of Mesha’, king of Moab referring to his victory over Israel and building activities. Some say it is … Unfortunately, the stone was broken into pieces by the local Bedouin before it could be acquired by the authorities. A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - Mesha Stele, which is also known as the Moabite Stone, is one of the most valuable Biblical artifacts. The text of the inscription refers to King Mesha’s successful Moabite rebellion against—and military victory over—the Israelites. When the full text was revealed, scholars were astounded. Finally, the Turkish authorities in Palestine were ready to send soldiers to Transjordan to obtain the stone by force. 9. a basalt stone, bearing an inscription by King Mesha, which was discovered at Dibon by Klein, a German missionary at Jerusalem, in 1868. Furthermore, Mesha’s reference to rebuilding destroyed cities (line 27) seems to point to the recent Hebrew-Edomite military campaign against his land, during which they devastated the towns of Moab so that only its capital Kir-hareseth was left to Mesha (2 Kings 3-25).11. According to the Moabite Stone, Moab had been subjugated by Israel because Kemosh, the Moabite god, had been angry with Moab. Man and beast were near perishing when the prophet Elisha, who had joined the campaign, was called upon for help. The Moabite language was spoken in Moab. How was such an extraordinary artifact almost lost forever? The stone shares similar properties portrayed in the Harry Potter series. Clermont-Ganneau then sent a man named Ya’quµb Karavaca to Dhibaµn to take a paper squeeze of the stone and to offer a purchase sum much higher than the one agreed upon between Saµbaµ Qa‘waµr and the Bedouin of Dhibaµn. 2 Samuel 8 and 1 Chronicles 19 are the two major passages of scripture that that give an account of these battles. The Moabite Stone​—Destroyed but Not Lost. Mesha’s defeat and the sacrifice of his own son​—reported in the Bible—​are, as one would expect, omitted in this self-glorifying inscription. From other Biblical, as well as non-Biblical sources, we know that Moab remained an independent nation for the next two centuries. Certain areas of the Edomite country contain colorful reddish sandstone mountains. One additional fragment was later purchased by a German scholar named Konstantin Schlottmann. The inscription of 34 lines, the most extensive inscription ever recovered from ancient Palestine, was written in Paleo-Hebrew alphabet. It was found in 1868 in the village of Dibon, 20 miles east of the Dead Sea by a FA Klein, a … 7. When translated, it turned out to be a victory monument erected in the ninth century B.C. Probably because they came from a town where Yahweh worship had been prominent; in order to humiliate the Israelite God and honor his own deity, Mesha meted out harsher treatment to the Yahweh worshippers than to the Israelites of other captured cities. What is most amazing is that it mentions "Israel," "Yahweh" and the "House of David." The following translation is an attempt to reproduce the Moabite text as closely as possible. Moabite Stone. 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. THE Moabite, or Mesha, Stone was deliberately broken up within a year of its discovery in 1868. Many of these medieval fortifications, although partly in ruins now, have survived, and leave a lasting impression on modern visitors. He made some brief sketches of parts of the 35-line inscription within its raised border and, upon returning to Jerusalem, reported the find to his Prussian superior. It must have been a formidable army that set out on this campaign. Nebo have yet been found. Klein asked to be taken to the stone, and his Bedouin friends gladly obliged. 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. This historical reconstruction has assumed that the military events described in the Moabite Stone followed the Hebrew-Edomite campaign to re-suppress Moab after Mesha’s rebellion against Israel. that included his son Ahab and his two grandsons Ahaziah and Jehoram. But, in order not to interfere with the German negotiations for its acquisition, Warren decided to do nothing. Its importance as an ancient monument can hardly be overemphasized. In what way did his wrath manifest itself? 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. But there is a problem. It was 3 1/2 feet high and 2 in breadth and in thickness, rounded at the top. Abraham's name. It is at this point that we get additional information from the Moabite Stone. The Palestine Exploration Fund, into whose possession Warren’s 18 small fragments had come, generously presented them to the Louvre as well. But the Moabite stone does not tell the full story. Rains often fall during the winter months in the distant, barren mountains. A similar view is held by Anton Jirku, Altorientalischer Kommentar zum Alten Testament (Leipzig, 1923), p. 163. It consisted of thirty-four lines, written in Hebrew-Phoenician characters. So, when the scholar Charles Clemont-Ganneau heard that the missionary F.A. 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 Bible also says the water in this flash flood flowed red (verse 22). 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. The find, known as the Moabite Stone or Mesha Stele, was a monument bearing an inscription commemorating the c. 860 B.C. Paragraph divisions are not in the original inscription, but are added in the translation for convenience. Thus, the seven pieces of Karavaca’s extremely poor squeeze made for Clermont-Ganneau constitute the only copy of the complete inscription. true. However, Petermann’s request for help from the Turkish authorities was followed by months of official negotiations before it led to any results. See James A. Montgomery and Henry S. Gehman’s summary of the scholarly discussion on this subject in their Commentary on the Books of Kings (New York, 1951), pp. In the meantime, orders came from Damascus for the Bedouin to surrender their stone to government officials. According to this theory, the Moabite campaign against Israel was part of the Moabite rebellion. The 57 pieces thus salvaged comprise approximately two-thirds of the original inscription. The script was immediately identified as Phoenician and its importance recognized. So they lit a fire around the precious relic and repeatedly doused it with water. It is not clear what Mesha means when he says that he “devoted” these people to his god Kemosh. 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. 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. 11. Rather than comply, the Bedouin determined to destroy it. The stone is not only a reminder that archaeology is riddled with speculation, it also has interesting implications for biblical apologetics. 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. Discovery. The vassalage began, according to the Moabite Stone, in the reign of Omri and ended under his son. Sylvester J. Saller and Bellarmino Bagatti, The Town of Nebo (Jerusalem, 1949). 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 Moabite King Mesha, discovered in 1868. 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