A bouncy Hebrew chorus every Jewish child knows goes like this in English: “David, the King of Israel, lives, lives and lives on.”
Engraved on a stele (a stone tablet), discovered east of the Dead Sea in 1868 and kept at the Louvre Museum in Paris, are references to King Mesha of Moab warring with Israel. Modern historians and linguists believed, but could not prove, that the references were to the biblical “House of David.” New digital imaging technology has now enabled scholars to conclude they were right all along.
Why does it matter?
There is an ongoing strategy today to deny the Jewish connection to the land of Israel.
In one of the most heinous efforts to do so, the United Nations declared, on December 1, 2021, that the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is solely a Muslim holy site. Evidently Jews and Christians have no historical or other connection there. Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and 126 other nations agreed. Canada, the United States and nine others opposed, and Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK, among 31, abstained.
Do Bible believers understand the implication? If it were true, then King Solomon (son of King David) did not build the complex on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, nor did the Jews build the Second Temple there. Jesus, the Disciples and the Apostles never worshipped there. And if so, then is any of the rest of the Torah, the Prophets or the New Testament true? What is left to believe?
Archaeological evidence, with scientific corroboration, makes the Bible–and King David–real and relevant today.