The meaning of the name Moab is obscure. It appears to signify “seed of a father” and may mean, from this, “desirable.” The origin of the people bearing the name is related in the book of Genesis. Their progenitor, Moab, was the son of Lot by an incestuous union with his elder daughter. Ben-Ammi, the father of the Ammonites, was the product of a similar union with his younger daughter.1
Although there had been a number of settlements and fortresses in the territory occupied by Moab prior to 2,000 B.C., all these had been destroyed shortly after that date. Some hundreds of years elapsed before there was an established civilisation again, but about the time of the Exodus a new agricultural settlement appeared. By this time the Moabites had become a numerous people. Their territory, referred to as the held of Moab,2 was situated on the east of the Dead Sea and extended from the plain of Heshbon on the north to the Tell-el-Kerahi, which emerges at the southern end of the Dead Sea, in the south. Their southern neighbours were the Edomites. The country had been conquered with the help of their kinsmen, the. Ammonites.3 Prior to the arrival of the Israelites in the Promised Land, the Amorite king, Sihon, had seized the pasture land north of the River Arnon, which made “up about half the country of the Moabites.4
Moab is mainly a rolling plateau, 3,200 feet above the level of the sea and is well adapted for pasturage. The western edge descends abruptly to the Dead Sea, and the face of the bluff is cut by deep’ valleys. The shore of the Dead Sea is comparatively fertile, having springs in great abundance. The Old Testament refers to the Plains of Moab. These were the parts of the Arabah, or level valley of the Jordan, which the Moabites always claimed and which were at one time within their borders. They were on the east of the river, opposite Jericho, and along the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. The chief towns of Moab were Kir of Moab, identified with Kir-Hareseth and Kir-Heres; Ar of Moab; and, in the territory north of the Arnon, Heshbon, Medeba and Dibon, which was rebuilt by the Gadites and called Dibon-Gad, and afterwards given over to the tribe of Reuben, Possession of the three last-named places was always a matter of contention between Amorites, Israelites and Moabites.
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Author: F. E. Mitchell
Keywords: Moabite kingdom, Moab, Moabites, Moabitess, Chemosh, Kir Hareseth, Kir Heres, Ar, Kir, Arnon, Heshbon, Medeba, Dibon, dibon-Gad, Moabite stone
Bible reference(s): Genesis 19:37, Genesis 36:35, Exodus 15:15, Numbers 21:11, Numbers 21:13, Numbers 21:15, Numbers 21:20, Numbers 21:26, Numbers 21:28, Numbers 21:29, Numbers 22:1, Numbers 22:3, Numbers 22:4, Numbers 22:7, Numbers 22:8, Numbers 22:10, Numbers 22:14, Numbers 22:21, Numbers 22:36, Numbers 23:6, Numbers 23:7, Numbers 23:17, Numbers 24:17, Numbers 25:1, Numbers 26:3, Numbers 26:63, Numbers 31:12, Numbers 33:44, Numbers 33:48, Numbers 33:49, Numbers 33:50, Numbers 35:1, Numbers 36:13, Deuteronomy 1:5, Deuteronomy 2:8, Deuteronomy 2:9, Deuteronomy 2:11, Deuteronomy 2:18, Deuteronomy 2:29, Deuteronomy 23:3, Deuteronomy 29:1, Deuteronomy 32:49, Deuteronomy 34:1, Deuteronomy 34:5, Deuteronomy 34:6, Deuteronomy 34:8, Joshua 13:32, Joshua 24:9, Judges 3:12, Judges 3:14, Judges 3:15, Judges 3:17, Judges 3:28, Judges 3:29, Judges 3:30, Judges 10:6, Judges 11:15, Judges 11:17, Judges 11:18, Judges 11:25, Ruth 1:1, Ruth 1:2, Ruth 1:4, Ruth 1:6, Ruth 1:22, Ruth 2:2, Ruth 2:6, Ruth 2:21, Ruth 4:3, Ruth 4:5, Ruth 4:10, 1 Samuel 12:9, 1 Samuel 14:47, 1 Samuel 22:3, 1 Samuel 22:4, 2 Samuel 8:2, 2 Samuel 8:12, 2 Samuel 23:20, 1 Kings 11:1, 1 Kings 11:7, 1 Kings 11:33, 2 Kings 1:1, 2 Kings 3:4, 2 Kings 3:5, 2 Kings 3:7, 2 Kings 3:10, 2 Kings 3:13, 2 Kings 3:18, 2 Kings 3:21, 2 Kings 3:22, 2 Kings 3:23, 2 Kings 3:24, 2 Kings 3:26, 2 Kings 13:20, 2 Kings 23:13, 2 Kings 24:2, 1 Chronicles 1:46, 1 Chronicles 4:22, 1 Chronicles 8:8, 1 Chronicles 11:22, 1 Chronicles 11:46, 1 Chronicles 18:2, 1 Chronicles 18:11, 2 Chronicles 20:1, 2 Chronicles 20:10, 2 Chronicles 20:22, 2 Chronicles 20:23, 2 Chronicles 24:26, Ezra 9:1, Nehemiah 13:1, Nehemiah 13:23, Psalms 60:8, Psalms 83:6, Psalms 108:9, Isaiah 11:14, Isaiah 15:1, Isaiah 15:2, Isaiah 15:4, Isaiah 15:5, Isaiah 15:8, Isaiah 15:9, Isaiah 16:2, Isaiah 16:4, Isaiah 16:6, Isaiah 16:7, Isaiah 16:11, Isaiah 16:12, Isaiah 16:13, Isaiah 16:14, Isaiah 25:10, Jeremiah 9:26, Jeremiah 25:21, Jeremiah 27:3, Jeremiah 40:11, Jeremiah 48:1, Jeremiah 48:2, Jeremiah 48:4, Jeremiah 48:9, Jeremiah 48:11, Jeremiah 48:13, Jeremiah 48:15, Jeremiah 48:16, Jeremiah 48:18, Jeremiah 48:20, Jeremiah 48:24, Jeremiah 48:25, Jeremiah 48:26, Jeremiah 48:28, Jeremiah 48:29, Jeremiah 48:31, Jeremiah 48:33, Jeremiah 48:35, Jeremiah 48:36, Jeremiah 48:38, Jeremiah 48:39, Jeremiah 48:40, Jeremiah 48:41, Jeremiah 48:42, Jeremiah 48:43, Jeremiah 48:44, Jeremiah 48:45, Jeremiah 48:46, Jeremiah 48:47, Ezekiel 25:8, Ezekiel 25:9, Ezekiel 25:11, Daniel 11:41, Amos 2:1, Amos 2:2, Micah 6:5, Zephaniah 2:8, Zephaniah 2:9, Judith 1:12, Judith 5:2, Judith 5:22, Judith 6:1, Judith 7:8, 1 Esdras 5:11, 1 Esdras 8:31, 1 Esdras 8:69
Source: “Moab,” The Testimony, Vols. 23-4, 1953-4.
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