Mesha (Moab)

Mescha ( Hebrew מישע, Moabite משע) was a Moabite king who lived around 850 BC. Ruled, restored the independence of his country from Israel and recaptured the area north of the Arnon .

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Mesha is mentioned in the Bible and on two Moabite inscriptions. According to the 2nd book of kings , chapter 3, Mesha was first to pay tribute to the kingdom of Israel and its king Ahab , but rose after his death. A campaign of revenge by the Israelite king Joram failed despite Judean and Edomite support.

King Mesha had the so-called Mesha stele erected in his capital, Dibon (today Diban ) , which celebrates his victories over Israel. This was excavated in 1868 and is now kept in the Louvre in Paris .

literature

• K. Jackson; A. Dearman: The Text of the Mesha Inscription. In: A. Dearman (Ed.): Studies in the Mesha Inscription and Moab. Atlanta: Scholars Press 1989, pp. 93-95.
• AF Rainey: Mesha and Syntax. In: JA Dearman; MP Graham (Ed.): The Land that I will show you: Essays on the history and archeology of the Ancient Near East in Honor of J. Maxwell Miller. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press 2001, pp. 287-307.

• Karen Engelken:  Mesha. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 5, Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-043-3 , Sp. 1353-1358.

Web links

• Thomas Wagner:  Mescha / Mescha stele. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (eds.): The scientific biblical lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff., Accessed on May 26, 2012.