^ltlllll!IIIIIIlllIIIIIIlMIIII)IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII(||||||||III|Il|I||I|||||I||I|,ai|I|l||lll|III|l|l |l|||IHI|II,l,lll!ll,ll,||lll „ |,|l1Tllli||lll|ll||1|ll|,||,i^ | S tud ies in CK ris tian JE^idences j | Bp Prof. S. Elliott Skinner, Lecturer at tke British Museum, London | -illlllllllllllllIIIIIIIM IIIlllllll!lll|||llll||||||lll|||llll|||||l||||||||ll!|||ll|||||||lllII||||||||||l ||]|||||||||||||,||||||B|||||||,|„ |,,|„ 1|||„ |||||||||||||||||S A OAST OF THE MOABITE STONE HOW ARCHEOLOGY IS SPEAK ING OUT TODAY 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 Is rael."
HE Moabite Stone was dis covered by Dr. Klein in 1868 at Dibon or Dhibdn. When the doctor first saw
The inscription was much as follows: — “ I, Mesha, son of Chemoshmelech, king of Moab, the Dibonite. My father reigned over Moab thirty years, and I reigned after my father. I made this monument to Chemosh at Korkah, a monument of salvation, for he saved me from all invaders, and let me see my desire upon all my enemies. Omri (was) king of Israel, and he oppressed Moab many days, for Chemosh was an gry with his land. His son followed him, and he also said: I will oppress Moab. In my days (Chemosh) said: I will see my desire on him and his house. And Israel surely perished. Omri took the land of Medeba and (Is rael) dwelt in it during his days and half the days of his son, altogether forty years. But there dwelt in it Che mosh in my days.” In the rest of the inscription, too long to detain us here, Mesha goes on to describe his capture of various cities, from one of which he says, “ I took from it the arels of Jahveh and tore them before Chemosh.” This shows that the name of Jehovah, so sacred to Israel was known to the sur rounding nations. The worship of the abomihatipn of Moab, “ Chemosh the god of the Moabites” (1 Kings 11:7, 33) was introduced by Solomon, and be cause of. this God’s wrath fell upon the land of Israel. It is worth noting that though Mesha ■ boasts a good deal he nevertheless had quite a severe drubbing according to the Scripture (2 Kings 3). Prophecies concerning Moab are con-
the stone he did not then realize the importance of his discovery, and only copied a few words, which he sent to the Berlin Museum. A year later, however, a large sum was offered for it and men were sent to take squeezes of the stone. The cupidity of the Arabs in whose pos session it was, began to be aroused and they feared they would lose the price less object. Their chief demanded it himself that he might either keep it or command a high price for it, and pour ing cold water on it, thus broke it to pieces, which were distributed as charms throughout the tribe. Most of these fragments were recovered and put together by the help of the imperfect squeezes taken before the monument was broken up. The language in which the stone is written is of particular in terest. It shows what were the forms of the Phoenician letters used on the eastern side of the Jordan in the time of Ahab. The forms employed in Is rael and Judah on the western side did not differ much, and we can there fore see in these venerable characters the precise mode of writing employed by the earlier prophets of the. Old Testament. The stone contains the inscription of Mesha, King of Moab, who revolted against Ahab. We have the story in 2 Kings 3:4: “ And Mesha, king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel an hundred thousand
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