An Israeli professor claims that a recent translation of an eighth-century B.C. inscription containing the name of Judean King Hezekiah in Jerusalem’s City of David is “one of the most important archaeological discoveries in Israel of all time.”
Prof. Gershon Galil, head of the Institute for Biblical Studies and Ancient History at Haifa University in Israel, alongside Eli Shukron, from the Bible and Ancient History Research Institute, deciphered Hezekiah’s name on a palm-sized limestone tablet discovered in 2007.
The inscription also summarizes the first 17 years of Hezekiah’s reign and his accomplishments, as described in 2 Kings 20 of the Bible. The verse describes how Hezekiah brought water to the city through the discovery of a pool and a tunnel, and the inscribed stone was found at a pool in the Gihon Spring area.
The inscription measures about 5.3 inches long by 3.8 inches wide, and there are two lines of writing containing six letters inscribed in Old Hebrew script. Galil and Shukron concluded that the full inscription reads: “Hezekiah made the pool in Jerusalem.”
The professor explained that these inscriptions are the “earliest manuscripts of the Bible,” noting that they predate other ancient artifacts, such as Hinnom silver amulets by 100 years and the Dead Sea Scrolls by hundreds of years.