Mesha Stele

Sayce1892 historical source page 85

THE LANGUAGE OF MOAB. '^'J which the Psalmist declares that ' God shall let me see my desire upon mine oppressors/ and the author of the Book of Judges recounts how that ' the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel.' The covenant name of the God of Israel Itself occurs in the inscription, spelt in exactly the same way as in the Old Testament. Its occurrence Is a proof, if any were needed, that the superstition which afterwards prevented the Jews from pronouncing it did not as yet exist. The name under which God was worshipped in Israel was familiar to the nations round about. Nay, more ; we gather that even after the attempt of Jezebel to intro- duce the Baalim of Sidon Into the northern kingdom, Yahveh was still regarded as the national god, and that the worship carried en at the high places, Idolatrous and contrary as it was to the law, was nevertheless performed in His name. The high-place of Nebo, like so many of the other localities mentioned In the Inscription, Is also mentioned in the prophecy against Moab contained In Isa. XV. xvi. It is even possible that the words of the verse In the Book of Isaiah In which it is named have undergone transposition, and that the true reading is, * He Is gone up to Dibon and to Beth-Bamoth to weep; Moab shall howl over Nebo and over Medeba.' The inscription informs us. that Beth-Bamoth, ' the house of the high-places,' was the name of a place near Dibon, the name of which appears In the last verse of Isaiah xv. under the form of Dimon, the letter b being changed by the prophet Into fit^ in order to connect It with the word darn, 'blood.' KIrkha, 'the wall of the forest,' the modern Kerak, is called Kir of Moab and Kir-haresh or Kir-hareseth by Isaiah, and Kir-heres by Jeremiah, which by a slight change of vocalisation would signify