THE MOABITE STONE

In 1868 a German missionary, F. Klein, was travelling in Moab and had his attention drawn to a black basalt stone, two feet wide and nearly four feet high, on which a thirty-four-line inscription had been carved. He reported this back to the Prussian Consulate in Jerusalem, who began to negotiate for its purchase, only to be outbid by the French Consulate when they got to hear of it. The French Consulate managed to get an impression of the inscription, which was just as well, for the Arabs, believing that the stone would be worth even more if it was in pieces, broke it up and distributed it amongst a number of families. Eventually most of it was recovered, and a reconstructed stone now exists in the Louvre in Paris. Fortunately the impression of the inscription enabled it to be read.

The inscription turned out to be a record of the reign of the Moabite King Mesha, who is mentioned in the Bible in the following terms: “And Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool. But it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel” (2 Kgs. 3:4,5). The inscription refers to the oppression of Moab by Omri and by Omri’s son (not named in the inscription). Here is independent confirmation of the “might that he [Omri] shewed” (1 Kgs. 16:27), as well as of 2 Kings 3:4 quoted above.

The inscription also refers to the successful rebellion of Moab against Israel. 2 Kings 3 goes on to recount the formation of a confederacy between Israel, Judah and Edom to quell the rebellion of Moab, which ended in failure in rather mysterious circumstances, for, after reporting a successful invasion of Moab, the chapter ends: “Then he [the king of Moab] took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great indignation against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land”. Who was indignant against Israel, and why, is not immediately apparent; the explanation is perhaps that the drastic action of Mesha caused a superstitious reaction from the allied forces which resulted in God being angry with them. In the Moabite Stone Mesha appears to refer to this war in the following terms: “And the king of Israel built Jahaz, and dwelt in it, whilst he waged war against me; Chemosh drove him out before me”. It was only natural that Mesha should attribute the failure of the Israelite expedition to the intervention of his god Chemosh. At the commencement of the inscription Mesha says he is making it as a monument to Chemosh, who “saved me from all invaders, and let me see my desire upon all my enemies”, which again fits in well with what the Scriptures say about the sudden end of the invasion of Israel and her allies.

A further remarkable feature of the Moabite Stone is the fact that the inscription is in Hebrew. This fits the Biblical facts of the case, namely that the Moabites were a brother nation to Israel, descended from Lot, Abraham’s nephew, and speaking the same language. Hence Elimelech and Naomi, and later David’s parents, could go there from Bethlehem and still speak the same language.

Tony Benson