Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Kemosh (But Were Afraid to Ask)

About the religion of the Moabites, frustratingly little is known. Even given the recent discovery of the temple at Khirbat al-Mudayna, described in the accompanying article, most archaeological evidence so far only sheds indirect light on what the Moabites believed and how they worshiped. The Hebrew Bible tells us that the Israelites’ neighbors east of the Dead Sea worshiped the “loathsome,” “abominable,” “filthy” (depending on the translation) god Kemosh (1 Kings 11:7; 2 Kings 23:13). The identity of the Moabites’ principal deity is confirmed by the famous Mesha Stele. Unearthed in 1868 in Dhiban, this slab of black basalt bears a royal inscription commemorating a series of victories against the Israelites by Moab’s King Mesha, who repeatedly attributes those victories to Kemosh.

Although our sources are patchy, it is nevertheless possible to sketch some of the broad outlines of Moabite religion, and to offer educated guesses about Moab’s god. Despite the aspersions heaped upon Kemosh in the Hebrew Bible, the Moabites’ rituals and beliefs seem not to have differed much from that of the Israelites; and Kemosh appears to have had a good deal in common with Yahweh.