1 I am Mesha son of
Kemosh[yat], king of Moab, the 2 Dibonite.
(2) My father ruled over Moab
thirty years, and I ruled 3 after my father.
(3) I made this high place for
Kemsh in Qarhoh.
(3) (It is) a high place of 4
salvation because he saved me from all the kings because he made me
prevail over all my enemies.
(4) Now Omri 5 (was)
king of Israel, and he oppressed Moab many days because Kemosh was angry with
his land.
6 His son took his place, and
he also said, “I will oppress Moab.”
(6) In my days he said th[is], but I prevailed over him
and his house. Israel has indeed perished forever.
(7) Omri took possession of the 8 l[an]d of
Medaba.
(8) He settled in it during his days and half the days of
his son, forty years. But 9 Kemosh returned it in my days.
(8) Then I built Baal-Meon, and I made the cistern within
it. Then I bui[lt] 10 Qiryaten.
(10) Now the people of Gad had settled in the land of
Ataroth for a long time, but the king 11 of Israel rebuilt Ataroth
for himself.
(11) I fought against the city, and I seized it. I killed
all of the peo[ple] 12 (because) the city had been (dedicated) to
Kemosh and to Moba.
(12) I took captive from there the ‘R’L DWDH and I 13
[dra]gged it before Kemosh at Qiryoth.
(13) I settled in it the people of Sharon and the peo[ple]
of Maharat.
(14) Then Kemosh said to me, “Go! Take Nebo from Israel!”
(14) So I 15 went in the night, and I fought
against it from the break of dawn until noon, and I 16 took it.
(16) I killed all of them, seven thousand—men and foreign
men, women and 17 [for]eign women, and maidens—because I had dedicated it to
Ashtar-Kemosh.
(17) I took from there the 18 [ves]sels of
Yahweh, and I dragged from them before Kemosh.
(18) Now the king of Israel had built 19 Yahaz,
and he lived in it while he was fighting against me, but Kemosh drove him out
before me.
(19) Then 20 I took from Moab two hundred men,
its entire (elite) division. I brought them against Yahaz, and I took it 21
to add (it) on to Dibon.
(21) I built Qarhoh, namely, the wall of the forest and
the wall of the 22 acropolis.
(22) I built its gates, and I built its towers. I 23
built the royal palace.
(23) I made the wall of the reserve[oir for a spr]ng
with[in] 24 the city.
(24) There was no cistern within the city, in Qarhoh, so I
said to all the people, “Each one make 25 for yourselves a cistern
at his house.”
(25) I dug the water
channels for Qarhoh with captives 26 from Israel.
(26) I built Aroer. I made
the highway at Arnon.
27 I rebuilt Bet-Bamoth because
it was destroyed.
(27) I rebuilt Bezer,
because it was ruins, 28 with the companies of Dibon, because all Dibob
were subjects.
(28) I rul[d 29 over
the] hundreds in the cities that I added onto the land.
(29) I built 30 [also
Med]aba and Bet-Diblaten and Bet-Baal-Meon.
(30) Then I brought there my
sh[epherds 31 to tend the] flocks of the land.
(31) Now, as for Horonen—the House
of [Da]vid had dwelled in it [ ]
32 (and) Kemosh said to me, “Go
down, make war on Horonen.”
(32) So I went down and [I
fought 33 against the city and I seized it.] Kemosh [retored] it in
my days.
(33) and ‘L[ ] DH from there ‘š[
(34) And
I [] . . . (Peter Bekins, Inscriptions from the World of the Bible: A Reader
and Introduction to Old Northwest Semitic [Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Academic, 2020], 160-61)
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