MOABITE STONE, THE: A slab of black basalt containing an inscription in the Moabitic language by Mesha, king of Moab, who is probably the Mesha of II Kings iii. 4. It was discovered at Dhiban, the ancient Dibon (Num. xxi. 30), by F. A. Klein, a German missionary, in 1868. Attempts were made by the discoverer to secure it for the Berlin Museum, and at the same time by C. Clermont-Gannesu, then of the French consulate in Jerusalem, for the Louvre. This rivalry of interests made the Arabs suppose the stone to be of very great value, while the interposition of the Turkish authorities led them to fear its entire loss. They therefore broke it into fragments. Fortunately a squeeze had been obtained by Clermont-Ganneau through a friendly Arab, so that when piecemeal large fragments were recovered, the reconstruction was made possible and nearly all of the inscription was in the possession of scholars, two-thirds of it on the reconstructed stone. The slab is forty-four and a half inches high, twenty-seven and a half inches wide, and thirteen and three-quarter inches thick, and contains thirty-four lines of writing. The indistinetness and strangeness of form of some of the characters, and the lacuna, especially in the last lines, at first caused differences of rendering of the inscription. But the researches of Smend, Socin, Clermont-Ganneau, Nordlander, Holzinger, and Lidebarski (see below, the bibliography) have resulted in practical agreement in the reading and meaning of the entire teat.

The stele records the thanks of the king to the Moabite deity Chemosh, who had helped him against his enemies, so that he had extended and strengthened his kingdom. In return, Mesha had built "this sanctuary," i.e., where the stone was erected. He seized the occasion to tell what he had done in peace and war for his people. Among the foes of Moab he named Omri of Israel, and referred to Omri's son and sueceseor, his own contemporary, Omri having oppressed Moab because Chemosh was angry, and his son having vainly desired to do so. Mesha recovered Medeba, for forty years in Israel's possession, took Ataroth where the Gadites had dwelt and destroyed the population as a "speotacle" for Chemosh and Moab, and settled other people there, while the altar-hearth (?) he placed in the sanctuary in Kerioth. He also took Nebo from Israel, destroying all its population and removing the Yahweh altar to Chemosh's sanctuary. He captured Jahaz and Horonayin and added them to his realm. He restored and fortified a number of cities, especially the chief city Dibon, and took thought for the water supply.

The stone affords a glance at the political and religious conditions in Moab and shows the national expansion under this vigorous king. The chief interest is in the relations between Moab and Israel, though it is not easy to bring the inscription and the Old Testament into harmony. Of Omri's conquest of Moat the Bible says nothing (cf. I Kings xvi. 27), though II Kings i. 1, iii. 4-5 records a rebellion of Mesha after Ahab's death, in consequence of which Jehoram of Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah undertook a campaign which succeeded until the besieged Moabite king offered up his eldest son, in consequence of which the allies abandoned the war (II Kings iii.). The silence of the inscription as to this episode and the reference to Omri's son make it probable that Mesha's rebellion and the events he narrates took place in Ahab's reign and not after his death, and so far appear to correct the Biblical narrative. The stone also introduces chronological difficulties, since it implies that Omri's reign and half of Ahab's made up forty years, while the Biblical account would make this only twentythree. Possibly Mesh& ignored the reigns of Ahab and Ahaziah, which would make the Biblical and Mesha's accounts approximately the same; but the inscription itself seems against this solution. On

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the other hand, the stone implies a long activity. Not only are important wars but considerable building activities referred to. It is possible, therefore, that the period of the inscription is that of Jehu's reign, after he had overthrown the dynasty of Omri, when Israel (the house of Omri) might seem to have "perished for ever" (line 7 of the inscription).

The inscription has great value for the history of Semitic writing, orthography, and linguistics. The characters are like the Phenician and early Hebrew, but more archaic in form. In the written form the Moabitic language was essentially the same as the Hebrew, though the vocalization might have been different. Numerous verbal and syntactical agreements between the two languages appear. On the other hand there are variations which appear dialectal in character, covering vocabulary, accidence, and syntax. The orthography is nearer to the Hebrew than to the Phenician, but is more archaic.

(F. Buhl.)

A translation of the inscription follows; the figures on the left refer to the lines of the inscription:

1. I am Mesha, son of Kemoeh . . . , king of Moab, the D

2. sibonite. My father was king over Moab thirty years, and I reign

3. ad after my father and made this high place for Kemosh in $4h for . . .

4. . . . , for he saved me from all the (k)ings (?) and because he made me to see (my desire) on all who hated me. Omr

5. i was king of Israel and &Meted Moab many days, for Kemosh was (a)ngry with his la

6. nd. And his son succeeded him, and he too said: I will afict Moab, in my days he said (it) . . .

7. But I saw (my desire) on him and his house, and Israel surely perished for ever. And Omri seized . . .

8. . . . . Mehedeba and inhabited it (his?) day . . . and half his son's days, forty years) .

9. it Kemo®h in my days. And I built Ba'al,-Me'on, and made in it the (reservoir?) and . .

10. Virysthen. And the men of Gad had inhabited the land of . . . th from of old, and for himself had built the king of

11. ersel 'Ataroth. And I fought against the city and took it, and I slew all the . . .

12. city, a spectacle for Kemosh and for Moab. And I brought back thence the altar-hearth of Dudh and [it] I (dr)

13. agged (?) before Kemosh in *eryoth, and I caused to dwell there the men of Shrn and the m . . .

14. (of) Mbrt. And Hennosh said to me: Go, take Nebo against Israel, and .

15. Went by night and fought against it from break of dawn till noon, and I . . . (to)

16. ok it and slew all . . . , seven thousand . . . . and women, and .

17. and maid servants, for to Ashtor-Kemosh had I devoted it. And I took thence . . .

18. of Yahweh and dragged them before Ramesh. And the king of Israel had built . . .

19. Yahaa and inhabited it while he warred with me. But Xemosh drove him out before . . .

20. I took from Moab 200 men, all chiefs, and led them up against ~rhsa and took it

21. to add to ~aibon. I built $rA the wall of Yearim [i.e., Jearim] and the wall of

22. the Mound. And I built its gates and I built its towers, and I

23. built the house of the king, and I made the two reeer(voirs [?] tow)ers (?) in the mid(et)

24. of the city. And there was no cistern in the midst of the city in Srbbh, .so I said to all the people: Make . . .

25. for you each man a cistern in his house. And I out the cutting of Srhh, with the help of prisoners)

26 . . . . Israel. And I built 'Aro'er and I made the highway by the Arn(on),

27. and I built Beth-Bamoth, for it was pulled down. And I built Briar, for . . .

28 . . . . of Daibon were fifty. for all Daibon was obedient. And I reig(ned)

29 . . . . a hundred in the cities which I added to the land. And I built)

30 . . . . b. . . a and Beth-Diblathen and Beth-Ba'alMe'on and took there the . .

31. . . . sheep of the land. And Voronen-there dwelt therein .

32. . . Kemoah said to me: Go down, fight with Voro- nen; so I we(at down) . . 33. . . . Kemosh . . . it in my days. And I we(at up?) thence . . . 34....andI...

Bibliography: C. Clermont-Ganneau, La Stile du Dhiban, Paris, 1870; idem. Revue archdologiqus, 1870, pp. 184 sqq., 357 sqq.; idem, Revue critique, 1875, pp. 166 sqq.; idem, La $Ole de Mlea, Paris, 1887. of. JA, 8 ser., ix (1887), 72 sqq.; T. Nöldeke, Die Iaschrift des %6nipe Mesa, Kiel, 1870; F. Hitsig, Die Awhrift des Media, Hei delberg, 1870; Petermann, in ZDMG, 1870, pp. 840 sqq.;

R. Smend and A. Soein, Die Inschrift des K6nips Mesa, Freiburg, 1836; E. Rdnan, in Journal des savant, 1887; S. R. Driver, Hebrew Text of . . Samuel, pp. lxxxv. sqq., London, 1890; A. Nordlander, Die Inschrift des %onios Mesa, Leipsic, 1896; A. Socin and H. Holzinger, in Berichte der aadsiachsn Gesellschaft der WissenacWR 1897; M. Lidsbaraki, in Handbuch der nordsemitisches Epipraphik, i (1898 ), 103-104, 415-416; idem, in Ephe meris für semitischw Epigraphik, i (1900), 1 sqq. (Lidsbarski's researches are practically conclusive); Ha14vy, in Revue s�mitique, viii (1900), 236 sqq., 289 sqq., ix (1901), 297 sqq.; J. Lagrange, in Revue biblique, x (1901), 522 sqq.; A. Loewy, Critical Examination of as . . . Moabite Inscription, London, 1903 (attacks the genuineness); F. Vigouroux, Dictionnaire de la Bible, part xxvi (1905), 1014-21, xxvii (1906), 1168-69; DD, iii. 403-408; BB, iii. 3040-48; JR, viii. 634-636; and the pertinent sections in the later works on the history of Israel.