The find
In July 1993, archaeologist Avraham Biran's team was digging at Tel Dan, the ancient city of Dan in the far north of Israel. A member of the team, Gila Cook, noticed letters carved on a piece of stone sitting among the rubble of a wall.
It was a fragment of a victory monument. Someone had smashed it and reused the pieces as building stone. In 1994 the team found two more pieces.
Who carved it
The words are in Old Aramaic, the language of Israel's northern enemy, the kingdom of Aram, with its capital at Damascus. The king who set it up most probably was Hazael of Damascus, around 840 BC.
He wrote it to celebrate his victories. And the kings he beat are the kings of Israel and Judah.
The words
On line 9, carved into the stone, are the letters bytdwd. In Aramaic, Beit David.
"king of Israel, and [I] killed [Ahaz]iahu son of [Jehoram kin]g of the House of David."
The House of David was the name for the royal family of Judah, the kings descended from David. Around 840 BC, the enemy kingdom next door knew them by his name.
The first time
Before this stone came out of the ground, King David had never been found in any record outside the Bible. Now his family's name was carved in stone by men who hated them, around 130 years after his death.
Hazael is in the Bible
The Bible knows Hazael well. The prophet Eliseus (Elisha) wept when he met him, because he saw what Hazael would do to Israel: "Their strong cities thou wilt burn with fire, and their young men thou wilt kill with the sword" (4 Kings 8:12). He told him, "The Lord hath shewn me that thou shalt be king of Syria" (4 Kings 8:13). Hazael became king the next day.
The Bible also records the war the stone boasts about. Ochozias (Ahaziah), the king of Judah from the House of David, went with Joram, the son of Achab, the king of Israel:
"He went also with Joram, son of Achab, to fight against Hazael, king of Syria, in Ramoth Galaad, and the Syrians wounded Joram."
4 Kings (2 Kings) 8:28
The same three kings. The same war. One account in the Bible, the other carved by the enemy.
A house forever
God had made David a promise:
"And thy house shall be faithful, and thy kingdom for ever before thy face, and thy throne shall be firm for ever."
2 Kings (2 Samuel) 7:16
Nine centuries later, the angel told Mary her son would be given "the throne of David, his father" (Luke 1:32). The New Testament opens with the words, "Jesus Christ, the son of David" (Matthew 1:1). The blind men on the road called after him, "Son of David, have mercy on us" (Matthew 9:27).
Why this is a big deal
The House of David isn't a story Israel told about itself. Its enemies carved it in stone, in a boast meant to humiliate it, around 840 BC.
Hazael's kingdom is long gone. The House of David produced the King whose throne God promised would last for ever.