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Bible Dictionaries
Mesha
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or MESHA. 1. Son of Shaharaim, a Benjamite ( 1 Chronicles 8:2 ). 2. Firstborn of Caleb ( 1 Chronicles 2:42 ).
MESHA. A king of Moab in the 9th cent. b.c. According to an inscription (on the ‘ Moabite Stone ’ discovered at Dibon in 1868) describing his deeds, he expelled the Israelitish inhabitants from northern Moab, or from a portion of the debatable land between the two monarchies east of the northern third of the Dead Sea. Under Omri, the builder of Samaria, the border of Israel had been extended southwards to near its ancient limits ( Numbers 21:24 ff.); and Mesha reclaimed it by vindictive warfare, from Kiriathaim as far as Nebo. 2 Kings 3:1-27 also deals with the relation between northern Israel and Mesha, and it is difficult to reconcile the two accounts in every detail. The matter can best be dealt with here by giving the most probable order of the events: (1) the conquest by Omri [Inscription, lines 4, 5] about b.c. 880; (2) the expulsion of the Hebrews by Mesha in the time of Ahab [Inscr. 1. 8 ff.] about b.c. 855, Mesha’s ‘forty years’ being, as also often in Hebrew narrative, a round number; (3) the refusal of Mesha to again submit, which is all that the Hebrew of 2 Kings 1:1; 2 Kings 3:5 (EV [Note: English Version.] ‘rebelled’) necessarily implies; (4) the unsuccessful expedition by Joram and his allies to reduce Mesha to submission, recorded in 2 Kings 3:6-27 .
J. F. M‘Curdy.
MESHA is mentioned as marking one of the boundaries of the territory ascribed to the descendants of Joktan in Genesis 10:25 . Its position has not yet been satisfactorily identified. The proposed identification with the late territory of Mesene at the head of the Persian Gulf is improbable. A better case can be made out for identifying it with Mash or Mashu, a general term in the Assyrian inscriptions for the Syro-Arabian desert; though the passage suggests that a single place, or tribe, rather than so vast a region, is referred to. If the vowel points be emended the word may be read as Massa , the name of a son of Ishmael in Genesis 25:14 and 1 Chronicles 1:30 . Traces of this latter tribe have been sought in place names in central Arabia, but no identification yet suggested can be regarded as certain.
L. W. King.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Mesha'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/m/mesha.html. 1909.
