MOABITE STONE (ma-ab-ite ston).
(1) How. Discovered. This wonderful monu ment of the times of the events recorded in the Book of Kings was discovered by a missionary by the name of F. Klein, in August, 1868. When on his way to the Bekka, a friendly sheik drew his attention to a black basalt stone in the vicinity of his tent at Dibon.
(2) Dimensions. This stone was about three feet and ten inches in height, two feet in breadth, and fourteen and a half inches in thick ness. It was rounded both at the top and bot tom to nearly the shape of a semicircle, and con tained an inscription on one side consisting of thirty-four lines.
(3) Inscription Secured. Mr. Klein tried to obtain it for the museum of Berlin, but nego tiations progressed slowly, and in the meantime squeezes were taken of the inscription. This was most fortunate, for the Bedouins of the coun try, rather than give it up, broke the stone by building a fire under it, and then pouring cold water upon it, after which they distributed the fragments among themselves, to be used as amu lets and charms. Happily, however, more than half of the inscription remained intact, and the squeezes and copies which had been obtained nearly supply the lacunx in the text, as may be seen from an inspection of the original monu ment now in the museum of the Louvre.
(4) Language. The language of the inscrip tion is almost identical with the ancient Hebrew, and shows that in the tenth century before Christ (the period to which it belongs) the Israelites and Moabites had a common language. This in dicates that they sprang from a common ances try. There was, however, considerable dissim ilarity between the characters in which this lan guage was inscribed by the two nations, in con sequence of their long separation from each other. Still they bear an essential relationship which may be readily recognized.
(5) By Whom Erected. The tablet tells its own story, and shows that it was erected by MESHA, king of Moab, in order to recount a vic tory which he obtained over the Israelites. Many of Mesha's exploits are recounted, and the names of various places are given which he claimed to have either built or destroyed (B. C. 9oo). The Moabites fought many a battle with Israel, but Mesha, like the other.heathen kings, records only his victories. This record, however, fills up a gap in the brief account we have in the Books of the Kings concerning the wars between Mesha and Israel especially during the reign ,of King Omri.
The Moabites had been reduced to subjection by David, but after the separation of the king doms, they apparently regained their independ ence. During the reigns of Jeroboam and Ahab they were again tributaries. But after the death of Ahab, they again rebelled against the king of Israel, as we learn from 2 Kings iii :4. The suc cessful insurrection here referred to, in Biblical history, is recorded by Mesha himself on the Moabite stonc, and his victory is ascribed to Chemosh, who is called "the god of Moab," and referred to in 1 Kings xi :7 as "Chemosh the abomination of Moab." (6) Names Recorded. The stone record gives the names of persons, places and events, which are also given in the Books of Kings and Chron icles, together with others which are supplement ary. Jehovah is recognized as the God of Israel. Chemosh is worshiped as the god of Moab, and we find also the names of Dibon (Num. xxxii :34), Nebo. Baal-Mcon (Josh. xiii :J7), Ataroth (Num. xxxii :34), and others, besides Horonaim (Is. xv: 5) and the River Anton (Josh. xiii :16).
This monument has attracted much attention in the world of scholars, and the literature con nected with it is very extensive, there bcing eight or more volumes devoted to the subject, besides a multitude of papers which have been contributed to various periodicals published in English, French, Italian, German, Hebrew and Greek.
Hopes were entertained that other tablets of that character might be found, but Palmer, who investigated every written stone reported by the Arabs, came to the conclusion that there does not remain above ground a single inscribed stone of any importance.
(7) EibliogTaphy. The bibliography connected with the Moabite stone is very extensive. A full translation of the inscription, except the two broken lines, has been made by Dr. A. Neubauer and published in Records of the Past, vol. ii (Bag ster & Sons, London). See also Higher Criti cism and the Monuments, by A. H. Sayce. There are books published upon this subject by Cler mont, Ganneau, Ginsburg, Hitzig, Kaempf, Schlottman, Vogiie and others, besides an enor mous number of contributions by various authors to periodicals in English, French, Italian, German, Greek and Hebrew.