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The Moabite capital where the Mesha Stele was discovered — naming YHWH and the House of David
East of JordanHistorically Verified
Identified with the modern Jordanian town of Dhiban. The Mesha Stele — a 9th-century BCE basalt inscription naming YHWH and possibly the House of David — was discovered here in 1868 and is now in the Louvre.
A Moabite city on the King's Highway north of the Arnon River, captured by Israel during the wilderness conquest of Sihon (Numbers 21:30) and rebuilt as a fortified town by Gad before Moses gave the eastern territory to Reuben (Numbers 32:3, 34; Joshua 13:9, 17). The site became prophetically famous as Isaiah and Jeremiah mourned its destruction in their oracles against Moab (Isaiah 15:2; Jeremiah 48:18, 22). In 1868, a missionary at Dibon discovered the Mesha Stele — a basalt slab on which the Moabite king Mesha boasted of throwing off Israelite rule and rebuilding cities including Aroer; the stele explicitly names YHWH and is one of the most spectacular biblical-era inscriptions ever found.
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