At some time during this reign, Mesha, a minor king of Moab, tired of paying to Israel the annual tribute of one hundred thousand lambs, plus one hundred thousand rams, with the wool thereof. He rebelled against the overlord of Israel and successfully threw off the yoke. On an enormous stele which was erected at Dhiban by the successful king we find these words:
“I Mesha, son of Chemosh-melech, king of Moab, the Dibonite. My father reigned over Moab 30 years and I reigned after my father. I have made this monument for Chemosh at Qorhah, a monument of salvation for he saved me from all invaders and let me see my desire upon all my enemies. Omri was king of Israel, and he oppressed Moab many days, for Chemosh was angry with his land. His son, Ahab followed him and he also said: I will oppress Moab. In my days Chemosh said: I will see my desire on him and his house and Israel surely shall perish forever. Omri took the land of Medeba and dwelt in it during his days and half the days of his son, altogether 40 years. But Chemosh gave it back in my days. I built Baal-Meon and made therein the ditches; I built Kirjathaim. The men of God dwelt in the land of Ataroth from of old, and the king of Israel built there the city of Ataroth; but I made war against the city and took it. And I slew all the people of the city, for the pleasure of Chemosh and of Moab and I brought back from the Arel of Dodah and bore him before Chemosh in Qerioth. And I placed therein the men of Sharon and the men of Mehereth. And Chemosh said unto me: Go, seize Nebo of Israel and I went in the night and fought against it from the break of dawn till noon; and I took it, slew all of them, 7,000 men and boys, women and girls and female slaves, for to Ashtar-Chemosh I devoted them. And I took from thence the Arels of Yahwah and bore them before Chemosh. Now the king of Israel had built Jahaz and he dwelt in it while he waged war against me, but Chemosh drove him out from before me....”
When this great monument was first discovered in 1868, its value was of course not appreciated and no copy of the text was made. The Museum of Berlin heard of it and moved for its purchase. An employe of the French Consulate heard of the negotiations, and offered a large bribe for the possession of the stone. The Turkish officials then interfered. The superstitious Arabs, believing that the monument must have some magical value, broke it into a number of fragments and distributed the pieces as amulets, or charms. A French agent, however, industriously pursued these fragments and with the help of a squeeze which he had made, reconstructed the major portion of the writings. The ancient name of Jehovah occurring on this text was an additional delight to these students of antiquity.
Certain small cities that Israel had wrested from Moab were returned to Mesha at the time of this rebellion. Jehoram, and Jehoshaphat, the kings of Judah, later battled against the increasing power of Moab and administered a crushing defeat to the Moabites sometime after the successful uprising that is recorded here in this text.
Among the ostraca excavated at Samaria, were some that mentioned many of the historical personages of the Old Testament, which also enhanced their value in the eyes of archeologists.
The later expedition to Samaria which was working in 1931, apparently reached the foundations of the first buildings of Omri. They have left a record stating, “No remains earlier than the building of Omri are to be found upon this site.” This being so, we cannot question the statement of the text that Omri was the original builder on the crest of the hill of Samaria, which fact is in itself of considerable importance to the subject of our present study. The question has been raised as to what the effect would have been on the problem of the integrity of the text of the Scripture if this site had proved to have been like the other regions excavated, and was occupied by many older and underlying ruins! The simple answer is that such a discovery was not made; and the evidence that has been derived is of such nature that this portion of the sacred Book must be accepted by the intelligent and informed scholar.
These fragmentary events and references are of as much value as are the individual bricks that make up the mass of a wall or a building. One or two standing alone would be relatively unimportant, but when scores of such evidences are gathered into a composite unit, they offer a formidable and impressive structure of evidence that is extremely difficult to refute. Although it has been the custom to construct the critical argument against the integrity of God’s Word from imagined minor errors in the text, so intrenched is critical dogmatism that nothing but a major rebuttal will be heeded. Happily, a major structure may be erected from minor materials: and thus these fragments serve their destined purpose.
Plate 17
Stone ouches, or door-sockets