The Mesha Stele (Moabite Stone)

The stele was set up by Mesha at Dibon, his capital east of the Dead Sea, to mark the building of a sanctuary for the god Chemosh. The Anglican missionary F. A. Klein saw it intact in 1868. Before it could be bought it was broken into pieces by people of the district, but a paper impression had been taken, and Charles Clermont-Ganneau recovered most of the fragments for the Louvre, which acquired them in 1873. The stone as displayed is 1.25 metres high; the missing parts are restored from the impression. Its language is very close to biblical Hebrew.

Mesha speaks in the first person. Omri, king of Israel, had oppressed Moab for many years because Chemosh was angry with his land, and Omri’s son meant to do the same (lines 4–8). Mesha then lists what he took back: Ataroth, where “the men of Gad” had long lived, and Nebo, where he killed the population and dragged “the vessels of Yahweh” before Chemosh (lines 10–18). The second half records his buildings. The stele is a king’s boast, and it leaves out any defeat; it should be read beside the account of the same war in (2 Kings 3). See Moab’s Revolt and the Mesha Stele.

Line 31, near the damaged foot of the stone, is disputed. In 1994 André Lemaire proposed that it speaks of the “House of David” as holding Horonaim. Only some of the letters survive, other scholars restore the line differently, and the reading remains uncertain. It should not be cited as a sure reference to David.