MOAB, MOABITES
not prove that Moab remained in subjection till the time of Ahab. The express mention of the rev Ὁ of Edom from Solomon is slightly against the supposition that a revolt of Moab at that time has been passed over, Further, the fact that Jeroboam’s capital was at first Εἰ, of Jordan shows that Israel then was in strong force in the east, and makes it possible to suppose that Jeroboam succeeded in wresting the suzerainty of Moab from Rehoboam. On the whole, it is more likely that Moab recovered its independence at this time ; or, if not then, soon after, at some point in the
riod, after Jeroboam, during which Israel was Ἐπ by foreign and civil wars and frequent changes of dynasty. The disaster which almost blotted out Reuben as a tribe may have been suffered at the hands of Moab, at this or at an earlier date.
2 Ch 20!” narrates a campaign of Moab, Ammon, and Edom against Jehoshaphat, in which the in- vaders massacre each other. The peeves is prob- ably a Midrashie adaptation of 2 Καὶ 3, and in its
resent form rests on no older authority than the Atsdrash of Kings used by the Chronicler.
The period of Omri-Ahab-Jehoram is specially important, because we can supplement the Bible account by the Moabite Stone, the text and transla- tion of which are given above, in the section on Language. In the Moabite Stone (ll. 1-8) Mesha tells us that, in the reign of his father, Chemosh- melek (?) of Dibon, Chemosh was angry with Moab, and Omri and his son oppressed Moab, subjected and occupied it forty years. This brings us to the point at which Kings first refers to Moab. 2K 1) 34:5 states that Mesha king of Moab was rich in sheep, and paid to Israel a tribute (? annual) of 100,000 lambs and 100,000 rams (AV), or their wool (RV); and that when Ahab died he rebelled against the king of Israel. According to Mesha (1. 8), the revolt took place in the middle of Ahab’s reign. Probably the war of Israel with Syria, which cost Ahab his life, afforded the opportunity for the revolt of Moab. It is not clear how we are to combine the inscription and 2 K 3. We may suppose (Cornill, p. 107; Wellh. Hist. etc. Eng. tr. p. 460) that Mesha’s victories took place at the time of the revolt, before the events of
2K 3; or that, at first, Moab simply asserted its independence, and that Mesha’s conquests were made after the retreat of Jehoram; or that the inscription is a comprehensive account of Mesha’s achievements both before and after Jehoram’s campaign, his reverses being ignored, just as Kings
makes no mention of the loss of Israelite cities to Moab. In 2K 3 we read that Jehoram, at the head of a general muster of Israel, and with Jehoshaphat of Judah and the king of Edom as allies, marched round the southern end of the Dead Sea, a route which suggests that Israel was very weak on the east of the Jordan; that the Moabites fell into an ambush, and were defeated ; that the allies captured and destroyed the cities and laid waste the land, and at last shut up Mesha in Kir-hareseth. After an unsuccessful sortie, Mesha ‘took his eldest son . . . and offered him for a burnt-oflering upon the wall. And there was great wrath against (RV), or upon (RVm), Israel ; and they departed from thence and returned to their own land.’ Possibly the Israelite account disguises a defeat as a voluntary withdrawal ; but the prophets’ accounts of the superstition of their fellow-countrymen show that they may have been afraid to press the siege after what they believed to be an irresistible appeal to Chemosh. But the retreat was a disastrous blow to the prestige of Israel. Probably the retiring army suffered heavy loss; and the Moabites would certainly be em- bollened to make further additions to their terri-
MOAB, MOABITES
tory at the expense of the eastern tribes. The relations of Edom and Moab in this narrative suggest the existence of bitter hostility, which must have led to other wars between the twe neighbours. Nothing is said of Edom in the in- scription, possibly because part of it is lost.
The inscription suggests that the revolt arose (ll. 6, 7) through hostile measures of Ahab.* Mesha recovered the territory occupied by Omri, and fortified Ba'al-meon and Kiriathaim. He then threatened the Gadites—the Reubenites are never mentioned, and had apparently disappeared — in their long-occupied territory of Ataroth. In defence, the king of Israel fortified the city of Ataroth. But Mesha took Ataroth and Nebo, and massacred their inhabitants. The king of Israel fortified Jahaz, but it shared the fate of Ataroth. Mesha seems also to have conquered Horonaim. After his victories he fortified many cities, and provided them with a water supply, and executed other public works, largely, no aan t, by means of Israelite prisoners, as in 1. 25.
According to the cities mentioned in the inscrip- tion as εὐπαμοσε or held by Moab, its territory stretched along the whole eastern coast of the Dead Sea, from Kir in the south to Horonaim and Nebo in thenorth. The silence as to Heshbon may pomibly, be due to the loss of part of the Stone;