And Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool.
2 Kings 3:4
"The Moabite Stone was discovered in 1868 in Dibon (Dhiban in modern-day Jordan). Also called the Mesha Stele, it was set in place as a monument by King Mesha of Moab around 830 BC.
Recently, a secular archaeologist advocated a new guess about two letters in the Moabite Stone’s inscription. Israel Finkelstein used high-resolution photographs to scrutinize damaged portions of Line 31 and decided that an earlier expert, André Lemaire, was wrong. Lemaire reported one part as BT [D]WD. Finkelstein speculated that B[??] is correct, which could be BLQ—i.e., Balak, a Moabite king.
The Moabite Stone corroborates some Old Testament history from a Moabite perspective, specifically the military conflict reported in 2 Kings 3. Echoing biblical history, King Mesha refers to his home as Dibon (Lines 1-2), the Israelites’ God as YHWH (Line 18), Moab’s god as Chemosh (Lines 4-5, 9, 12), Omri as dynastic head of Israel’s Northern Kingdom (Lines 4-5, 7).
Mesha also boasts success as a “sheep master” (Lines 30-31), although he conveniently omits the embarrassing fact that Moab paid Israel an annual tribute in sheep—literally thousands (see 2 Kings 3:4).
If the new study of Line 31 is correct, it reflects the King Balak referred to in the Bible’s Balaam story (Numbers 22–24)."
ICR
2 Kings 3:4
"The Moabite Stone was discovered in 1868 in Dibon (Dhiban in modern-day Jordan). Also called the Mesha Stele, it was set in place as a monument by King Mesha of Moab around 830 BC.
Recently, a secular archaeologist advocated a new guess about two letters in the Moabite Stone’s inscription. Israel Finkelstein used high-resolution photographs to scrutinize damaged portions of Line 31 and decided that an earlier expert, André Lemaire, was wrong. Lemaire reported one part as BT [D]WD. Finkelstein speculated that B[??] is correct, which could be BLQ—i.e., Balak, a Moabite king.
The Moabite Stone corroborates some Old Testament history from a Moabite perspective, specifically the military conflict reported in 2 Kings 3. Echoing biblical history, King Mesha refers to his home as Dibon (Lines 1-2), the Israelites’ God as YHWH (Line 18), Moab’s god as Chemosh (Lines 4-5, 9, 12), Omri as dynastic head of Israel’s Northern Kingdom (Lines 4-5, 7).
Mesha also boasts success as a “sheep master” (Lines 30-31), although he conveniently omits the embarrassing fact that Moab paid Israel an annual tribute in sheep—literally thousands (see 2 Kings 3:4).
If the new study of Line 31 is correct, it reflects the King Balak referred to in the Bible’s Balaam story (Numbers 22–24)."
ICR