Ancient Middle East Newspapers : STELES Used to Write About Israel: Verification of Existence

Nadene Goldfoot                                           

We have more verification of Israel's presence in ancient days.  The method of keeping history was to write on steles.  One dated about 1208 BCE written in Egyptian hieroglyphs was the Merneptah Stele.  The last 3 of 28 lines tells of a victory over Israel saying, "The Canaan has been plundered into every sort of woe:  Ashkelon has been overcome;  Gezer has been captured;  Yano'am is made non-exisent.  Israel is laid waste and his seed is not."  This stele wasn't discovered until 1896 and is now kept in the Cairo Museum.  Steles tend to be used for bragging by the royal families.  The main thrust of this stele is to tell about Egypt's victories over Libya but had room to tell about Israel as well. The stone is granite; usually used today for tombstones.  The top still holds its original coloring of red, yellow and blue. "It was carved in the 5th year of Merneptah of the 19th dynasty."  Merneptah was the son of Ramesses II and father of Seti II.  What is wonderful is that we have people who can read this early method of communication.  

The line which refers to Israel is:

	[a]
ysrỉꜣr	fk.t	bn	pr.t	=f
Israel	waste	[negative]	seed/grain	his/its

"The hieroglyphs that refer to Israel instead employ the throw stick (the determinative for "foreign") plus a sitting man and woman (the determinative for "people") over three vertical lines (a plural marker):" 

The "foreign people" "sign is typically used by the Egyptians to signify nomadic groups or peoples, without a fixed city-state home, thus implying a semi-nomadic or rural status for 'Israel' at that time."

                                                          

Another stele is the Mesha Stele. This was made around 840 BCE by King Mesha of Moab.  It relates how their god, Kemosh,  had been angry with them and had allowed them lose the war with Israel.  Finally, their god relents and helps Mesha to throw off the yoke of Israel and restore the lands of Moab.   It was discovered in 1868 to 1870.  The stele tells about "
                                                 

• "How Moab was oppressed by Omri King of Israel and his son as the result of the anger of the god Chemosh (Omri: 887-876 BCE) (Ahab: 876-853 BCE) 
• Mesha's victories over Omri's son (not named) and the men of Gad at Ataroth, Nebo and Jehaz;
• His building projects, restoring the fortifications of his strong places and building a palace and reservoirs for water;"

Stele written in Moabite language

The stele agrees with our writings in Kings.  "The inscription seems to parallel an episode in II Kings 3; 4.  Jehoram of Israel makes an alliance with Jehoshaphat king of Judah and an unnamed king of Edom (south of Judah) to put down his rebellious vassal Mesha; the three kings have the best of the campaign until Mesha, in desperation, sacrifices to his god Kemosh either his eldest son or the eldest son of the king of Edom; the sacrifice turns the tide, "there came great wrath against Israel", and Mesha apparently achieves victory. " Note that the Moabites practiced human sacrifice during this period which is during Israel's 12th king all of which never practiced such bloody slaughter since Jacob was stopped in the act of sacrificing Isaac and told that was not expected anymore.  Israel had had as kings:  Saul, David, Solomon, Jeroboam, Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, Omri, Ahad Ahaziah and then Jehoram  (853-843 BCE).  Abraham was born at the beginning of the 2nd millenium and Isaac was his son, who  was the father of Jacob.  It was Jacob whose name was changed to Israel after a development of mental growth caused by a wrestle with an angel in about 1800 BCE.  
                                                   

The Tel Dan Stele was found right in Israel.  It's broken but readable.  It was created in 870-750 BCE. This archaeological  find was a new one from 1993-1994 digs and can be seen in the Israel museum.  Old Aramaic using the Phoenician alphabet is the language used.  In it, an unnamed king is boasting about his victories over the king of Israel and his ally, the king of Judah (the king of the House of David").  This is a first in finding that David was a Judahite outside of the Hebrew bible (Tankah).  King David was of the tribe of Judah.  It was left where it was found by Hazael of Aram-Damascus, now Syria.  He was an important regional person in the late 9th century BCE.  He's the unnamed king on the stele.                                 

writing on Tel Dan Stele, Old Aramaic using Phonecian alphabet by a king of Damascus.

"In the second half of the 9th century BCE (the most widely accepted date for the stele) the kingdom of Aram, under its ruler Hazael, was a major power in the Levant. Dan, just 70 miles from Hazael's capital of Damascus, would almost certainly have come under its sway. This is borne out by the archaeological evidence: Israelite remains do not appear until the 8th century BCE, and it appears that Dan was already in the orbit of Damascus even before Hazael became king in c. 843 BCE."

As for Israel, Jehoram's son, Jehu became king of Israel in 843 BCE and lasted until 816 BCE.  

It's a good thing that Israel was conquered once in a while, or no one would ever write about them.  Like today, heads of state like their subjects to know of their successes, not their failures.  Note that in our history book, the Torah and Tanakh, our writers wrote about both, our successes and failures.  



Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_military_history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteenth_Dynasty_of_Egypt_family_tree
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merneptah_Stele
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesha_Stele
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_Dan_Stele