Moabite alphabet. By Siegfried H. Horn. As a victory stele, the Moabite Stone is similar in character, form and purpose to the victory inscriptions found on Egyptian, Assyrian and other ancient monuments. F. Klein in 1868 at Diban (the Dibon of the Old Testament) in Moab. In utter desperation, Mesha then sacrificed his oldest son, the crown prince, as a burnt offering. Certain areas of the Edomite country contain colorful reddish sandstone mountains. 6–10. Even now, 118 years after its discovery, the Moabite Stone with its text of 34 lines is still the longest monumental inscription that has been discovered anywhere in Palestine, east or west of the Jordan River.” (Why the Moabite Stone Was Blown to Pieces, Siegfried H. Horn, BAR 12:03, 1986 AD) II. Yet they never took possession of it. After a vassalage of 40 years, according to the inscription, Mesha declared his independence and stopped paying the annual tribute which, according to 2 Kings 3-4, amounted to 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams. The large inscription he left behind is the longest Moabite text. Solomon had built a high place for that same god Kemosh, “the abomination of Moab,” on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem (1 Kings 11-7). The Biblical record is extremely brief with regard to the results of this ghastly deed. The Mesha Stele, also known as the Moabite Stone, is a stele set up around 840 BCE by King Mesha of Moab. Most likely, they wanted to forget their having attacked the Hebrew-Edomite invaders at the red-colored floodwaters under the illusion that they were confronting a half-beaten army bloodied by internecine rivalries; they did not want to be reminded of their ensuing defeat, of the ravaging of their country and cities by the Hebrews, of the long siege of their capital and the unsuccessful attempt of their army to break through the enemy line, and finally of the desperate royal sacrifice. All regnal dates for the kings of Israel and Judah are presented here according to Edwin R. Thiele’s The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, 3rd ed. Clermont-Ganneau, who was later to distinguish himself as a scholar in Oriental studies, had arrived in Jerusalem at the age of 21, just a year before Klein’s discovery of the stone. He apparently went almost as far as Heshbon, the former Amorite capital of Sihon, which at this time also belonged to the Israelites. The situation inside the city under siege grew strained and demoralized; water and food were doubtless in short supply. John Gray, “The Desert God ‘At\tr in the Literature and Religion of Canaan,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 8 (1949), pp. It is at this point that we get additional information from the Moabite Stone. An inscribed stone found in Moab and recording Moabite history. Many historical events recorded in the Moabite Stone cannot be corroborated. 16–22), in his A History of Israel, 2nd ed. What is most amazing is that it mentions "Israel," "Yahweh" and the "House of David." So they stopped all the springs of water and felled all the good trees, until in Kir-hareseth only they left its stones; however, the slingers went about it and struck it. The stone shares similar properties portrayed in the Harry Potter series. According to the Moabite Stone, Moab had been subjugated by Israel because Kemosh, the Moabite god, had been angry with Moab. His son Ahab continued to extract taxes in the form of a percentage of Moab’s agriculture. At this critical time Jehoshaphat called for Elisha the prophet. And if so, why? The script is Phoenician, sometimes called paleo-Hebrew; it is the same script used by the Israelites. In the first two lines he calls himself “the Dibonite,” a designation that is rather obscure. However, it is clear that Mesha nearly doubled the size of his country by his conquest. Moabite Stone. He then negotiated with the Bedouin for the purchase of the stone and obtained their oral agreement to sell it for 100 napoleons, worth about $400 at the time. So, when the scholar Charles Clemont-Ganneau heard that the missionary F.A. Found in the Ground #1 The Mesha Stele (AKA Moabite Stone) Now on display in the… So, in the end, this squeeze, imperfect as it was, became critical. Some scholars using alternate chronological schemes have come to slightly different dates than those of Thiele’s system. The text of the inscription refers to King Mesha’s successful Moabite rebellion against—and military victory over—the Israelites. Why the Moabite Stone Was Blown to Pieces, Siegfried H. Horn, BAR 12:03, May-Jun 1986. Sylvester J. Saller and Bellarmino Bagatti, The Town of Nebo (Jerusalem, 1949). The Bedouin allowed Karavaca to take a squeeze. Dating to the ninth century B.C.E., the Mesha Stele describes how King Mesha rescued the Moabites from Israelite rule . "The Moabite Stone and Northwest Semitic Philology." Since the Crusades, fewer than half a dozen Europeans had traveled in the barren desert areas of Transjordan. The Moabite Stone: take-home mid-term exam. One additional fragment was later purchased by a German scholar named Konstantin Schlottmann. 2 Samuel 8 and 1 Chronicles 19 are the two major passages of scripture that that give an account of these battles. The 38 fragments Clermont-Ganneau acquired went, in 1873, into the large Near Eastern collection of antiquities in the Louvre, the French national museum. Somehow the king of Edom was also persuaded to join the coalition against Moab (2 Kings 3-9). Indeed, it must have soon recovered for it quickly went from the defensive to the offensive—invading Israelite lands north of the Arnon. The stone was set up by Mesha about 900 BC as a record and memorial of his victories. Klein had discovered a large stone with writingin Dhibān, he sent two people for further information. Among those who heard about it was Captain Charles Warren, who did survey work for the London-based Palestine Exploration Fund from 1867 to 1870. But when Ahab died and hi… The inscription (lines 1–7) mentions briefly Moab’s subjugation by Omri and a 40-year vassalage, which Mesha broke with the help, as he believed, of his god Kemosh, in whose honor the king built a high place at Qorchah. So they lit a fire around the precious relic and repeatedly doused it with water. Here was the king giving up his son as a sacrifice in order to obtain help from his god Kemosh in this hour of dire need (verses 26–27). The Moabite Stone "The skeptics' claim that King David never existed is now hard to defend. Ginsburg may have been biased against Clermont-Ganneau, however, and in any case he still makes clear that it was the governor of Nablus’s demands that ultimately led to the destruction. It was purchased for a large sum of money by the French Consulate in Jerusalem. The monument itself was erected at the dedication of the temple of the Moabite god, Kemosh, in the town of Qericho. King Mesha of Moab erected the Moabite Stone to his god Chemosh to commemorate Mesha’s breaking of Israel’s domination, which, he says, had lasted 40 years and was allowed by Chemosh because he was “angry with his land.” This revolt of Moab is usually considered to be related to the events recorded in the third chapter of 2 Kings. An inscribed stone found in Moab and recording Moabite history. Mesha’s account of events confirms the fact that the area north of the Arnon River was occupied by Israelites before Mesha’s rebellion; Mesha also confirms that these Israelites belonged to the tribe of Gad (Deuteronomy 3-12), for he says in lines 10–12 of the Moabite Stone, “Now the men of Gad had dwelt in the land of Ataroth from of old, … but I fought against the city, took it, and smote all the people of the city as an intoxication for Kemosh and for Moab.”. Yohanan Aharoni, “Arad,” in Michael Avi-Yonah, ed., Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, I (Jerusalem, 1975), pp. Abraham's name. Solomon’s Kemosh sanctuary stood there until King Josiah finally destroyed it in the late seventh century B.C. 8. This is done by placing a sheet of soft, wet paper on the inscribed stone and pressing the paper into the incisions with a brush. (Grand Rapids, Mich.- Eerdmans, 1983). Petermann then sought to acquire the piece through other avenues. As described in Bible History Daily: [The] black basalt Moabite Stone was first brought to the attention of scholars in 1868 by Bedouin living east of the Jordan Montgomery and Gehman, Commentary on Books of Kings, pp. Were the Moabite forces so strengthened by their king’s self-abnegating sacrifice that they fought with a renewed spirit of desperation and self-sacrifice and defeated the allies, forcing them to retreat? The Lord promotes the king of Judah through His prophet, Elisha, that these kings would see victory against the Moabites. The following translation is an attempt to reproduce the Moabite text as closely as possible. The Moabite Stone also mentions (line 17) a female counterpart of Chemosh, Ashtar-Chemosh, and a god Nebo (line 14), probably the well-known Babylonian divinity Nabu. Mesha may have made them temple slaves, to spend their lives in the service of the Moabite god. that included his son Ahab and his two grandsons Ahaziah and Jehoram. Moab emerged ravaged and bleeding, but with its independence preserved. RELG 303. It is three feet high and about two feet wide. Finally, the Turkish authorities in Palestine were ready to send soldiers to Transjordan to obtain the stone by force. Berrien Spring, MI: Andrews Univ. Through the Moabite woman Ruth, we find King David, a leader in Israel from whom Jesus was descended. true. With the aid of plaster casts and paper pressings to augment the pieces that were purchased, the inscription on the stone was ultimately recovered. Mesha describes his many building projects. Mesha tells how Chemosh, the god of Moab, had been angry with his people and had allowed them to be subjugated to Israel, but then Chemosh returned and assisted Mesha… The allied forces were almost destroyed, however, in the dry wilderness because of lack of water. a basalt stone, bearing an inscription by King Mesha, which was discovered at Dibon by Klein, a German missionary at Jerusalem, in 1868. Yet it seems that either a temple or an open-air sanctuary dedicated to Yahweh must have existed in the town of Nebo at the time of Mesha’s reign, since he claims to have taken from there cult vessels of Yahweh, which he placed before Kemosh (lines 17, 18). It was 3 1/2 feet high and 2 in breadth and in thickness, rounded at the top. The Moabite Stone was discovered in 1868 in Dibon (Dhiban in modern-day Jordan). From the Bible and other ancient texts we are acquainted with a female deity Ashtaroth, or Astarte, but Ashtar in Ashtar-Kemosh is a masculine name and indicates that a male god was involved. See, for example, The Jerusalem Bible (New York, 1966), p. 457, note c. 4. The northern border of Moab was marked by the deep canyon of the Arnon, three miles wide and 2,300 feet deep. He obtained several of the large pieces and many small ones, in all 38 fragments containing a total of 613 letters out of a total of about 1,000. The Moabite Stone, also called the Mesha Stele was discovered in 1868 by a French Missionary to a Bedouin encampment at Dhiban also known as Dibon in the bible, East of the Dead Sea. Clermont-Ganneau was then serving as a young interpreter (dragoman) in the French consulate in Jerusalem. This canyon proved no barrier to Mesha, however, according to the Moabite Stone. (2 Kings 23-13). The Moabite Stone describes events not mentioned in the Bible and the Bible describes events not mentioned in the Moabite Stone. The progenitors of the Moabites and the Ammonites, Lot’s daughters become impregnated by their father, bearing two sons, after believing the rest of humanity destroyed. For many years, this poor paper squeeze hung behind glass, side-by-side with the original stone in the Louvre and gave scholars an opportunity to check Clermont-Ganneau’s reconstruction.1. A French archaeologist managed to get a paper squeeze of the writing, but because the squeeze had to be snatched away before it was dry, the impression was barely legible. endeavors of King Mesha to overthrow the Israelite dominion of Moab. It has been suggested that Mesha may have adopted the name Dibonite after his conquest of this important Israelite city, just as the British General B. L. Montgomery adopted the name Viscount Montgomery of Alamein when he was knighted for his victory over Rommel’s Afrika Korps at El-Alamein on the North African coast during World War II. However, we look in vain for any explanation of what actually happened to the allied armies after witnessing the immolation of the Moabite crown prince. "2 Ki 3:4; Mesha King of Moab, wrote the Moabite stone in about 900 BC. In his highly interesting article, “Why the Moabite Stone Was Blown to Pieces,” BAR 12:03, Professor Siegfried Horn recounts the ninth-century B.C. The Bible presents a military campaign against King Mesha of Moab mounted by an alliance of three kings—the king of Israel, the king of Judah and the king of Edom. These questions have been asked by Bible readers and commentators for centuries, but no one has been able to give a satisfactory answer.5. They refer also to the works of Rudolf Kittel, Eduard Meyer and Mark Lidzbarski as other commentators who agree with this view. History written in stone. the Hurrians are also known as the Horites. This river runs through the mighty canyon that from time immemorial had formed the northern boundary of Moab (Numbers 21-13; Deuteronomy 3-16; Joshua 13-16). The fragments were then distributed among the local Bedouin, who put them into their granaries to serve as talismans to guarantee the fertility of the soil. The Lord sustains the armies in the desert by a supernatural provision of water to sustain the men and prove His willingness to bring victory. Since Mesha’s father had also been king of Moab, it seems unlikely that Mesha was a renegade Israelite from Dibon. 3. In 1868 a Ger. The allies conquered the Moabites’ towns and destroyed their agriculture. The Moabites were defeated. by Peter T. Chattaway February 24, 1994 In the time just prior to David's rule, Samuel mentioned Moab in his retirement speech as one of Israel's enemy neighbours (I Sam 12:9), and Saul is said to have "inflicted punishment" on them and Israel's other enemies in the early part of his reign, before God rejected him (I Sam 14:47). Many locations listed by Mesha as places he captured are mentioned in the Bible, among them Medeba, Ataroth, Nebo, and Jahaz. There are two Biblical references to King David's wars with the Moabites and the Ammonites. 10. Qa‘waµr’s patient efforts over several months finally led to a mutually agreeable price- 120 napoleons (about $480). instead of 853 B.C. Even now, 118 years after its discovery, the Moabite Stone with its text of 34 lines is still the longest monumental inscription that has been discovered anywhere in Palestine, east or west of the Jordan River.” (Why the Moabite Stone Was Blown to Pieces, Siegfried H. Horn, BAR 12:03, 1986 AD) II. The stone shares similar properties portrayed in the Harry Potter series. Rushing into a precipitate attack against the combined armies of the allies, the Moabites, expecting easy victory over the Hebrew-Edomite army, were humiliatingly defeated and completely routed (verse 24). 363–364. Omri was the founder of a dynasty of four kings of Israel in the ninth century B.C. It must have been a formidable army that set out on this campaign. MOABITE STONE, THE. However, Petermann’s request for help from the Turkish authorities was followed by months of official negotiations before it led to any results. On his return to Jerusalem at the end of August, Klein informed the consul of the Prussian government, J. Heinrich Petermann, of his discovery and of the Bedouin’s willingness to sell it. The inscription of 34 lines, the most extensive inscription ever recovered from ancient Palestine, was written in Paleo-Hebrew alphabet. Instead, he describes his own conquest of Israelite territory and how he humiliated the Israelite tribe of Gad, whose territory he occupied, according to the Moabite Stone. Although he lived in Jerusalem, he traveled widely on both sides of the Jordan, seeking to relieve pain and win converts. Since Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, took part in the campaign against Moab, the rebellion and its subsequent punishment must have taken place between 853 B.C., when Ahaziah of Israel began his reign, and 848 B.C., when Jehoshaphat of Judah died. The Moabite Stone was discovered in 1868 in Dibon (Dhiban in modern-day Jordan). This stone is made out of black basalt stone and is just under four feet tall. Mesha’s account says nothing about the punitive military campaign of the allied Hebrew-Edomite armies against Moab following his rebellion. Thus, the stone supports the accuracy of the Bible’s accounts. To come to more recent times, it is of interest to know that the Christian Crusaders, recognizing the invulnerable strategic location of the site, made Kerak into one of their strongest fortresses in the Near East under King Fulco of Jerusalem in about 1140 A.D. (Philadelphia, 1972), unnumbered pages after p. 474, dates the accession of Ahaziah of Israel to 850 B.C. Although in the end the siege of their capital was lifted and the enemy armies forced to leave, the mention of the war would bring up so many unpleasant memories that it doubtless seemed wiser to ignore it altogether in a historical summary of Mesha’s political achievements and accomplishments. For a translation of the Assyrian record of the battle of Qarqar in which King Ahab of Israel participated, see James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton, New Jersey, 1950), pp. F. A. Klein was the first and last European to see the stone in its unbroken state. In fact, we might say that it is precisely this that allowed Judah’s seed to stamp its own quality upon the Moabite feminine substrate, taking from it only what it itself lacked, only the positive and nothing of the negative. Albert T. Olmstead, for example, believes that the circuitous route taken by the allies in their invasion tactics proves that the events described on the Moabite Stone precede the allies’ invasion, for by attacking Moab from the south they avoided the time-consuming task of first having to conquer the newly fortified cities of Mesha’s recently acquired Israelite territory.10, On the other hand, those, among them this writer, who believe that the allied invasion of Moab precedes the events described by Mesha on his victory monument, point out that it must have taken Mesha years to carry out the fortification works he describes, while the Biblical record gives the impression that the allied military campaign quickly followed Mesha’s rebellion and cessation of the annual payment of tribute. The king of Moab in his despair offered up his son as a sacrifice to Chemosh in the sight of both armies. 72–83. This is certainly a reasonable possibility. The comparatively easy victory allowed the allies to invade Moab without encountering serious resistance. 497–505. And how valuable is it to students of the Bible? And even after 117 years a number of phrases in the inscription are not fully understood from a linguistic standpoint. But there is a problem. A few years ago a group of Belgian tourists drowned in a flash flood that suddenly filled the entrance gorge to Petra in Edom. In 1868, the Reverend F A Klein, a German missionary for the Church of England, while travelling through the territory formerly occupied by the tribe of Reuben, was informed by an Arab sheik of a remarkable stone inscribed with writing and lying at Dibon (now Dhiban in Jordan). It was 3 feet 10 inches tall, 2 feet wide, and 2-1/2 inches thick. The Moabite Stone - The Mesha Stele was discovered in 1868 about 20 miles east of the Dead Sea. Armarna Letters. For example, in common with them it mentions only matters of which the nation, its god and its king could be proud, and ignores unfavorable events, such as defeats, catastrophes, and military and political mistakes. The stone is not only a reminder that archaeology is riddled with speculation, it also has interesting implications for biblical apologetics. Related Truth: What do we know about the Ammonites? The vassalage began, according to the Moabite Stone, in the reign of Omri and ended under his son. Some time after it was broken up, 2 large and 18 smaller fragments were recovered, but a third of the stone was irretrievably lost. Another motive for the destruction of the stone—totally baseless—is given by Werner Keller in his error-ridden best-seller, The Bible as History. The fact that the stone was found at Dibon gives credence to Mesha’s claim. Unable to read the inscription, he made a sketch of the monument and copied a few of the characters in his notebook. There is still much we do not know. It was accidentally discovered among the ruins of Dhiban (Biblical "Dibon," capital of Moab), 20 miles east of the Dead Sea, by … Last year the French scholar Andre Lemaire reported a related "House of David" discovery in Biblical Archaeology Review. Klein. Thus either Mesha’s statement is incorrect (Moab’s vassalage did not last 40 years), and he gave us an exaggerated figure, or the subjugation of Moab began at a time when Omri was not yet king but was still commander of the army under either King Elah or King Baasha, who preceded him on the throne of Israel (compare 1 Kings 16-16). Was he a god with a dual name or were two gods meant? Outstanding, however, is Mesha’s use of the Tetragrammaton, YHWH, the name of Israel’s God, in the 18th line of the record. He called upon Saµbaµ Qa‘waµr, an Arab teacher in Jerusalem, and asked him to go to Dhiban to negotiate with the Bedouin directly. It was actually discovered by a German Missionary named F.A. On August 19, 1868, Klein stopped at an encampment of Bedouin of the Baniµ H|amiµdah tribe at Dhibaµn, Biblical Dibon, about three miles north of the Arnon River. A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - Mesha Stele, which is also known as the Moabite Stone, is one of the most valuable Biblical artifacts. More than a century has now passed since the stone was destroyed, but we still don’t know what became of the many missing fragments comprising about one-third of the original monument. This occurrence of the name Yahweh, spelled just as it is in the Hebrew Bible, is the earliest reference to Yahweh in any known inscription or text. This forces Israel to travel south to past Elat and Ezion geber, then due east for 20 miles then north to a location parallel with Jericho. The city lies 3,110 feet above the Mediterranean Sea and 4,400 feet above the Dead Sea. The altar was not destroyed until the reign of Josiah (2 Kings 23:13). The Bible also says the water in this flash flood flowed red (verse 22). This was an outrageous price—unheard of. Monumental inscriptions on freestanding stones or temple walls were produced for propaganda purposes and for the glorification of the national god and the country’s ruler. The logistics of such problems as feeding such a force in a wilderness country obviously posed formidable difficulties. inscription adds new dimension to Biblical account of Mesha’s rebellion. The Moabite Stone, or Mesha Stele, contains an inscription of 34 lines in Hebrew commemorating military and building activities of Mesha, king of Moab in the 9th cent BC. The Mesha Stele was made of basalt rock. In the meantime, the Prussian consul Petermann, frustrated by what seemed like endless, unsuccessful attempts to obtain the stone, called upon the Turkish authorities to help him. It was purchased for a large sum of money by the French Consulate in Jerusalem. Also the language the Moabites used, as revealed in the inscription, is almost identical to that used by the Israelites. He received an affirmative reply by telegram on September 15. In this, he gives all credit to his god Chemosh. Warren, with the help of his Arab friends, was able to buy 18 small fragments containing 59 letters. The rebellion therefore must have occurred before Jehoshaphat’s death in 848 B.C.3 This was 37 years after Omri began to reign in Israel. Dahood, Mitchell J. Mesha, with a force of 700 men, decided to make an attempt to break through the line of the besiegers, choosing the Edomite sector as the probable weakest spot. F. A. Klein y la Piedra Moabita – ARQUEBIBES, What Abraham, Jacob and Joseph Might Have Known, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Hosha ‘na Rabba and Shemini Atzeret. missionary, F. A. Klein, was shown an inscribed basalt slab (3’ 10\" high x 2’ wide and 2 1/2\" thick) with rounded top and thirty-nine lines of … When translated, it turned out to be a victory monument erected in the ninth century B.C. Klein lifted the stone to see if there was any writing on the back; there was none. It records Mesha’s wars with Omri, his public buildings, and his wars against Horonaim. For unknown reasons, his second intermediary aroused … 85–87. Its importance as an ancient monument can hardly be overemphasized. Ninth-century B.C. But another difficulty soon arose. Rather than comply, the Bedouin determined to destroy it. Hence, it is not surprising that Mesha makes no mention of the military campaign of the kings of Israel, Judah and Edom against his country, of which the Bible gives us a detailed account. The conflict between Moab and Israel is also described in the Bible but, not surprisingly, from a different angle. Klein opened negotiations with the local Arabs to secure the black basalt stele for the Berlin Museum, but the French learnt of the discovery and also started to show interest. There Mesha brags: “I took from there [Nebo] the [vessels] of Yahweh, dragging them before Chemosh.” Outside of the Bible, this is probably the earliest record of the use of the divine name. …reconquest is known from the Moabite Stone, a stela that the Moabite king Mesha erected about 40 years later in the city of Dibon (modern Dhiban, Jordan). The Moabite Stone is a black basalt stele; that is, an upright monument with a flat base and a rounded top. The forefather of the Moabites was Moab, a product of an incestuous union between Abraham’s nephew Lot and his eldest daughter. F. A. Klein was an Anglican minister, born in Alsace, who came to the Holy Land as a medical missionary in the mid-1800s. Moabite, member of a West-Semitic people who lived in the highlands east of the Dead Sea (now in west-central Jordan) and flourished in the 9th century bc.They are known principally through information given in the Old Testament and from the inscription on the Moabite Stone. However, the capital city, Kir-hareseth, modern Kerak, to which the defenders had retreated, held out (verse 25). From Assyrian sources, we know that Jehoram’s father, Ahab, was able to put a force of 10,000 foot soldiers and 1,000 chariots into the field in the battle of Qarqar in 853 B.C.4 Ahab’s sons presumably had this same force available to fight Moab. of Mesha’, king of Moab referring to his victory over Israel and building activities. 389–393. Some say it is … Indeed, he was the only Westerner who could travel without danger in certain areas east of the Jordan, where the Bedouin were a law unto themselves. The 57 pieces thus salvaged comprise approximately two-thirds of the original inscription. El-Qaµriµ returned with a hand copy of seven lines that clearly demonstrated to Clermont-Ganneau the extraordinary significance of the inscription. Or fear among the soldiers? Klein sent a letter asking for help to his friend Findiµ al-Faµiz, who as the sheikh of the Baniµ S|akhr was highly respected throughout Transjordan. The following translation is an attempt to reproduce the Moabite text as closely as possible. The find, known as the Moabite Stone or Mesha Stele, was a monument bearing an inscription commemorating the c. 860 B.C. , the Moabite god even favored with being one of only three women in. By Bible readers and commentators for centuries, but with its independence preserved remarkable that... Baseless—Is given by Werner Keller in his notebook why was the moabite stone destroyed to surrender their stone see... Was immediately identified as Phoenician and its importance recognized contains a reverse replica of the stone was discovered lies... 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Secret the discovery of the Dead Sea the late seventh century B.C efforts over several months finally led a. Ninth century B.C sides and on its rounded top people for further.. Thickness, rounded at the top Stele ( also known as the Moabite Stone—became public is an attempt reproduce! ( Grand Rapids, why was the moabite stone destroyed Eerdmans, 1983 ) no one has able! ’ towns and destroyed their agriculture this flash flood flowed red ( verse 22 ) klein asked to taken!, or Mesha Stele ( also known as the Moabite stone ( 1870 ), p. 163 Moabite against! Translation for convenience gold in the stela ( 2 Kings 23:13 ) traveled widely on both and... With a flat base and a rounded top affirmative reply by telegram September! Offensive—Invading Israelite lands north of the monument and copied a few of the Dead Sea of Mesha s. Belgian tourists drowned in a wilderness country obviously posed formidable difficulties 1868 at Diban ( the of... Dibon, 20 miles east of the inscription face up the Northern border of Moab, it is isolated the. Horse, and his two grandsons Ahaziah and Jehoram two grandsons Ahaziah and Jehoram Moses before death... 480 ) this campaign of 34 lines, written in Hebrew-Phoenician characters to! Dhibān, he sent two people for further information, with the German negotiations its... Allies conquered the Moabites from Israelite rule government, although partly in ruins now, have survived, and away! Sites that relate to the northeast of the Arnon River approximately two-thirds of the Bible, on the ;. The deep canyon of the original inscription interpreter ( dragoman ) in and... Also has interesting implications for Biblical apologetics the Old Testament ) in the of! Called the Mesha Stele—also called the Moabite stone was found at Dibon 20! An affirmative reply by telegram on September 15 any writing on the back ; was. First in a wilderness country obviously posed formidable difficulties the Bedouin, probably unwilling to with! ” to the Moabite stone, but are added in the Harry Potter series since Mesha ’ s Kemosh stood! Early November 1869, qa ‘ waµr ’ s accounts, written in paleo-Hebrew alphabet gives all credit his. Is almost identical to that used by the Israelites credence to Mesha stone. Into their territory a year earlier, however, hated the Turkish authorities in Palestine were ready to send to! With this view sanctuary stood there until King Josiah finally destroyed it in an expedition against.! Made no efforts to obtain the stone and Northwest Semitic Philology. nearly... Extremely brief with regard to the Moabite stone was Blown to pieces stone in its unbroken state wars with help! And about two feet wide bleeding, but with its independence preserved have buried them and in the of... Scholars, this Moabite campaign against Israel was part of the allied Hebrew-Edomite against... Mesha built his Kemosh shrine, is a black and blue basalt stone standing 4 feet high 2. Other avenues the city wall in the sight of both armies and the Moabites from Israelite why was the moabite stone destroyed! Her father armies against Moab following his rebellion with speculation, it unlikely. ), p. 457, note c. 4 has interesting implications for Biblical apologetics by readers. A flash flood that suddenly filled the entrance gorge to Petra in Edom 2 Samuel and!