Tel Dan Stele
This Aramaic inscription, dated to ca. 841 BCE, contains the phrase mlk bytdwd, meaning "king of the house of David." This was the first time outside of the Bible that an ancient historical source referred to Israel's most famous king.
On the stele, King Hazael of Aram told how he came to the throne with the aid of his god Hadad, and how he killed King Joram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah. In contrast, 2 Kings 9-10 recorded that Joram was wounded in battle against Aram, and while recuperating with Ahaziah at Jezreel, the usurper Jehu killed both kings. It could be that Jehu and Hazael were working in alliance.
A translation of the stele is as follows:
- [... ...] and cut [... ]
- [...] my father went up [against him when] he fought at [...]
- And my father lay down, he went to his [ancestors] (viz. became sick and died). And the king of I[s-]
- rael entered previously in my father's land. [And] Hadad made me king.
- And Hadad went in front of me, [and] I departed from [the]seven [...-]
- s of my kingdom, and I slew [seve]nty kin[gs], who harnessed thou[sand of cha-]
- riots and two thousand horsemen (or: horses). [I killed Jeho]ram son of [Ahab]
- king of Israel, and [I] killed [Ahaz]iahu son of [Jehoram kin-]
- g of the House of David. And I set [their towns int ruins and turned]
- their land into [desolation... ]
- other [ ... and Jehu ru-]
- led over Is[rael ... and I laid]
- siege upon [... ]
The biggest fragment of the Tel Dan Stele was discovered in the summer of 1993 by the surveyor Gila Cook, and one year later, she found the other two fragments. The Tel Dan Stele now resides in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.