Fresh light from the ancient monuments : $b A sketch of the most striking confirmations of the Bible, from recent discoveries in Egypt, Palestine, Assyria, Babylonia, Asia MinorSayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
History
Fresh light from the ancient monuments : $b A sketch of the most striking confirmations of the Bible, from recent discoveries in Egypt, Palestine, Assyria, Babylonia, Asia Minor
The covenant name of the God of Israel itself occurs in the inscription,
spelt in exactly the same way as in the Old Testament. Its occurrence is a
proof, if any were needed, that the superstition which afterwards
prevented the Jews from pronouncing it did not as yet exist. The name
under which God was worshipped in Israel was familiar to the nations round
about. Nay, more; we gather that even after the attempt of Jezebel to
introduce the Baalim of Sidon into the northern kingdom, Yahveh was still
regarded as the national god, and that the worship carried on at the high
places, idolatrous and contrary as it was to the law, was nevertheless
performed in His name. The high-place of Nebo, like so many of the other
localities mentioned in the inscription, is also mentioned in the prophecy
against Moab contained in Isa. xv. xvi. It is even possible that the words
of the verse in the Book of Isaiah in which it is named have undergone
transposition, and that the true reading is, “He is gone up to Dibon and
to Beth-Bamoth to weep; Moab shall howl over Nebo and over Medeba.” The
inscription informs us that Beth-Bamoth, “the house of the high-places,”
was the name of a place near Dibon, the name of which appears in the last
verse of Isaiah xv. under the form of Dimon, the letter _b_ being changed
by the prophet into _m_, in order to connect it with the word _dâm_,
“blood.” Kirkha, “the wall of the forest,” the modern Kerak, is called Kir
of Moab and Kir-haresh or Kir-hareseth by Isaiah, and Kir-heres by
Jeremiah, which by a slight change of vocalisation would signify “the wall
of the forest.” The form Kir-haraseth is also used in the Book of Kings.
The story told by the Stone, and the account of the war against Moab given
in the Bible, supplement one another. Dr. Ginsburg has suggested that the
deliverance of Moab from Israel was brought about during the reign of
Ahaziah, the successor of Ahab, and that Joram, the successor of Ahaziah,
was subsequently driven out of Jahaz, which lay on the southern side of
the Arnon; but that after this the tide of fortune turned, Joram summoned
his allies from Judah and Edom, ravaged Moab, and blockaded Mesha in his
capital of Kirkha. Then came the sacrifice by Mesha of his eldest son on
the wall of Kirkha—so that “there was great indignation against Israel,”
and the allied forces retreated back “to their own land.”
The Moabite Stone shows us what were the forms of the Phœnician letters
used on the eastern side of the Jordan in the time of Ahab. The forms
employed in Israel and Judah on the western side could not have differed
much; and we may therefore see in these venerable characters the precise
mode of writing employed by the earlier prophets of the Old Testament.
This knowledge is of great importance for the correction and restoration
of corrupt passages, and more especially of proper names, the spelling of
which has been deformed by copyists.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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