29 יתי : . [מאת) • בקרן • אשר • יספתי * על י הארץ *

29.-1ti 2meath bekirin "asher "yasafti 'al haarez | vaǎnoch

"banith

29.--ed 2? in cities? which "I added unto the land and I 'I built

1

2

30 יני : את] - [מהדבא] • ובת • דבלתן ו * ובת 'בעלמען

30.—1-i 2eth 3mehděba 'ubcth "diblathayin "ubeth 'ba'alme'on 8vaesa sham "eth "nekd?

30.—1- 2? 3Medeba and Beth Diblathayin and Beth 'BaalMe'on and I carried "thither 19the 11?

3

31 י- - - צאן] : הארין | י וחורנן - ישב בה "בון ירדן]

31.--zon hararez | věchoranan yashab bah "ben dadan

Budeddan

31.-1? the land and Choranaïn (men) dwelt "there- in 62 72 82 92

: כמש ירד * הלתהום * בחורנן ויוארד 32 י [ אמר לי

* ואלת

32.-... amar2li chemosh 'red hiltachen "bechoranan | vaered

8vaelta

32.-'said unto me 3Chemosh go down fight against the Choranaïn (men) and I went down and I?

3

ישבה : כמש : בימי : וער נאדה • משם * עשר]

6

33.-'yasheboh chemosh 'beyamaï 'vě 'eladah 'misham (?) 'asr 33.-? Chemosh in my days "? "from there 6?

Before we enter upon a minute examination of the textual matter, it will serve the purposes of this analysis if we draw attention to some characteristics of the land and people of Moab.

The land of Moab originally covered an area of 50 miles in length by 20 in breadth, and was traversed from East to West by the river Arnon (Wadi-el-Mojeb). In the early days of the Israelites this territory, together with the land of Ammon, bore the characteristic name of 'Ar, as is evident from Deuteronomy iii. 9.—For unto the children of Lot I have given 'Ar as a possession.' No name could be more appropriate, for it is identical with the modern Arabic ghor, which signifies a chasm extending over a large tract of land; the soft sound of the Hebrew ayin in the word 'Ar was in this instance pronounced by the Arabs as a strong guttural, and is accordingly written by them with the ayin top-dotted. The ghors which intersect the land of Moab in various directions, have here and there a tropical flora which considerably differs from the vegetation which covers the hills and dales of less broken parts of the territory. The Arnon itself flows through a stupendously deep ghor. The name of the town of Aroer is an indication of such deep depression, and is a compound suggestive of the meaning

'Ghor of the Ghor.' The word 'Ar may belong to the vocabulary of a primeval nation which owned the land before the Moabites settled in that country. The primitive inhabitants who occupied the territories at the east side of the Jordan have left traces of their civilisation in mighty stone structures consisting of caves for purposes of dwelling, and of fastnesses, which are in ruins and partly lie buried beneath the soil. Some of them had stone dwellings, the shutters and doors of which were made of carved or uncarved stone slabs. In other districts they had wine and oil presses which were hewn out of the rocks. These memorials of a pre-historic age are significantly noticed in the book of Deuteronomy, vi. 10-11. "The Lord thy God (giveth thee) great and goodly cities which thou hast not built, houses full of good things which thou hast not filled, hewn cisterns which thou hast not hewn, vineyards and olive grounds which thou hast not planted." One of the most striking features of the east-Jordanic territory are the numberless dolmens or stone altars of which Canon Tristram, Selah Merril, G. Schumacher, and pre-eminently Captain Conder, have given most instructive descriptions and exquisite illustrations. Some of the dolmens are constructed of three upright slabs joined together at right angles, with a horizontal slab on the top. Such dolmens are sometimes placed on stone terraces of two or more layers of stone blocks. Now and then they are surrounded by circular fences of a more or less extensive area; and, together with monolithic monuments, and perhaps some of the cairns, they reach from a pre-historic age far into the period when the Semitic settlers displaced the earlier population. These monuments became Hebrews, the Phoenicians, The two first-mentioned

the subject of folk-lore among the the Moabites, and the Ammonites. nations designated the defunct race by the name of 'Rephaim,' whose residence was in the nethermost world, the Sheol' of the Bible. The Moabites called the same defunct race 'Emim,' i.e., the Terrible, and the Ammonites called them 'Zamzumim,' the signification of which has not been well ascertained, but the reduplication indicates, that the Ammonites themselves had

VOL. IX.

but a hazy notion of the character belonging to a race which was only remembered in legends.

Travellers in the east-Jordanic regions have met with more than a thousand dolmens in Moab and the land of Gilead. In

a precious fragment of a history of decisive battles, quoted in the Book of Numbers, xxi. 28, the chronicler mentions that the region north of the river Arnon had been conquered by Amorites. He speaks of a fire which went forth from Heshbon,' of 'a flame which issued from the city of Sihon: it consumed 'Ar of Moab and the owners of the bamoth of Arnon.' Such 'bamoth,' continually mentioned in connection with the people of Moab, have mainly the signification of dolmens. Just as the dolmen served for sacrificial purposes, and in many instances as an indication of burial-places, so was the bamah, the singular of the word bamoth, dedicated to the worship of the national gods and to an underground receptacle for the dead. In Isaiah, xvi. 12, the Moabite is represented as being weary near the bamah. He goes unto his sanctuary to pray, and cannot do so.' This explanation also accounts for a different statement in Isaiah liii. 9: And he shared his grave with the wicked, and his bamoth (more likely his bamah) with the rich.' It may further be noticed that the Israelites who were religiously antagonistic to the existence of the pagan dolmens, adopted the idiomatic expression, 'to tread upon the bamoth,' i.e., altars or high places, when they wished to imply that the conqueror can pass freely through the possessions of the vanquished foe. This identification of the bamoth with the pre-historic monuments becomes especially striking when it is considered that the word 'bamah' passed into the Greek language in the form of Bwuds, and that in the days of Homer it was employed both in the sense of 'altar' and of 'high place.' The Moabites became obnoxious to their Hebrew neighbours not solely by reason of religious differences, but because they, together with the Ammonites, made continual inroads upon the territory assigned to Israel, as is mentioned in Zephaniah,

ii. 8.

The language spoken by the Moabites was by no means as identical with that of the Hebrews as would seem to be the

case if the text of the Moabite stone were not a fabrication. The entire constitution and development of the Moabite commonwealth was different from that of the Jewish commonwealth. In the land of Moab there was a tendency to decentralisation, whilst the system prevailing amongst the Israelites was designed for the unification of the people. Every town. in Moab had its special sanctuary, its prophets, priests, and sorcerers. If Judah multiplied its gods according to the numbers of its cities,' this was done contrary to the theocratic law; but in Moab this rule for decentralising the public worship was obviously the law of the land, consequently the divergent religious customs of the land must have affected the language of the Moabites very considerably. The Moabite people, which was described as stagnant, and as 'never poured from vessel into vessel,' spoke a dialect which was not well understood by their Jewish neighbours. This fact is mentioned by Nehemiah in the last chapter of his book, verses 24 and 25. He states that the Jews married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. And their children spoke half in the language of Ashdod, and could not speak the language of the Jews; but (they spoke) according to the language of each people.' These few notes may suffice to indicate the national and linguistic differences between the Israelites and the Moabites.

Line 1,.-Anoch. The form of this personal pronoun, inasmuch as it differs from the fuller Hebrew spelling 'anochi, is an imitation (as are some other portions of this inscription which will be noticed below) of the spelling used on the Sidonian sarcophagus. The heading of Mesha's self-introduction reads as if it were imitated from the words of the Sidonian king. The latter says in his epitaph, lines 13 to 15:- Anoch ashmunazar melech zidonim ben melech tabnith . . . věimi am'ashtroth koheneth 'ashtroth." "I am Ashmunazar the son of Tabnith a king of the Sidonians, .. and my mother is Amashteroth, priestess of Ashteroth' (Astarte). The scribe could not refer to Mesha's mother, but has not omitted, in line 17, to surprise the reader with Astarte as a conjugal partner of the God Chemosh.

...

Line 1, 24-Mesha ben chemosh (Mesha son of Chemosh). Chemosh and Moab are spelt in the inscription without the