https://www.learnreligions.com/chemosh-lord-of-the-moabites-117630 (accessed April 18, 2023). His presence in the Old Testament world was well known, as his cult was imported to Jerusalem by King Solomon (1 Kings 11:7). [3] Apologetics Albrecht Alt has shown that divine titles such as 'El Bet' el (Gen. 31:13; 35:7); 'El 'Olam (Gen. 21:33); and 'El Ro'i (Gen. 16:13); 'El 'Elyon (Gen. 14:18); and 'El Saddai (Gen. 17:1); all later taken to be one God (Yahweh) after Moses, were all originally separate gods worshipped by the early Hebrews.3 The Catholic scholar Bruce Vawter concurs with Alt. The devil is in the details, it seems. King Mesha of Moab erected the Moabite Stone to his god Chemosh to commemorate Mesha's breaking of Israel's domination, which, he says, had lasted 40 years and was allowed by Chemosh because he was "angry with his land." This revolt of Moab is usually considered to be related to the events recorded in the third chapter of 2 Kings. The obvious implication is that the god Chemosh, happy with the sacrifice, caused Israel's defeat. The Hebrew scorn for his worship was evident in a curse from the scriptures:"the abomination of Moab." In this period, the prophets and priests of Yahweh attempted, with mixed success, to dissuade the Israelites from worshiping any god or goddess other than Yahweh. This parallel is clear. We saw in previous entries (Contradictions #364-369) that the author of Deuteronomy took liberties in having his Moses renarrate the Edom event, now presenting the Edomites as amicable toward their Israelite brethren and allowing them to pass through their territory and to procure food and drink. What were the borders of the land of Canaan promised to the patriarchs by Yahweh: from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates, #13. Only the pure are allowed to eat sacrificial meat OR both the pure and impure? They stop by the prophet Elisha to get Yahweh's word on whether they will be victorious. These facts are inexplicable except on the theory that neither Elisha nor Elijah nor the men who wrote their lives denied the existence of the heathen gods. Thank you for all your hard work here. He may have been related to or even. Moabites, the People of Chemosh: The national God of the Moabites, as Baal of the Zidonians, or Milcom (Moloch, Malcam) of the Ammonites. Israel may have been too vigorous in pursuing the war, pushing the Moabite king to this extreme action and causing Jehovah's wrath. Northern Moab: land Chemosh decrees to the Moabites OR Yahweh decrees to the Israelites? The high place on which Mesha oriented the stone was dedicated to Chemosh as well. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. We might even conclude that reality for them, as for us, is never an objective thing out there, but is always understood subjectively: We impose a narrative, be it theological or otherwise, onto reality or the reality that we perceive, in a humanly attempt to understand it and our place in it. So Israel is made up of humans, and Elijah's prophecy is not a prophecy of predestined destruction of Moab. compare all religions to the jewish religion. It is an attempt to understand man, including our forefathers, in all his aspects. Certainly not Yahweh. If a Girl says to me "call me tomorrow and we'll go on a date." 2 Kings 3:27 27 Then he (Mesha, king of the Moabites who worshiped Chemosh) took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him as a sacrifice on the city wall. 3 Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. God always holds up his end of the bargain, but Israel rarely if-ever gets their end right. There is no sense whatsoever that one god is true, and the other false. ", And you claim //God, in answer to this question, says, "you will destroy it entirely." This implies that there is a source of divinity outside of their god. The Bible also states in Numbers 21:29-30; that Dibon was a city in the land of Moab and mentions their god, Chemosh. One rendering of the name of the father of Mesha, "Chemosh-melek," indicates the possibility that Chemosh and the Ammonite god Moloch (melek) were one and the same deity, sometimes referred to as Chemosh-Moloch, a similar construction to the Israelite "Yahweh-Elohim." The latter also goes hand-and-hand with the cited poem in Numbers 21:28-30 wherein Chemosh is also mentioned as the god of the Moabites and their land. He was incredibly wise and compassionate to those that came to him for guidance, but not always. Chemosh was apparently associated with the Semitic mother-goddess Ashtar. Ba'al | Berith | Chemosh | Dagon | Derceto | Of course, we cannot overlook the fact of . Mesha says that he captured Nebo, a town located on the very mountain where Moses traditionally saw the promised land before dying. Do the Israelites leave Egypt on the 15th day of the 1st month, #162. [3] Produced by the First Bible Network: ', https://www.firstbiblenetwork.com/PrenicenePerspective.html, https://www.firstbiblenetwork.com/FBNRadio.html, https://www.compellingtruth.org/Moabites.html, http://web.mit.edu/jywang/www/cef/Bible/NIV/NIV_Bible/2KGS+3.html, https://apologeticspress.org/ruth-david-and-a-moabite-mandate-5633/, https://classroom.synonym.com/religious-offerings-and-sacrifices-to-the-greek-gods-12086670.html, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-moabites, --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/firstbiblenetwork/message. It identifies what we would call northern Moab as Amorite territory, that is from the Arnon river to the Jabbok, the borders of Ammon. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Hadad | Kothar | Melqart | Mot | Moloch | It is not known how long the private worship of Chemosh in Judah and Moab actually continued. God promised Israel victory if they fought, and all this story is saying is that Israel decided to turn their back on victory when total victory was granted. (Num 10:12 vs Num 11:35), #27. Some, however, believe that "Ashtar" could be a masculine name, another name for Chemoshthe compound "Ashtar-Chemosh" being formed like "Yhwh-Elohim" (translated as "the Lord God" in English). Chemosh, the subduer, was the national god of the Moabites and was also worshiped by the Ammonites. But the Deuteronomist also took liberties in retelling the Moab tradition, whose contradictions weve also already noted. Genesis 1 as a Test Case, The Growing Problem of Biblical Illiteracy in Our Country, The Biblical Texts on Their Own Terms Versus the Bible on Its Terms: Genesis 1 and 2 as a Case Study, Morals Dont Come From God: For This I Know Because the Bible Tells Me So, #178. (Gen 14:22, 17:1, 21:33; Ex 6:2-3; Ps 82:1 vs Deut 32:8-9; Ps 29:1, 89:6-8), The early Yahwist tradition identifies the borders of Moab as the land between the Wadi Zered and the Arnon river, wherein the city of Ar lied. Why would he respond to a Moabite human sacrifice, break his own prophecy of victory, and force his own armies into retreat? In 2 Kings 3:27, Yahweh is defeated by another god, Chemosh. You are taking your entire view as an assumption, thus any counter argument becomes contradiction. The Bible in 2 Kings 3:4-5 verifies Mesha was the king of Moab during their revolt against Israel. Little is known about Chemosh; although King Solomon of Israel built a sanctuary to him east of Jerusalem (1 Kings 11:7), the shrine was later demolished by King Josiah (2 Kings 23:13). We also learn that Chemosh communicated with the king, probably through a form of divination similar to the many biblical references to Israelite kings "inquiring of the Lord." 2 Kings 3:27 27 Then he (Mesha, king of the Moabites who worshiped Chemosh) took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him as a sacrifice on the city wall. ), Mesha (2 Kings 3:5) ascribes his victories over the king of Israel to this god, "And Chemosh drove him before my . 1. Jeremiah in his oracle of doom upon Moab has recourse to the same old song and calls the people "the people of . [7] Possibly Israel had the wrong allies and this angered Jehovah. The Moabites are apostrophized in an old Hebrew song as the "people of Chemosh" ( Nu 21:29 ). The Moabite Stone is a priceless source of information concerning Chemosh. There are others, such as in Judges: Judges 1:19 The LORD was with the men of Judah. The Moabite King Mesha dedicated a high place to Chemosh which contained a well-preserved inscription on the so-called Moabite Stone, describing Chemosh's involvement in Mesha's battles against the descendants of the Israelite kings Omri and Ahab. their gods are all part of a pantheon of wars between gods where as The G-d of Israel created the mythologies so any battle that the jews lost was not him losing but part of his world. Maybe that's why Yahweh decided to sacrifice his firstborn son? Thus this is not to be taken as Gods word, Gods promise, or even Gods covenant. Rav and Shmuel engage in a dispute concerning this. your conclusion does not follow. Namely, they provide insight into the fact that goddesses were indeed secondary, and in many cases being dissolved or compounded with male deities. But I looked down on him and on his house. Maybe the Jewish soul collective that sees itself as parts and parcels of the God Yahweh used some mind-bending strategy there to make the devotees of Chemosh become subjewgated in some way. Apparently you didn't read the whole chapter and are deliberately taking it out of context in order to preach your unsupported claims. (Deuteronomy 2:9). ISBN links support NWE through referral fees, https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Chemosh&oldid=1018011, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. King Solomon dedicated an altar to Chemosh outside of Jerusalem in honor of his Moabite wife. The entire old testament talks about the failure of the people of God. Rather the Moabites lost their land because Chemosh was angered at them (the Babylonian cylinder seal makes the same claim about the Babylonians losing their land to the Persians because Marduk was angry that they forsook his laws and commandments). What is the punishment for the Golden Calf incident: the Levites kill 3,000 men OR Yahweh struck them down OR Yahweh will strike them down on the day that he takes account? Israel lost! By command of Chemosh, Mesha attacked Nebo and fought against Israel, and after a fierce struggle he took the place, slaying the inhabitants en masse, 7,000 men and women and maidservants, devoting the city to 'Ashtor-Chemosh and dragging the altar vessels of Yahweh before Chemosh. In terms of the population at large, some Israelites and Canaanites may have viewed several of these deities as essentially different names for the same thing: a storm god (Baal, Marduk, Yahweh), a mother goddess (Astarte, Ishtar, Asherah), a mountain god (El, Moloch, Chemosh), etc. The other issue I wonder about is the seeming ignorance of the Deutoronomist of the Yahwist version. God Had a Wife? Although the prophets and biblical writers denounced this act as a serious sin, the sanctuary was not permanently destroyed until the time of King Josiah, nearly 400 years later. But since they became afraid of the wrath of Chemosh, or because they were simply disgusted by the crazy act of the king, they left. 1. The Elohim of Abraham and the Elohim of Nahhor, they will judge between us, the Elohim of their father, and Jacob swore with the fear of his father Isaac. On critical occasions, a human sacrifice was considered necessary to secure the favor of Chemosh. as a record of Mesha's victories in his revolt against the Kingdom of Israel after the death of his overlord, King Ahab. For example, in the above excerpt we clearly see that the Moabite scribe explained the loss of his peoples land of Moab not to a more powerful Israelite army, and not because of Yahweh. https://sites.google.com/site/yahwehelohiym/sons-of-god/the-el-of-a-family. 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