The Mesha Stele (popularized in the 19th century as the "Moabite Stone") is a black basalt stone bearing an inscription by the 9th century BC ruler Mesha of Moab in Jordan.

The inscription was set up about 840 BC as a memorial of Mesha's victories over "Omri king of Israel" and his son, who had been oppressing Moab. It is the most extensive inscription ever recovered that refers to ancient Israel (the "House of Omri"). It bears what is generally thought to be the earliest extra-biblical Semitic reference to the name Yahweh (YHWH), whose temple goods were plundered by Mesha and brought before his own god Kemosh. French scholar André Lemaire has reconstructed a portion of line 31 of the stele as mentioning the "House of David".

The stone is 124 cm high and 71 cm wide and deep, and rounded at the top. It was discovered at the site of ancient Dibon (now Dhiban, Jordan), in August 1868, by Rev. Frederick Augustus Klein (1827–1903), a German CMS missionary. Local villagers smashed the stone during a dispute over its ownership, but a squeeze (a papier-mâché impression) had been obtained by Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau, and most of the fragments were later recovered and pieced together by him.^{[Full citation needed]} The squeeze (which has never been published) and the reassembled stele (which has been published in many books and encyclopedias) are now in the Louvre Museum.

King Mesha of Moab was a king of Moabites around the 9th century BC, known most famous for writing the Mesha stele.

The books of Samuel record that Moab was conquered by David (floruit c.1000-970 BCE) and retained in the territories of his son Solomon (d. 931 BCE). Later, King Omri of Israel reconquered Moab after Moab was lost subsequent to King Solomon's reign. The Mesha Stele, erected by Mesha, indicates that it was Omri, king of the northern kingdom of Israel, who conquered his land. The Mesha Stele records Mesha's liberation of Moab c.850 BCE.

2 Kings 3:4 reports the same events from the point of view of the Israelites, stating that "King Mesha of Moab ... used to deliver to the king of Israel one hundred thousand lambs, and the wool of one hundred thousand rams", before rebelling against Jehoram (the Mesha Stele does not name the king against whom Mesha rebelled). 2 Kings and the Mesha Stele differ in their explanation for the success of the revolt: according to Mesha, "Israel has been defeated", but 2 Kings says the Israelites withdrew when Mesha sacrificed the eldest son of the Edomite king to his god Chemosh, causing Edom to withdraw from the coalition. Aside from these attestations, references to Mesha are scanty, if extant.