1. I am Mesha, son of Chemosh (-melech, SS, L, or -gad, Cl, ΟἹ, king of Moab, the D-
2. ibonite | My father was king over Moab thirty years and I became ki-
3. ng after my father | And I made this high- place of Chemosh in KRHH | as a token of grati- tude for (the deliverance wrought for M-, SS, L)
4. esha, because He saved me from all the (king, SS, L, or ‘despoiler,’ Cl, 6) s, and because He caused me to see my desire upon all that hated me—Omr-
5. i, king of Israel, and® he oppressed Moab many, days, because Chemosh (was) angry with
an—
2
6. d his | And his son succeeded him, and he also said, I will oppress Moab | In my days, he spoke (thus, SS, L) [Let us go, &
7. But I saw my desire upon him and upon his house, and Israel perished for ever*. Now Omri annexed (all the lan-
8. ἃ) of Medeba, and Jsrael occupied it, his days and half his son’s days, forty years, and (resto-
9. red) it Chemosh in my days | And I built 4 Baal-meon, and I made in it the ’ShWH,, and I (built)
And the men of Gad occupied
10. Kirjathaim Al the land of (Ataro)th from of old, and built for
himeelf the king of (I-) ll. srael Ataroth | And I fought against the
town?’ and took it| and put to death all the (people of, SS, L)
12. the town, a pleasing spectacle for Chemosh and for Moab | and I removed thence ’R’L’ of DWDH¢é and I
13. [117 it, before Chemosh in Kerioth | and I settled in it—Ataroth—the men of ShRN, and the (men of)
14. MHRTh| And Chemosh said to me, Take Nebo* against Israel | and I (w-)
15. ent by night, and fought against it from break of dawn till noon | and I (t-)
16. ook it, and put them! all to death, seven
thousand (men, SS, Cl, G, L) (and boys, SS ;.... Ὁ; Vvand:..... s, 1} and women, and (girl, SS,..... Cl, L)
17. s and female slaves™| for I had made it taboo” to'ShTR° Chemosh | and I took thence (?
18. ἢ» 5 of YHWH and I (ἢ 4 them before Chemosh | And the king of Israel built (7)
19. Jahaz, and occupied it while he fought against me | And Chemosh drove him out before (me and, SS, L)
20. I took from Moab two hundred men, of all its clans’, and led them‘ against Jahaz, and took it
21. to add it to Dibon | I built QRHH, the walls of the forests“, and the walls of
22. the ‘PhL*| And I built its gates, and I built its towers | And Iv
23. built the house of the king,* and I made sluices¥ [(for the reservoirs for the water, SS)] in the (midst) of
24. the city | And there was no cistern in the midst of the city in KRHH, and I said to all the people, Make (for)
25. you, each ὁ Yort» a cistern in his house | And I hewed the MKhRThTh* for KRHH by means of the prisoners
26. taken from Israel|I built Aroer, and I made the road by the Arnon, (and, SS, L, Cl)
27. I built Beth-bamoth, for it had been de- stroyed | I built Bezer, for (it was in ruins),
28. ..............°% (men) of Dibon, fifty, for all Dibon was loyal | And I (reign-
0. 66), Ὡς a hundred in the cities“ which I the land | And I bui(It)
30. [(Medeba)] and Beth-diblathaim | And as for“ Beth-baal-meon, there I placed (flocks)#
3 p of the land | and Son of Dedan, and Dedan said, SS).
BO ee ΤΡ ΕΙΣ Chemosh said to me, Go down, fight against Horonaim, and I went (down and 9)......
35) coorcocearchotdonreccero-satecceecee 1. Chemosh in my days and?...... ™ from thence? | ......
Ἢ ΠΟΥ ΤΟΣ ἘΞ 153 {Π}|Π πρὸ τς
(c) Notes on Translation.
ἘΠῚ ἘΞ Moabite of ‘the deliverance wrought for Mesha’ is MSh' ΜΒ΄.
δ. ὃ. More idiomatically, ‘Omri, king of Israel, who oppressed ' ; cf. Ges.-Kautzsch, Eng. tr. p. 341 n.
7. c. So SS, Néldeke (1870).
G, ‘In my days’ he [the king of Israel] said, ‘(Let us go) and I will see my desire on him and his house’; and Israel said, “1 shall destroy it for ever.’
9. ἃ. i.e. ‘extended and fortified.’
9. 4. 'ShWH only occurs here and perhaps line 23, which, with 24f., deals with the water supply of KRHH; perhaps= reservoir; SS, ‘ Teich.’
10. f. Kirjathaim and Didlathaim, 80 end in N in the Moabite text.
11. g. ‘town,’ SS. ‘Wall,’ G, Néldeke.
12. A. "R’J,, perhaps also in 17f., probably=Heb. Suns Is 291 (AY, Ariel) Kethibh οἱ Ezk 4315.18, Keré Syxy x, not found else- where, usuall rendered ‘altar-hearth’ (Oxf. Heb. Lex. s.v.).
19. ἡ DWDH, apparently the name of a deity worshipped by the Israelites of Ataroth ; not mentioned elsewhere, unless the game as the sun-god Dodo; cf. the proper name Dudu in the Amarna tablets. All these names, as well as David =‘ Beloved.’ It is curious that, of the three or four places in which 'R'L occurs, it is connected with the City of David in Is 29! and with DWDH here. Cf. Arret and Davin.