The Mesha Stele, also known as the Moabite Stone, is a black basalt monument bearing an inscription by the ninth century B.C.E. Moabite King Mesha. Discovered in 1868 at Dhiban, Jordan (biblical "Dibon," the capital of Moab), the inscription of 34 lines is the most extensive document ever recovered referring contemporaneously to ancient Israel.

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The inscription seems to parallel an episode in 2 Kings 3: Jehoram of Israel makes an alliance with Jehoshaphat king of Judah and an unnamed king of Edom (south of Judah) to put down his rebellious vassal Mesha; the three kings have the best of the campaign until Mesha, in desperation, sacrifices to his god Chemosh either his eldest son or the eldest son of the king of Edom; the sacrifice turns the tide, "there came great wrath against Israel", and Mesha apparently achieves victory. This apparent correspondence is the basis of the usual dating of the inscription to about 840 BCE, but André Lemaire has cautioned that the identification is not certain and the stele may be as late as 810 BCE.

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The translation:

I am Mesha [1], son of Kemoshyat, king of Moab, the Daibonite.

My father ruled over Moab for thirty years.

But then I ruled after my father.

I made this shrine [2] for Kemosh in Qarḥoh.

(It is) a shr[ine of deli]verance, [3]

because he delivered me from every king (?),

and because he raised me above all my enemies. [4]

Omri was the king of Israel,

and he oppressed Moab for a long time,

because Kemosh was angry at his nation.

Then his son succeeded him,

and he declared, “I will oppress Moab,” too.

He said that during my reign,

but I rose above him and his family.

Israel was destroyed — completely destroyed! —

even though Omri had conquered the land as far as Mehadaba.

He stayed there through his reign and half his son’s reign,

forty years,

but Kemosh returned it during my reign.

I built Baalmaon,

and I made a reservoir in it,

and I built Qiryaten.

The population of Gad had always lived in the nation of Aṭarot,

and the king of Israel had built up Aṭarot.

But I attacked the city and seized it.

I killed the city’s entire population as tribute (?) for Kemosh and Moab;

I plundered the altar of its patron god [5],

and I relocated it (to be) before Kemosh in Qiryat.

I settled the populations of Sharon and Maḥarat in (Aṭarot).

Kemosh then said to me, “Go and seize Nabo from Israel.”

So I went out at night, and I fought with them

from the break of dawn until past noon.

I seized it, and I killed everyone —

seven thousand male citizens, male immigrants,

female citizens, female immigrants, and fertile girls — [6]

because I had devoted them to destruction for Ashtar-Kemosh. [7]

Then I took the vessels of YHWH from there,

and I relocated them (to be) before Kemosh.

The king of Israel had built Yahaṣ,

and he stayed there while he was fighting with me.

But Kemosh drove him out for me.

I took two hundred men from Moab — their entire unit.

I brought (the unit) up to Yahaṣ,

and I seized it to enrich Daibon.

I am the one who built up Qarḥoh, [8]

the garden’s walls and the citadel’s walls.

I am the one who built its gates,

and I am the one who built its towers.

I am the one who built the palace,

and I am the one who made the retaining walls of the reservoir

for the spring in the city center.

(There had been no cistern in the city center of Qarḥoh,

so I told all the people,

“Each household should make their own cistern.”)

I am the one who dug ditches for Qarḥoh,

using the captives from Israel.

I am the one who built Aro’er,

and I am the one who made the road by the Arnon River,

and I am the one who built up Bet Bamot after it was destroyed.

I am the one who built Beṣer back from rubble,

using the population of Daibon —

for everyone in Daibon obeyed me.

I am the one who ruled over hundreds

in the cities I added to the nation.

I am the one who built Mehadaba, Bet Diblaten, and Bet Baalmaon,

and I brought up there the l[ambs? …]

[…] sheep (?) of the nation.

(As for) Ḥawronen, the House of David had lived in [it …]

Then Kemosh told me, “Go out to fight Hawronen.”

So I went out and [attacked the city, and I seized it,

and it was restored by] Kemosh during my reign.

[The remaining couple of lines are very fragmentary.]

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