defeated Moab. 25 They tore down the cities, and each man threw a stone into every cultivated field until they were covered. They stopped up every spring and chopped down every productive tree. Only Kir Hareseth was left intact, but the soldiers armed with slings surrounded it and attacked it. 26 When the king of Moab realized he was losing the battle, he and 700 swordsmen tried to break through and attack the king of Edom, but they failed. 27 So he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him up as a burnt sacrifice on the wall. There was an outburst of divine anger against Israel, so they broke off the attack and returned to their homeland.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Kings

References

"... The discord among the active deities was reflected in their behavior as patron deities of their respective city-states and nations. The gods could carry their battles into the human realm by ordering their subordinates, the mortal rulers, to carry on wars for them against other gods’ human regents. As an example, a portion of the Mesha inscription illustrates the connection between the rivalry of the gods and the war between kings ... In this inscription the war between Mesha and the King of Israel was portrayed as a battle between Chemosh and Yahweh. It is not clear, due to a lacuna in the text, what was to be taken from before Yahweh and brought before Chemosh, but whatever it was, it represented the rivalry between the two gods and specifically the supremacy of one over the other. This was not just a territorial skirmish on the part of human beings; in the theology of the Syro-Palestinian world Chemosh and Yahweh were engaged in a determined attempt to add the other god’s territory to his own possessions. To add insult to injury, the devotees of Chemosh took something away from Yahweh and presented it to their god. Warfare on earth as a plane of warfare among the gods may be seen in several sources, so this aspect of the malfunctioning of patron deities is well attested. ..."
Lowell K. Handy, Among the Host of Heaven: The Syro-Palestinian Pantheon as Bureaucracy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1994), 126–127.

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