ir-hareseth.* Closely beset, and
despairing of any help from man, he had recourse to the last resource
which religion provided for his salvation; taking his firstborn son, he
offered him to Chemosh, and burnt him on the city wall in sight of the
besiegers. The Israelites knew what obligations this sacrifice entailed
upon the Moabite god, and the succour which he would be constrained to
give to his devotees in consequence. They therefore raised the siege and
disbanded in all directions.** Mesha, delivered at the very moment that
his cause seemed hopeless, dedicated a stele in the temple of Dhibon, on
which he recorded his victories and related what measures he had taken
to protect his people.***

* Kir-Hareseth or Kir-Moab is the present Kcrak, the Krak of
mediaeval times.

** The account of the campaign (2 Kings iii. 8-27) belongs
to the prophetic cycle of Elisha, and seems to give merely a
popular version of the event. A king of Edom is mentioned
(9-10, 12-13), while elsewhere, under Jehoshaphat, it is
stated "there was no king in Edom" (1 Kings xxii. 47); the
geography also of the route taken by the expedition is
somewhat confused. Finally, the account of the siege of Kir-
hareseth is mutilated, and the compiler has abridged the
episode of the human sacrifice, as being too conducive to
the honour of Chemosh and to the dishonour of Jahveh. The
main facts of the account are correct, but the details are
not clear, and do not all bear the stamp of veracity.

*** This is the famous Moabite Stone or stele of Dhibon,
discovered by Clermont-Ganneau in 1868, and now preserved in
the Louvre.

[Illustration: 123.jpg THE MOABITE STONE OF STELE OF MESHA]

From a photograph by Faucher-Gudin, retouched by Massias
from the original in the Louvre. The fainter parts of the
stele are the portions restored in the original.

He still feared a repetition of the invasion, but this misfortune was
spared him; Jehoshaphat was gathered to his fathers,* and his Edomite
subjects revolted on receiving the news of his death. Jeho--his son and
successor, at once took up arms to bring them to a sense of their duty;
but they surrounded his camp, and it was with difficulty that he cut his
way through their ranks and escaped during the night.

* The date of the death of Jehoshaphat may be fixed as 849
or 848 B.C. The biblical documents