Bible Synapse
Deir Alla inscription
Inscription · late 9th–8th century BC · Israel and Judah · also called Balaam inscription, Book of Balaam
See it on the map and timeline- Date
- late 9th–8th century BC (the writing on the plaster)
- Found
- Tell Deir Alla, Jordan Valley, Jordan, 1967. Found on 17 March 1967 by the Dutch expedition from Leiden led by Henk J. Franken, when a Jordanian member of the team, Ali Abdul-Rasul, noticed letters on small pieces of fallen plaster in a building destroyed by an earthquake.
- Now
- The Jordan Museum, Amman
- Passages
- Numbers 22:2 – Numbers 24:25, Joshua 13:22, Micah 6:5
What it is
A text written in black and red ink on white plaster, reassembled from more than a hundred fragments. Its best-preserved part is headed as the account of Balaam son of Beor, “a seer of the gods”: the gods come to him at night, and in the morning he weeps and tells his people of a disaster the gods have decreed.
How it connects to the Bible
Balaam son of Beor is the seer whom Balak king of Moab hired to curse Israel (Numbers 22–24), and he is remembered elsewhere in the Bible (Joshua 13:22; Micah 6:5). The plaster text shows that a seer of this name was remembered east of the Jordan, in a story of its own. It does not appear to be a version of the biblical account.
What scholars debate
Its language (Aramaic, Canaanite or a local dialect), its exact date and the arrangement of the fragments are all debated.