mesha_stele:lemaire
- I am Mesha, son of Kemoshyat, king of Moab, the Dibonite.
- My father reigned over Moab thirty years, and I reigned after my father.
- I made this high place for Kemosh in Qarho because he saved me from all the kings and made me look down on all my enemies.
- Omri was king of Israel, and he oppressed Moab many days, for Kemosh was angry with his land.
- And his son succeeded him, and he too said: I will oppress Moab. In my days, he said so.
- But I looked down on him and on his house, and Israel has gone to ruin forever!
- Omri had taken possession of the whole land of Medeba, and he lived there during his days and half the days of his son, forty years.
- But Kemosh restored it in my days. I built Baal-Meon, and I made in it a reservoir.
- I built Kiriathaim.
- The men of Gad had dwelled in Ataroth from of old, and the king of Israel built Ataroth for himself.
- But I fought against the city and captured it. I killed all the people from the city as a sacrifice for Kemosh and for Moab.
- And I brought back from there the altar-hearth of his beloved, and I dragged it before Kemosh in Kerioth.
- I settled in it the men of Sharon and the men of Maharith.
- And Kemosh said to me, “Go, take Nebo from Israel!”
- So I went by night and fought against it from the break of dawn till noon.
- And I took it and killed all of them: 7,000 men, boys, women, girls, and maidservants, for I had devoted them to Ashtar-Kemosh.
- And from there I took the vessels of Yahweh, and I dragged them before Kemosh.
- And the king of Israel had built Jahaz and lived in it while he fought against me, but Kemosh drove him out before me.
- I took from Moab 200 men, all its warriors, and I led them up against Jahaz and seized it to add it to Dibon.
- I built Aroer, and I made the highway in the Arnon valley.
- I built Beth-Bamoth, for it was destroyed. I built Bezer, for it was in ruins.
- And the men of Dibon were armed, for all of Dibon was under my command.
- I ruled over 100 towns that I added to the land.
- And I built… [damaged]
- …with the prisoners of Israel. I built…
- …the house of the king. I made… [damaged]
- …broad cisterns in the midst of the city.
- And there was no cistern in the city of Qarho, and I said to all the people: “Make yourselves every man a cistern in his house.”
- And I cut out the moat for Qarho by means of prisoners from Israel.
- I built Qarho, the wall of the forests and the wall of the citadel.
- And the men of Horonaim dwelled in it before. And the House of David lived in Horonaim… [fragmentary]
- And Kemosh said to me, “Go down, fight against Horonaim and seize it.”
- And I went down and fought against the city, and I took it and Kemosh restored it in my days.
- …I built… [final lines too damaged to reconstruct fully]
mesha_stele/lemaire.txt · Last modified: by graham