Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MESHA

(Heb. mêšāʿ, mêšāʾ)

(PERSON)

1. King of the Transjordanian kingdom of Moab during the early 9th century b.c.e.; son of Chemosh-yati. According to 2 Kgs. 3:4 Mesha was a sheep breeder (Heb. nōqēḏ) and a vassal of the “king of Israel.” After the death of King Ahab of Israel in 850, Mesha withheld his tribute. Jehoram, Ahab’s son, succeeded his brother Ahaziah and then requested the assistance of King Jehoshaphat of Judah and an unnamed royal Edomite vassal; their combined armies routed the Moabites. Some of the surviving Moabites entered Kir-hareseth, a fortified city. In an attempt to appease Chemosh, the national god of Moab, the Moabite king sacrificed his eldest son on the wall of the city. The appalled Israelites then lifted their siege of the city.

In 1868 the Moabite Stone was found at Dhiban (biblical Dibon), the capital of ancient Moab; the inscription was commissioned by Mesha. Here Mesha indicates that it was King Omri of Israel who subjugated Moab and initiated “40 years” (l. 8) of vassalage. But during the reign of “his son” (l. 6), Mesha regained his independence by driving the Israelites out of various cities north of the Arnon River, including Nebo. At Nebo he claims to have killed thousands of Israelites and to have taken certain vessels of Yahweh. Mesha attributes his success to Chemosh. Moab’s independence was probably made possible in part because of Israel’s preoccupation with resistance to Shalmaneser III.

Some consider the biblical and inscriptional materials to reflect two different episodes in the history of Israelite-Moabite relations (Cogan and Tadmor) while others consider them supplementary versions (Cross and Freedman).

Bibliography. M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings. AB 11 (Garden City, 1988); F. M. Cross, Jr., and D. N. Freedman, Early Hebrew Orthography. AOS 36 (1952, repr. New Haven, 1981); J. A. Dearman, ed., Studies in the Mesha Inscription and Moab. SBLABS 2 (Atlanta, 1989); G. L. Mattingly, “Moabites,” in Peoples of the Old Testament World, ed. A. J. Hoerth, Mattingly, and E. M. Yamauchi (Grand Rapids, 1994), 317-33; K. A. D. Smelik, Converting the Past: Studies in Ancient Israelite and Moabite Historiography. OuTS 28 (Leiden, 1992).

Chris A. Rollston

2. A son of Caleb, father of Ziph (1 Chr. 2:42; LXX “Mareshah”).

3. A Benjaminite, son of Shaharaim and Hodesh born in Moab (1 Chr. 8:9).

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MESHA

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)