Mesha Stele

Sayce1892 historical source page 86

jS THE MOABITE STONE. * 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 block- aded 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 Phoenician 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 vene- rable 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. Just, however, as the writing of two persons at the present day must differ, so also the writing of two nations like the Moabites and Jews must have differed to some extent. Moreover, there must have been some distinction between the more cursive writing of a papy- rus-roll and the carefully cut letters of a public monument like that of Mesha. Indeed, that such a distinction did