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Bible Dictionaries
Moab
People's Dictionary of the Bible
or Moab (mô'ab), from, the father. The son of Lot and his eldest daughter, and founder of the Moabite people. Genesis 19:30-38. Moab is also used for the Moabites; and also for their territory. Numbers 22:3-14; Judges 3:30; 2 Samuel 8:2; 2 Kings 1:1; Jeremiah 48:4.
The territory of the Moabites, originally inhabited by the Emims, Deuteronomy 2:10, lay on the east of the Dead Sea and the Jordan, strictly on the highlands south of the Arnon; Numbers 21:13; Ruth 1:1-2; Ruth 2:6; but in a wider sense it included also the region anciently occupied by the Amorites over against Jericho, usually called the "Plains of Moab." Numbers 21:13; Numbers 22:1; Numbers 26:3; Numbers 33:48; Deuteronomy 34:1. When the Hebrews advanced to Canaan, they did not enter the territory of Moab proper, Deuteronomy 2:9; Judges 11:18; but there was always a great antipathy between the two peoples, which arose from Balaam having seduced the Hebrews to sin by the daughters of Moab. Numbers 25:1-2; Deuteronomy 23:3-6. After the death of Joshua the Moabites oppressed the Hebrews, but they were delivered by Ehud. Judges 3:21. David subdued Moab and Ammon, and made them tributary. 2 Samuel 8:2-12; 2 Samuel 23:20. Soon after the death of Ahab they began to revolt, 2 Kings 3:4-5; Isaiah 16:1-2, and were subsequently engaged in wars with the Hebrews. 2 Chronicles 20:1; 2 Chronicles 20:10; 2 Chronicles 27:5. Under Nebuchadnezzar the Moabites acted as the auxiliaries of the Chaldeans, 2 Kings 24:2; Ezekiel 25:8-11; and during the exile they took possession once more of their ancient territory, vacated by the tribes of Reuben and Gad; as did the Ammonites also. Jeremiah 49:1-5.
Some time after the exile their name was lost under that of the Arabians, as was also the case with the Ammonites and Edomites. The famous Moabite Stone, bearing an inscription of Mesha, a king of Moab, about 900 b.c., was found at Dibon, in Moab, within the gateway by, Rev. F. A. Klein—a German missionary at Jerusalem—in 1868. The stone is of black basalt, 3 feet 8½ inches high, 2 feet 3½ inches wide, and 1 foot 1.78 inches thick. It has 34 lines of Hebrew-Phœnician writing, and contains a most remarkable corroboration of the Scripture history in 2 Kings 3:1-27. The long-predicted doom of Moab is now fulfilled, and the 48th chapter of Jeremiah is verified on the spot by the traveller. There are 27 references to Moab in this chapter, and 121 in the Scriptures.
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Rice, Edwin Wilbur, DD. Entry for 'Moab'. People's Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/rpd/m/moab.html. 1893.
