The House of David inscription was discovered at Tel Dan in northern Israel on July 21, 1993 by Gila Cook, the site surveyor of the Tel Dan expedition, led by Dr. Avraham Biran. The text is inscribed on a basalt stele (standing stone, mazzevah in Hebrew), of which three fragments remain. The stele was purposely shattered and its fragments were incorporated into the walls and pavements of a building complex located in a plaza outside the walls of the ancient town. The surviving part of the inscription contains 13 lines in Aramaic, closely related to Hebrew, in a style and content characteristic of the 9th-8th centuries BCE. Most scholars date it in the second half of the 9th century BCE, due to the content and historical context of the inscription.
The translation proposed in 1995 by Biran and Yosef Naveh reads:
1. [ ]...[...] and cut [...]
2. [...] my father went up [against him when h]e fought at [...]
3. and my father lay down, he went to his [ancestors (viz became sick and died)]. And the king of I[s-]
4. rael entered previously in my father's land, [and] Hadad made me king,
5.And Hadad went in front of me, [and] I departed from the seven [...-]
6. s of my kingdom, and I slew [seve]nty kin[gs], who harnessed th[ousands of cha-]
7. riots and thousands of horsemen (or: horses). [I killed Jeho]ram son [of Ahab]
8. king of Israel, and [I] killed [Ahaz]iahu son of [Jehoram kin-]
9. g of the House of David, and I set [their towns into ruins and turned ]
10. their land into [desolation ] 11. other [... and Jehu ru-]
12. led over Is[rael and I laid] 13. siege upon [ ]
Subsequent translators have translated lines 6 and 7 differently, preferring two kings instead of seventy, two thousand chariots and two thousand horsemen rather than “thousands”.
The text commemorates the military victory of an Aramaean king over opposing kings. Such steles were often set up in prominent places in important towns or locations (city gates, for example). Most scholars believe that the Aramaean king from the inscription is Hazael, who ruled from Damascus in the years 843-806 BCE. Hazael is known from the Hebrew Bible (e.g. I Kings 19:15, II Kings 12:17-18) where he is prophesied by Elijah and Elisha to be the king of Aram-Damascus and an enemy of Israel.
The House of David inscription is thought to describe Hazael’s ascendance to the throne of Aram-Damascus following the death of his predecessor, and Israelite control over the Aramaean territory. It goes on to narrate the victory over and the killing of Jehoram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel and the king of the House of David (Judah), Ahaziah. Dozens of books and articles have been written about the language, epigraphy and historical context of the inscription. Among other things, its importance lies in its correspondence to and confirmation of the biblical text and the first unequivocal appearance of David as the founder of a Levantine dynasty in Judah.
The Aramaean victory stele was probably shattered in the 8th century BCE by the conquering Israelite army under the leadership of either Joash or Jeroboam II. Its fragments were used as building material for the 8th century BCE extramural structures at Tel Dan. The stele is currently on display in the Iron Age gallery of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
