KING OF MOAB · TWO KINGDOMS

Mesha. A sheepmaster who threw off Israel's yoke.

REIGNEDi

Not given Scripture gives no length of reign.

CAPITAL

Dibon

HOUSE

Not stated

SCRIPTURE SAYS

“Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel an hundred thousand lambs, and an…”

PROPHETS

Elisha

THE NATIONS: 4 RULERS HIRAM → CANDACE

ON THE WORLD STAGE

The powers of the day

ISRAEL

Ahab · Jehoram (Joram)

JUDAH

Jehoshaphat

EDOM

The king of Edom

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE · NINTH CENTURY BC; FOUND AT DIBON ON 19 AUGUST 1868

The Mesha Stele (the Moabite Stone)

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE · DRIVER'S TRANSLATION, 1890

Mesha Stele: who he was

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE · DRIVER'S TRANSLATION, 1890

Mesha Stele: Omri and his son

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE · DRIVER'S TRANSLATION, 1890

Mesha Stele: his wars

SUCCESSION

Before and after

THE REALM

Dibon and the places of the account

The nations. Only places Scripture names are shown, each where the Atlas puts it.

WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS

What Scripture says of him

  • “Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool.” 2 Kings 3:4
  • “When Ahab was dead … the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.” 2 Kings 3:5 2 Kings 1:1
  • Besieged, “he took with him seven hundred men that drew swords, to break through even unto the king of Edom: but they could not”. 2 Kings 3:26
  • “Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great indignation against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land.” 2 Kings 3:27

DEALINGS

Dealings with God's people

  • He offered his eldest son as a burnt offering upon the wall of his besieged city. 2 Kings 3:27
  • Outside the BibleOn his stele he gives the glory to his god: “I made this high place for Chemosh”, and “Chemosh drave him out from before me”.[12]
  • Outside the BibleThe stele lists his building: Baal-meon, Qiryathen, Aroer and “the highway by the Arnon”, Beth-Bamoth, Bezer, Medeba and Beth-Diblathen; and he says he cut “the cutting for QRHH” (a place named on the stele) “with the help of prisoner[s of] Israel”.[12]
  • Tribute to the king of Israel in wool and flocks, until his revolt. 2 Kings 3:4–5
  • Against him stood Israel, Judah and Edom together. 2 Kings 3:9
  • “They gathered all that were able to put on armour, and upward, and stood in the border.” 2 Kings 3:21
  • The allies were told to “mar every good piece of land with stones”, and did so. 2 Kings 3:19 2 Kings 3:25

EVENTS

Wars, works and turning points

UNDATED IN SCRIPTURE

PROPHETS

The prophets who spoke about him

  • El Elisha “he will deliver the Moabites also into your hand”

TWO ACCOUNTS

Where the accounts differ

When Moab broke free

2 KINGS

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE

Who won

2 KINGS

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE

Why the war ended

2 KINGS

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE

Israel's God

2 KINGS

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE

Sheep

2 KINGS

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE

DATES DIFFER

When was it?

PLACED BY ISRAEL'S KINGS (THIELE, AS REVISED BY MCFALL AND YOUNG)

No years given[1][12]

No year of his own is known. Kings dates his revolt after Ahab's death (853 BC on the main system) and the war against him to the reign of Jehoram of Israel (852–841 BC). Driver (1890) calls his inscription a monument of the ninth century BC.

After Ahab's death

2 Kings 1:1 and 3:5; A. H. Sayce, ISBE (1915), p. 2072

Sayce takes the stele's “forty” as “an indefinite period of time” and writes that “the revolt of Mesha took place after Ahab's death”. 2 Kings 1:1 [13]

In the middle of Ahab's reign

S. R. Driver (1890), pp. lxxxviii–lxxxix and xciv

Driver reads the stele's “half his son’s days” as Ahab's and concludes that the revolt took place “in the middle of Ahab's reign, not after his death (as stated, 2 Ki. 1, 1)”.[12]

A real discrepancy in the forty years

W. Ewing, ISBE (1915)

Ewing counts only 34 years for Omri and Ahab together, 23 if half of Ahab's reign is taken, and writes: “So great a difference cannot be explained by the use of round numbers.” 1 Kings 16:23 1 Kings 16:29 [14]

IN SCRIPTURE

Every passage

CHAPTERS · 2

2 Kings 1 2 Kings 3

PASSAGES · 2

2 Kings 1:1 2 Kings 3:4–27

WHAT SCRIPTURE DOES NOT SAY

  • Scripture does not name Mesha's father, his capital or his god; Chemosh, Dibon and his father's name come from the stele.
  • Scripture gives no length of reign and does not tell what became of Mesha after Israel withdrew.
  • Isaiah 15–16 and Jeremiah 48, the oracles on Moab, do not name him.
  • The stele says nothing of the campaign of 2 Kings 3, and 2 Kings says nothing of the stele's wars at Ataroth, Nebo and Yahaz.

IDENTIFICATIONS THIS PAGE RELIES ON

  • From the textMesha king of Moab (2 Kings 3:4); not Caleb's son Mesha (1 Chronicles 2:42) or the Benjamite Mesha (1 Chronicles 8:9). Kings names him once; the rest of the chapter calls him “the king of Moab”. 2 Kings 3:4 2 Kings 3:26
  • Scholars' viewThe Mesha of the stele, “son of Chemoshmelek, king of Moab, the Daibonite”, is taken to be this king: Driver writes that the inscription “gives particulars of the revolt of Moab from Israel, noticed briefly in 2 Ki. 1, 1 = 3, 5”.[12]

SOURCES

Where this page comes from

  • Rodger C. Young, Chronological tables: Table 1, Chronology of the Kings of Israel; Table 2, Chronology of the Kings of Judah (Thiele's system as revised by McFall and Young; dates cited as facts only) (undated web tables, read 2026-10-07), Tables 1 and 2.
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §553 (Shalmaneser III, 858–824 BC), §§568, 571, 575, 578 (Black Obelisk, years 11, 14, 18 and 21), pp. 199–206.
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §611, p. 223 (Monolith Inscription from Kurkh, the battle of Karkar).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §§658–659 and 663, pp. 240–241 (annals from Calah, years 14 and 18).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §§679–681, pp. 245–246 (the statue inscription from Assur).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §735, p. 261 (the Saba’a stele) and §740, pp. 262–263 (the Nimrud slab) of Adad-nirari III.
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §761, p. 269 (on the order of the annal fragments); §769, p. 273; §772, p. 276 (Tiglath-pileser III's tribute lists).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §§776–779, pp. 278–280 (Tiglath-pileser III's annals: the war on Aram; Samsi, queen of Arabia).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 2 (Sargon to the end) (1927), §1198, p. 436 (the eponym list with notes, 733 and 732 BC).
  • R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (1912), p. 296, note 1 (the reading “Bir-idri”); p. 299 with note 1 (the statue inscription); pp. 305–306 (Adad-nirari III and Mari’).
  • A. Biran and J. Naveh, “An Aramaic Stele Fragment from Tel Dan” (1993) and “The Tel Dan Inscription: A New Fragment” (1995), Israel Exploration Journal 43 and 45 (facts only; copyrighted) (1993, 1995), IEJ 43 (1993) 81–98; IEJ 45 (1995) 1–18 (the articles were not read; facts taken from published summaries).
  • S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel (Appendix: the Inscription of Mesha) (1890), pp. lxxxv–lxxxvi (introduction), lxxxvii–lxxxviii (translation), lxxxviii–xcii and xciv (Driver's notes).
  • A. H. Sayce, “Moabite Stone”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 3 (1915), pp. 2071–2072 (discovery of the stone; “forty” and the date of the revolt on p. 2072).
  • W. Ewing, “Mesha”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 3 (1915), pp. 2037–2038, section (3).
  • T. Nicol, “Benhadad”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 1 (1915), pp. 435–437.
  • T. Nicol, “Hazael”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 2 (1915), pp. 1345–1346.
  • T. Nicol, “Rezin”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 4 (1915), p. 2588.
  • David Francis Roberts, “Queen of Sheba”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 4 (1915), s.v. (sections 1 and 4).
  • Thomas Hunter Weir, “Sheba” (1), International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 4 (1915), p. 2752, sections 1 and 3.
  • (unsigned article), “Candace”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 1 (1915), p. 552.
  • Edward Mack, “Chronology of the Old Testament”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 1 (1915), pp. 639–640 (Menahem's tribute in 738 BC).
  • C. F. Keil, tr. J. Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of the Kings (Keil and Delitzsch) (1872), pp. 221 (1 Kgs 15:18), 259–260 (1 Kgs 19:15), 261 and 266–267 (1 Kgs 20), 307 (2 Kgs 3:27), 334–336 (2 Kgs 8:10–15), 402–403 (2 Kgs 16:6); read in the archive.org scan text.
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (Clark's Foreign Theological Library; translation first published 1866, this printing 1876) (1866), pp. 318–321 (Hiram).
  • John Gill, An Exposition of the Old Testament (1748–1763), note on 2 Kgs 3:27 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. D. M. Spence and J. S. Exell (eds.), The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1897), note on 2 Kgs 3:27 (read on Bible Hub).
  • J. R. Lumby, The Second Book of the Kings (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1887), note on 2 Kgs 3:27 (read on Bible Hub).
  • C. J. Ellicott (ed.), A Bible Commentary for English Readers (c. 1878–1884), note on 2 Kgs 3:27 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. D. M. Spence and J. S. Exell (eds.), The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1897), note on 2 Kgs 8:15 (read on Bible Hub).
  • C. J. Ellicott (ed.), A Bible Commentary for English Readers (c. 1878–1884), note on 2 Kgs 8:15 (read on Bible Hub).
  • C. J. Ellicott (ed.), A Bible Commentary for English Readers (c. 1878–1884), note on 2 Kgs 16:6 (read on Bible Hub).
  • John Gill, An Exposition of the Old Testament (1748–1763), note on 2 Kgs 16:6 (read on Bible Hub).
  • E. A. Wallis Budge (tr.), The Queen of Sheba and Her Only Son Menyelek (the Kebra Nagast) (1922), Introduction, pp. xxx (the colophons date the Arabic version AD 1314–1344) and xxxiv (the names Makeda and Balkis; Saba “far more probable”).
  • Pliny the Elder, tr. John Bostock and H. T. Riley, The Natural History (1855), book 6, chapter 35 (Bostock and Riley's numbering; 6.29 in older editions).
  • Strabo, tr. H. C. Hamilton and W. Falconer, The Geography of Strabo (1854–1857), book 17, chapter 1, section 54.
  • Eusebius, tr. A. C. McGiffert, Church History (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1) (1890), book 2, chapter 1, section 13.
  • Irenaeus, tr. A. Roberts and W. H. Rambaut, Against Heresies (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1) (1885), book 3, chapter 12, section 8.
  • Geneva Bible translators, Geneva Bible marginal notes (1599), note on 2 Chr 8:2 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. D. M. Spence and J. S. Exell (eds.), The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1897), note on 2 Chr 8:2 (read on Bible Hub).
  • W. E. Barnes, The Books of Chronicles (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1899), note on 2 Chr 8:2 (read on Bible Hub).
  • C. J. Ellicott (ed.), A Bible Commentary for English Readers (c. 1878–1884), note on 2 Chr 8:2 (read on Bible Hub).

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