Kir-haraseth

Kir-haraseth (meaning built fortress or possibly city of potsherds) was the chief fortified city of Moab, identified with modern Kerak in Jordan. It appears most dramatically in 2 Kings 3, when the combined forces of Israel, Judah, and Edom besieged the city during the campaign of Joram king of Israel against the Moabite king Mesha. When all seemed lost, Mesha sacrificed his firstborn son on the city wall as a burnt offering to his god Chemosh—an act so horrifying that the attacking coalition withdrew, with a great wrath coming against Israel.

The theological interpretation of this withdrawal has puzzled commentators: the text simply records that a great indignation (qeṣep gādôl) came against Israel, without specifying its source. Whatever its cause, the siege was lifted and Kir-haraseth remained unconquered. The city's name appears in Isaiah's oracle against Moab (Isaiah 16:7, 11) and in Jeremiah 48:31, 36, where the prophets lament the destruction of this stronghold in terms of genuine pathos for Moab's suffering. The Moabite Stone (Mesha Stele) confirms Mesha as a historical king, though it presents the conflict from his perspective as a victory.