Bible Synapse
Tel Dan Stele
Inscription · late 9th century BC · Israel and Judah · also called House of David inscription
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- late 9th century BC (the stele’s carving)
- Found
- Tel Dan, Israel, 1993. The largest piece was found on 21 July 1993 by Gila Cook of Avraham Biran’s team, built into the remains of a wall near the city’s outer gate. Two smaller pieces turned up in June 1994.
- Now
- Israel Museum, Jerusalem (IAA 1993-3162, 1996-125)
- Passages
- 2 Kings 8:28–29, 2 Kings 9:14–28
What it is
Three broken pieces of a basalt victory stele inscribed in Old Aramaic. A king of Damascus, generally identified as Hazael, boasts that his god made him king and that he killed a king of Israel and a king of the “house of David”. The kings’ names are broken; they are usually restored as Joram son of Ahab and Ahaziah son of Jehoram.
How it connects to the Bible
2 Kings 8–9 tells how Joram of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah fought against Hazael and how both kings then died in Jehu’s revolt. The stele claims the killings for Hazael, while the Bible credits Jehu (2 Kings 9:24–27). Its phrase “house of David” is widely read as the earliest known mention of David’s dynasty outside the Bible.
What scholars debate
A minority read the letters BYTDWD as a place name, a divine title or another word rather than the dynasty of David; a few early critics suspected forgery, which most reject because the pieces were excavated.