MOABITE STONE, THE. A stone bearing an inscription of 34 lines in the Moabitish language, discovered by the German missionary F. Klein, at Diboll, in Moab, in 18118. The negotiations set on foot. for its purchase by N. Clermont-Ganneau, of the French consulate at Jerusalem, who had also learned of the existence of the stone, led to quarrels among the Arab tribes elaiming an interest in and the motnnueut was un fortunately broken to pieces. The fragments, however, were with great difficulty collected, :u ml are now preserved in the Louvre. With the aid of a squeeze obtained by t'lermont-Ganneati prior to the destruction of the stone, the greater por tion of the inscription has been recovered, and as the result of numerous researches by French, German. and English scholars, the decipherment may' now be said to be complete. 'rite characters on the Moabitish stone are identical with those on Phoenician monuments, and the language is .0 closely allied to Hebrew that the conclusion is justified which makes Ilebrew and Aloabitish practically identical. The inscription itself re fers to the deeds of :\lesha. King of who is mentioned in the very first line, :1 nd the interest of the stone is greatly enhanced by the circum stance that he is identhal with the :\leslia (q.v.) spoken of in 11. Kings iii. 4. Nlcsha begins in liis inscription IT referring to the affliction which Moab endured tinder King of I-rnel, and the latter's soft (i.e. Ahab, wino, however, is not mentioned by name). We know from the biblical narrative that .Moab was tributary to Israel dur
ing the reigns of Ontri and Ahab. This is the 'affliction' referred to and is attributed by Aleslia to the anger of his deity t'llemosli. Thank-. how ever, to l'hentosh. who turned with favor to Aleslia. the latter regained the cities which Israel had captured. .Mesh: adds in an exaggerated manner that "Israel perished with everlasting destruction." The rest of the inscription is taken up with details of the conflict and with building operations undertaken by :11,.11a.
its hi.torical significance, the inscription is of geographical importance hecanse of the names of sites in Moab which it contains. Ac cording to the biblical account. the revolt of .\loali took place after the death of Ahab 1c.8.i3 but Nlesint claims that 'already in the life time of Ahab he freed himself from the Israel itish yoke. This would make the date of the Moabite .tone e.S60 n.c. A. the oldest inscrip tion in l'Ineniebin character., the stone has also great epigraphical value. Of the large literature on till' subject it is sufficient to refer to the publications of Sinend and Sochi, 11f, ln,w•hrifl des bionics llesa rout Moat) I Freiburg, 188'61. with supplement in il•ricblr der kiinialieh senchsischcn der nschn f ten (1897 Lidzbarski, in "Ephemeris fill' 'emit ische Epigraphik." i. (19)0) ; Die In sehrift des llesa ran ,flush (Leipzig.
: Driver. Te.rt of the Books of Smnlic1 (Yew York. 1890).