The Moabite Stone discovered east of the Dead Sea in 1968 now in the Louvre Museum In Paris
The Moabite Stone was discovered in 1868 about 20 miles east of the Dead Sea. What is most amazing is that it mentions "Israel," "Yahweh" and the "House of David." It is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris
| Language: | Moabite (a West Semitic Language) |
| Medium: | basalt (black-bluish) stone stele |
| Size: | 1.15 meters high 60-68 centimeters wide |
| Length: | 39 lines of writing |
| Honoree: | Mesha, king of Moab (late 9th century BCE) |
| Approximate Date: | 830 BCE |
| Place of Discovery: | Dhiban [in modern Jordan] |
| Date of Discovery: | 1868 |
| Current Location: | Louvre Museum (Paris, France) |
| Inventory number: | AO 5066 |
Mesha Stele (Moabite Stone)
In the Bible it says that Mesha the king of Moab was paying tribute to Israel and that they suddenly stopped: "Mesha, king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel..." (2 Kings 3:5). Well, Mesha made his own record of this rebellion, and the record has been found. It is known today as "The Mesha Stele" or the more popular designation "The Moabite Stone." It was found in 1868 at Dibon, in Moab. Dibon is located 20 miles east of the Dead Sea. Amazingly enough it was discovered by chance by F.A. Klein, a German missionary who had heard rumors of this stone while visiting the area. It was a bluish basalt stone, about 4 feet high and 2 feet wide, and 14 inches thick, with an inscription from king Mesha. When it was found the Berlin Museum negotiated for it while the French Consulate at Jerusalem offered more money.
The next year some local Arabs, realizing all that was at stake, laboriously hoisted it out of the earth and lit a fire around it, and after pouring cold water on it they chipped away several large pieces which they distributed among a few of them. Later the French re-assembled 669 of the estimated 1100 consonants from the pieces and preserved the inscription. It now remains in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Moabite_stone.aspx
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesha_Stele
