Moabite stone.  
   This ancient stone bears some of the earliest writing 
in Hebrew-Phoenician characters.  The stone is of black basalt.  It 
is about 3 feet 8 inches high and 2 feet 3 inches wide.  F. A. 
Klein, a missionary, found it in 1868 at Diban, in ancient Moab.  The 
writing on it was probably carved by a Moabite scribe sometime in 
the 800's B.C.  It is a good example of the Hebrew-Phoenician 
characters used at the time.  
   When the French tried to buy the stone at Constantinople, the 
Arabs in the district became greedy.  They broke the priceless, 
irreplaceable stone into many parts, hoping to get more money by 
selling the pieces.  The French collected the larger pieces.  An 
official of the French embassy at Constantinople had also made a 
paper impression of the stone before it was broken.  
   The 34-line inscription tells of the deeds of Mesha, King of the 
Moabites, in his wars against the kings of Israel and against the 
Edomites.  For a description of part of this conflict from the point 
of view of the people of Israel, see II Kings 3:4-27.  The restored 
stone is in the Louvre, in Paris.