Page:The Inscription on the Stele of Méša commonly called the Moabite Stone.djvu/14

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THE MOABITE STONE.

III. Translation.

Words in italics are required by English idiom: they are not in the original. The transliteration of proper names is in accordance with the notation in the Hebrew Grammar of Gesenius. Words and letters within square brackets are restored conjecturally. Words within curved brackets are alternative renderings, &c.

1I am Méšaʿ son of Kemôš ? king of Mōʾāḇ the Da-
2-ibonite. My father reigned over Mōʾāḇ thirty years and I reign-
3-ed after my father. And I made this high place for Kemôš in Ḳrḥh.[1] [High place of sal-]
4-vation, for he had saved me from all the assailants (?), and because he had caused me to look upon[2] all my foes. ʿOmr-
5was king of Yisrāʾēl, and he afflicted Mōʾāḇ days many, for Kemôš was angry with his la-
6-nd. And his son succeeded him, and he too said I will afflict Mōʾāḇ. In my days he said s[o],
7and I looked upon[2] him and upon his house. And Israel utterly perished everlastingly. And ʿOmrî possessed the [la-]
8-nd of Mehēḏeḇā. And (Israel) dwelt therein, his days and half the days of his son, forty years; and
9Kemôš restored it in my days. And I built Báʿal-méôn and I made therein the reservoir (?), and I built

  1. line 3. Perhaps "Ḳerēḥah" or "Ḳorḥāh"
  2. 2.0 2.1 lines 4, 7. "Look upon," i.e., with exultation over a fallen foe. Cf. Ps. lix. 10 E.V.