Ataroth: what Wikipedia removed
Ataroth was an Iron Age Israelite city named in the Hebrew Bible and in the Mesha Stele, the Moabite king’s own inscription. Through 2020 the opening quoted the Stele’s boast that the king “massacred all the Israelites at Ataroth as satisfaction for the blood lust of Chemosh and Moab.” Today the opening only identifies Ataroth as an Iron Age city, though massacre survives twice in the body. A reader arriving now does not learn from the opening that the Mesha Stele itself records the massacre of the Israelite population at Ataroth.
The word “massacre” appeared 1 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2015. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 2. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.
The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot
Section titled “The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot”| word | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 6 October 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| massacre | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Counts are of the opening paragraph only, the part most readers, search engines and AI training sets ever quote.
What was taken out
Section titled “What was taken out”- The etymology explaining that Ataroth means crowns in Hebrew was dropped from the opening.
- The Mesha Stele’s own account of massacring the Israelites at Ataroth was dropped from the opening.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2010 (revision 268372217):
For the modern location, see ‘Atara . Ataroth (עטרות) means “crowns” in Hebrew . In the Bible , the name Ataroth refers to one of two or perhaps three towns: A town east of the Jordan in Gilead , mentioned in Numbers 32:3 and 32:34, in the territory of the Tribe of Gad . Ataroth lay within the tribal allotment of Reuben , but was built up by the Gadites during the period of Israelite conquest (Numbers 32:34). This is very probably Khirbet Ataruz, [1] north of the Wadi Heidan. The Mesha Stele (Moabite Stone) is likely referring to this town. A town west of the Jordan, mentioned in Joshua 16:2, which describes the southern border of the children of Joseph (the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh ).…
2025 (revision 1250116411):
Three Israelite cities mentioned in the Hebrew Bible Not to be confused with Astaroth . Ataroth ( עטרות ‘Ǎṭārōṯ ) is the name of two or three Iron Age cities mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and the Mesha Stele .
Related
Section titled “Related”- The drift report: what changed across all 61,944 watched articles
- The case file for this article, with every snapshot and every marked removal
- Who made the cuts: removals grouped by the account that made them
- The live article on Wikipedia
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