The History of Antiquity, Vol. 2 (of 6)Duncker, Max
History
The History of Antiquity, Vol. 2 (of 6)
Duncker, Max
History, Ancient
Notwithstanding this fortunate beginning, the campaign against Moab, as
is allowed even by the Books of Kings, was finally wrecked. This
termination agrees with the statements of Mesha on the monument of
Dibon. "Forty years," it says, "Israel dwelt in Medabah; Camos gave it
back in my days. And the king of Israel built Ataroth, and I fought
against the stronghold and took it, and took all the men captive, and
brought them as a pleasing spectacle to Camos and Moab. And Camos said
to me, Go and take Nebo from Israel; and I went in the night and fought
against it from daybreak to mid-day; and I took it. It was devoted to
destruction to Ashtor-Camos (I. 373); and I took from thence the
furniture of Jehovah, and dragged them before Camos. And the king of
Israel built Jahaz, and placed himself therein, in his contest against
me, and Camos drove him out before me. I took from Moab 200 men, all the
chiefs, and led them out to Jahaz, and took it, in order to unite it to
Dibon. I built Karho,[452] the gates, the towers, and the royal palace.
I built Aroer, and made the road over the Arnon. I built Beth Bamoth,
which was destroyed. I built Bazor, and Beth Diblathaim, and Beth
Baal-Meon. And Camos said to me, Go down to fight against Horonaim."
Here our fragments of the inscription break off. We see that Ahab's
successors, Ahaziah and Joram, attempted to force Moab to submission by
planting fortresses in the land; that they attempted to subjugate the
Moabites from Ataroth, Nebo, and Jahaz. When this mode of warfare did
not succeed, and the fortresses were destroyed, the great campaign was
undertaken which in the end came to disaster, unless we were to place
this campaign before the time when Joram built those fortresses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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