[84]. Compare Judges xvi, 23; also 1 Samuel v.
[85]. Tablets of Tel-El-Armana, “Dispatches from Palestine in the century before the Exodus,” Rec. of P. Vol. I, p. 64.
[86]. Babylonian Literature, p. 64.
[87]. Compare Lev. xx, 2; Deut. xii, 31, and kindred passages.
[88]. The Moabite stone was about three feet and nine inches long, two feet and four inches in breadth and fourteen inches thick. The inscription contained many incidents concerning the wars of King Mesha with Israel; see also 2 Kings, 3d chap. The literature connected with this stone is very great, no less than forty-nine Orientalists having written in various languages upon this fascinating theme, and although many of these productions are merely papers or brochures, there are at least eight different volumes upon this subject.
The characters are Phœnician, and form a link between those of the Baal-Lebanon inscription of the tenth century B.C. and those of the Siloam text.
[89]. Chemosh, who is called “the abomination of the Moabites,” is alluded to in Numb. xxi, 29; also Jer. xlviii, 7, and various other passages.
[90]. Tablet K 4902 of the British Museum Collection, translated by Ernest A. Budge.
[91]. “They have builded also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal,” etc. (Jeremiah xix. 5. See also many kindred passages.)
[92]. This inscription was translated by Dr. Oppert, and Esmunazar is supposed to have lived in the fourth century B.C.