Mesha

Mesha, king of Moab, rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.

Mesha was the king of Moab who paid tribute to the kings of Israel. He was a sheep breeder and used to supply the king of Israel with a hundred thousand lambs and the wool of a hundred thousand rams (2Ki 3:4). However, after the death of Ahab, king of Israel, Mesha rebelled against Israelite rule. In response, Jehoram, the king of Israel, allied with Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and the king of Edom to wage war against Moab (2Ki 3:6-7). During the battle, when Mesha saw that the battle was going against him, he took his firstborn son and offered him as a burnt offering on the city wall, causing great wrath against Israel and forcing the Israelite army to withdraw (2Ki 3:26-27).

Heb. id, a king of Moab, the son of Chemosh-Gad, a man of great wealth in flocks and herds (2 Kings 3:4). After the death of Ahab at Ramoth-Gilead, Mesha shook off the yoke of Israel; but on the ascension of Jehoram to the throne of Israel, that king sought the help of Jehoshaphat in an attempt to reduce the Moabites again to their former condition. The united armies of the two kings came unexpectedly on the army of the Moabites, and gained over them an easy victory. The whole land was devastated by the conquering armies, and Mesha sought refuge in his last stronghold, Kir-harasheth (q.v.). Reduced to despair, he ascended the wall of the city, and there, in the sight of the allied armies, offered his first-born son a sacrifice to Chemosh, the fire-god of the Moabites. This fearful spectacle filled the beholders with horror, and they retired from before the besieged city, and recrossed the Jordan laden with spoil (2 Kings 3:25-27).

The exploits of Mesha are recorded in the Phoenician inscription on a block of black basalt found at Dibon, in Moab, usually called the “Moabite stone” (q.v.).