And Chemosh said to me, Go down, make war against Horonaim, and take it. With the Tel Dan inscription, the Mesha stele might be the earliest historical witness of a ruler named David who, in the ninth century BCE, was remembered as the founder of a Judahite dynasty. I built Aroer, and I made the road across the Arnon. Mesha informs … And I built Beth-Gamul, and Beth-Diblathaim, and Beth Baal-Meon, and I placed there the poor people of the land. The Tel Dan inscription, or “House of David” inscription, was discovered in 1993 at the site of Tel Dan in northern Israel in an excavation … After studying new photographs of the Mesha Stele and the squeeze of the stele prepared before the stone was broken, we dismiss Lemaire’s proposal to read (‘House of David’) on Line 31. My father reigned over Moab thirty years, and I have reigned after my father. The meaning of both words is unclear. [5], The Mesha Stele, the first Canaanite inscription found in the region of Palestine,[6] the longest Iron Age inscription ever found in the region, constitutes the major evidence for the Moabite language, and is a "corner-stone of Semitic epigraphy",[7] and history. It is now clear that there are three consonants in the name of the monarch mentioned there, and that the first is a beth. 1). Line 31 of the Mesha Stele is perhaps the most significant line in the entire inscription. And archaeologists researching the 9th century BC Mesha Stele now believe a line previously thought to read “House of David” actually refers to the … The Mesha Stele, also known as the Moabite Stone, is a stele dated around 840 BCE containing a significant Canaanite inscription in the name of King Mesha of Moab (a kingdom located in modern Jordan). A name in Line 31 of the stele, previously thought to read בית דוד, ‘House of David’, could instead read ‘Balak’, a king of Moab mentioned in the biblical … The occasion was the erection of a sanctuary for Chemosh in Qarho, the acropolis (citadel) of Dibon, Mesha's capital, in thanks for his aid against Mesha's enemies. Of the existing stele fragments, the top right fragment contains 150 letters, the bottom right fragment contains 358 letters, the middle-right contains 38, and the rest of the fragments contain 67 letters. I was interviewed by Le Monde de la Bible on the Mesha stele. The king also claims to be acting in the national interest by removing Israelite oppression and restoring lost lands, but a close reading of the narrative leaves it unclear whether all the conquered territories were previously Moabite – in three campaign stories, no explicit reference is made to prior Moabite control. « Dans la plupart des cas, il est suivi d’un mot commençant par vav, comme c’est le cas ici. And I built Baal-meon and made therein the ditch, and I built Kiriathaim. So far he is mentioned in the Mesha Stele and on the pages of the Bible. [19], The stele is a smoothed block of basalt about a meter tall, 60 cm wide, and 60 cm thick, bearing a surviving inscription of 34 lines.[20]. [15][16][17] Its authenticity has been disputed over the years, and some biblical minimalists suggest the text was not historical, but a biblical allegory, but the stele is regarded as genuine and historical by the vast majority of biblical archaeologists today. No doubt the missing part of the inscription described how Mesha also threw off the yoke of Judah and conquered the territory southeast of the Dead Sea controlled by the House of David.In its way, the […] fragmentary stela from Tel Dan helps to confirm this reading of the Mesha stela. In 1994, epigrapher Andre Lemaire proposed that the famous Moabite Stone also contained the phrase, “House of David.” The Moabite Stone contains an inscription by Mesha, King of Moab, who boasts about his successful rebellion from the King of Israel, an event described in 2 Kings 3. “With due caution we suggest the name of the Moabite king Balak, who, according to the Balaam story of Numbers 22–24, sought to bring a divine curse on the … “The new photographs of the Mesha Stele and the squeeze indicate that the reading, ‘House of David’ – accepted by many scholars for more than two decades – is no longer an option,” the authors conclude. The inscription in question is difficult to read because o… [24], Pieces of the original stele containing most of the inscription, 613 letters out of about a thousand, were later recovered and pieced together. And the men of Gad dwelled in the country of Ataroth from ancient times, and the king of Israel fortified Ataroth. [4][10] In 2019 high-resolution photographs were taken of both the inscription itself, and of the original squeeze. "Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheepbreeder, and he regularly paid the king of Israel … 211-236; Routledge; UK, Lawrence Mykytiuk (2004). ... ... according to my calculation, had thirty-four lines, for the two or three upper lines were very much obliterated. After studying new photographs of the Mesha Stele and the squeeze of the stele prepared before the stone was broken, we dismiss Lemaire’s proposal to read (‘House of David’) on Line 31. New Seals and Inscriptions, Hebrew, Idumean, Cuneiform; p. XV , Sheffield Phoenix Press, UK, "When God Wasn't So Great: What Yahweh's First Appearance Tells About Early Judaism", "New reading of the Mesha Stele inscription has major consequences for biblical history", "Biblical King, Starts With a B: 3,000 Year-old Riddle May Have Been Solved", http://jordantimes.com/news/local/centre-planning-protest-demand-return-mesha-stele-louvre, "The Moabite Stone, With An Illustration", Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Bd. And Chemosh said to me, Go take Nebo against Israel, and I went in the night and I fought against it from the break of day till noon, and I took it: and I killed in all seven thousand men, but I did not kill the women and maidens, for I devoted them to Ashtar-Chemosh; and I took from it the vessels of Jehovah, and offered them before Chemosh. This makes the stele one of three specific archaeological references to the biblical King David! In 1868, a stone monument was found at the ancient site of Dibon, once the capital of Moab. 24 (1870), A neglected phonetic law: The assimilation of pretonic yod to a following coronal in North-West Semitic, High-tech study of ancient stone suggests new proof of King David's Dynasty, 'New reading of Mesha Stele could have far-reaching consequences for biblical history,', A critical examination of the so-called Moabite inscription in the Louvre, Studies and Texts in Folklore, Magic, Mediaeval Romance, Hebrew Apocrypha, and Samaritan Archaeology, Volume 1, Moses Gaster, KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 1971, Das Buch Daniel nach der Septuaginta Hergestellt, Die Unechtheit der Mesainschrift, Rupert Storr, Laupp, 1918, "The Story of a Forgery and the Mēša Inscription", Bilingual Readings: Cuneiform and Phœnician. Interview on Campus Protestant, The Mesha Stele 150 Years After the Discovery, Interview for Le Monde de la Bible on the Maresha ostraca, Interview for Le monde de la Bible on the seal of Hezekiah, Virtual Unrolling of Leviticus: Interview for Le Monde de la Bible, Interview in Est Républicain: Archaeology and Biblical Origins. The stone itself was in a most perfect state of preservation not one single piece being broken off, and it was only from great age and exposure to the rain and sun, that certain parts, especially the upper and lower lines, had somewhat suffered. Dans « Restoring Line 31 in the Mesha Stele : The ‘House of David’ or Biblical Balak ? Notes on Some Tablets in the British Museum, Containing Bilingual Legends (Assyrian and Phœnician), "Problems of Genre and Historicity with Palestine's Descriptions", "Neo-Assyrian and Syro-Palestinian Texts I: the Moabite stone", Translation from Northwest Semitic Inscriptions, Land grant to Marduk-apla-iddina I by Meli-Shipak II, Statue of the Tiber river with Romulus and Remus, Vulcan Presenting Venus with Arms for Aeneas, The Attributes of Civilian and Military Music, The Attributes of Music, the Arts and the Sciences, The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons, Coresus Sacrificing Himself to Save Callirhoe, Bonaparte Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa, Don Pedro of Toledo Kissing Henry IV's Sword, Joan of Arc at the Coronation of Charles VII, Portrait of Madame Marcotte de Sainte-Marie, Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta Appraised by Dante and Virgil, Madonna and Child with Saint Peter and Saint Sebastian, Venus and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman, A Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts, Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt and his Page, The Doge on the Bucintoro near the Riva di Sant'Elena, Holy Family with the Family of St John the Baptist, Saints Bernardino of Siena and Louis of Toulouse, Madonna and Child with St John the Baptist and St Catherine of Alexandria, Madonna and Child with St Rose and St Catherine, Portrait of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, Portrait of Doña Isabel de Requesens y Enríquez de Cardona-Anglesola, Crucifixion with the Virgin Mary, St John and St Mary Magdalene, The Archangel Raphael Leaving Tobias' Family, Pendant portraits of Marten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit, Ixion, King of the Lapiths, Deceived by Juno, Who He Wished to Seduce, The Virgin and Child Surrounded by the Holy Innocents, Francis I, Charles V and the Duchess of Étampes, Street Scene near the El Ghouri Mosque in Cairo, Christopher Columbus Before the Council of Salamanca, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mesha_Stele&oldid=1002073139, Near East and Middle East antiquities of the Louvre, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages with numeric Bible version references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Mesha's victories over Omri's son (not named) and the men of, His building projects, restoring the fortifications of his strong places and building a palace and reservoirs for water, A now-lost conclusion in the destroyed final lines, This page was last edited on 22 January 2021, at 18:36. 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