30 REV. JOHN URQUHART^ ON THE BEARING OF RECENT 



Fortunately we are now able to compare those theories with 

 the results of recent investigation. For a large portion of the 

 time covered by these Books, the Israelites were in contact 

 with nationalities on the East and on the West whose records- 

 have been recovered and read. Those records and the Biblical 

 Books occasionally refer to the same circumstances and narrate 

 the same facts. If the Scripture, therefore, invents narratives, or 

 alters history "to point a moral or adorn a tale," this will infallibly 

 appear in the comparison of the Biblical and monumental 

 accounts. Let it be observed also that it will not be necessary 

 to procure a companion narrative for every Biblical account in 

 order to reach an assured judgment as to the character of the 

 Scripture history. Half-a-dozen test cases will form as good a 

 basis as six hundred. Those six narratives will either prove 

 that the current theory is correct, or they will make it plain 

 that that theory must be abandoned. 



Followung our usual plan and passing upward along the 

 stream of history, we look first at the lioht which discovery has- 

 cast upon the character of 2 Kings. That Book begins with 

 the statement that "Moab rebelled against Israel after the 

 death of Ahab " (2 Kings i, ] ). Further information is- 

 imparted in iii, 4-27. The Moabite king's name was Mesha. 

 He had paid an annual tribute of " an hundred thousand lambs 

 and an hundred thousand rams with the wool." The narrative 

 proceeds to say that an attempt was made by Ahab's son to 

 reimpose the Israelitish yoke ; that he called to his aid his- 

 allies, the kings of Judali and Edom ; that the Moal)ite& 

 attacked this army and were defeated ; that the victorious 

 Israelites pursued them, captured their cities, and shut up 

 Mesha in his capital ; that there he was so hard bestead that 

 he offered his eldest son a sacrifice upon the wall in the sight 

 of the besiegers ; and finally, that this act led to such indigna- 

 tion against Israel, apparently because of its insatiable thirst 

 for vengeance, that the confederacy was broken up and Mesha 

 escaped. 



These Scripture refereiici^s to the Moabites have been m 

 thoroughly vindicated l)y research that arclucologists, the only 

 * authorities " in a matter of this kind, have had to abandon 

 the critical theory. Alfred Jeremias sums up tlie present 

 position in the words, "Jlistory lays a JMoabite -Ammonite Saf/rc 

 in the dust ; "* while in regard to the Mesha episode and the 

 discovery of that king's inscription he quotes the admission of 



^ Das Altc Testament im Lichte des Alton 0?'icnts, S. 228. 



