CHAP TER 9
JEHOSHAPHAT, (FOURTH) KING OF JUDAH - JORAM, (TENTH) KING OF ISRAEL - The Allied Expedition
against Moab - Recent Discovery of "the Moabite Stone" - Lessons of its Inscription - The March through the
Wilderness of Edom - Want of Water - Interview with Elisha - Divine Deliverance - Defeat of Moab and Advance of
the Allies - The Siege of Kir-haraseth - Mesha offers up his Son Withdrawal of the Allies.
(2 Kings 3:5-27.)
THE first public act of Elisha's wider ministry is connected with an event of which the most strange and unlooked-for
confirmation has been brought to light within the last few years. When in August, 1868, the Rev. F. Klein, of the
Church Missionary Society, was traveling in Moab, his attention was directed by a friendly Sheik to a b lack basalt
stone, about three feet ten inches in height, two feet in width, and fourteen and a half inches in thickness. The stone
bore an inscription of thirty-four straight lines (about one and a quarter inches apart), which on learned investigation
was found to be in the ancient Phoenician characters. The place where this memorial-stone, or column, was found was
Diban, the ancient Dibon, the northern capital of Moab, north of the river Arnon. So far as can be judged from the
shapeless mass of ruins (com . Jeremiah 48:18) that cover the twin hills on which the ancient city had stood,
p
surrounded by a wall, "it was quite within the old city walls; near what, we presume, was the gateway, close to where
the road has crossed it."145 Whether it had originally stood there, is another and not easily answered question.146
Before referring to the important evidence derived from this discovery, we shall in a few sentences, give the
melancholy history of this stone. It may teach us a lesson about "our unhappy divisions ." The unexpected discovery of
this stone led, in the first place, to jealousies for its coveted possession among the European communities in Jerusalem.
In the end, in their eagerness to make as much profit as was possible out of these contentions, the Ara bs quarreled
among themselves and broke up the stone. Happily, most of the fragments have been secured, and some "squeezes"
on paper had previously been taken, so that all the important parts of the inscription can be read, and have - with but
slight variations - been interpreted by critics of different countries.147
Perhaps it may be convenient here to put down such parts of the inscription as are of importance to our present purpose,
adding afterwards brief comments in explanation. The inscription begin s as follows (we mark the original lines): -
1. I Mesha am son of Chemoshgad, King of Moab, the
2. Dibonite. My father reigned over Moab thirty years and I reign-
3. ed after my father. And I erected this stone to Chemosh at Kirkha [a stone of]
4. [sa] lvation, for he saved me from all despoilers, and made me see my desire upon all my enemies, upon
Om-
5. [r] i, king of Israel. He afflicted Moab many days, for Chemosh was angry with his count-
6. [r] y. His son succeeded him, and he also said, I will afflict Moab. In my days he said [Let us go]
7. And I will see my desire on him and his house. And Israel [said], I will destroy with an everlasting
destruction. Now Omri took (had taken) the land
8. Medeba and.... 148 occupied it.... the days of his son, forty years. And Chemosh [had mercy]
9. on it in my days, and I built Baal Meon, and made therein the tank, and I [built]
We cannot here continue this quotation, interesting as are the issues involved. What follows describes the reconquest
by Mesha of v arious towns in the north of Moab, formerly occupied by Israel, their reconstruction and the dedication of
captive women to "Ashtar-Chemosh" (Astarte-Chemosh), and of what are described as "vessels of Jehovah," to
Chemosh - both at the taking of Nebo, in t he northernmost part of Moab.
In lines 1-9, first clause of the inscription, Mesha relates the subjugation of Moab by Omri, the father of Ahab, and the
deliverance of that country, which he ascribes to Chemosh. This we suppose to have been connected with the retreat of
the allied armies from Kir-haraseth, and their evacuation of the country (2 Kings 3:25). 149
From all this we infer that the land of Moab, which had apparently recovered its independence during, or immediately
after, the reign of Solomon, was , at least in part, reconquered by the warlike Omri. And from the list of towns which in