Mt. Ebal “Curse Tablet” Full Press Conference

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Built in to the law were punishments for disobedience. Curses at Ebal were leveled against those who practiced idolatry, dishonored their parents, took advantage of the vulnerable, withheld justice, committed murder, took bribes, or committed various sexual sins.

Dr. Stripling discovered a folded lead tablet while wet sifting through discarded material from a past excavation on Mt. Ebal, in Israel. The excavation was done in the 1980s and revealed an altar matching the description from Deuteronomy 27 and Joshua 8.

The tablet found at this altar site, which only measures approximately 2 cm., was taken to a lab in the Czech Republic where it was scanned to reveal ancient Hebrew writing.

It was revealed that the writing was a formulaic curse, in ancient Hebrew, consisting of 40 letters. The writing reads:

"Cursed, cursed, cursed - cursed by the God YHW.
You will die cursed.
Cursed you will surely die.
Cursed by YHW - cursed, cursed, cursed."

The tablet and subsequent inscription are believed to be dated to the Late Bronze Age, which would make it the oldest known proto-Hebrew inscription ever discovered in Israel and prove that (contrary to many current historians) that the Israelites were literate when they entered the land of Canaan, and therefore could have written the Bible as some of the events it documents took place.

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