Moabites

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The Bible ascribes the origin of this people to the incestuous union of lot with his elder daughter who bore him a son, Moab (Gen 19:30-38). The Moabites' chief god was Chemosh and their land, whose early inhabitants were the Rephaim Zuzim and Emim (Gen 14:5), lies to the east of the Dead Sea between Edom and Ammon. Some scholars suggest that the earliest Moabites came from a group of nomadic tribes which lived in the Syrian-Arabian desert, and occupied the territory in the 14th century B.C. Moses died and was buried in Moab. There was constant enmity between Israel and Moab (Num 22:2ff; II Kgs 1:1, 3:4ff). The Reubenites and the Gadites conquered parts of the country of the Amorites that had formerly belonged to Moab (Num 21:25ff), and there was also a state of war between Israel and Moab in the time of the Judges (Judg 3:12). Saul fought Moab (I Sam 14:47) and David completed its conquest (II Sam 8:2), but there were friendly relations between the two kingdoms (I Sam 22:3ff; I Kgs 11:1, 7). According to tradition, David was descended from the Moabitess Ruth, a convert to the Israelite people and religion. After the division of the Kingdom of Israel, Moab regained its independence, only for Omri to then conquer the country, but it freed itself once more after Ahab's death this is confirmed by the stele of Mesha, king of Moab (see MESHA). Oracles against Moab were uttered by both Isaiah (Is chaps. 15-16) and Jeremiah (chap. 48), who also predicts its fall (Jer 9:25-26; 25:21). Sargon II speaks in his annals of the conquest of Moab and of the Moabite soldiers who afterwards helped the Assyrians in their wars against the Arabs. After Judah's defeat by Babylonia, Moab apparently joined in the plunder and seized some of its territory. Later it formed part of the Babylonian and Persian kingdoms. In about the 4th or 3rd century B.C. the Nabateans penetrated Moab after gaining control of Edom. After A.D. 106 Moab was part of the Provincia Arabia, whose cities, Rabbathmoba and Characmoba (Kir Moab), were administrative centers. The country flourished in the later Roman and Byzantine periods.

Concordance
Gen 19:37; 36:35. Ex 15:15. Num 12:11, 13, 15,20, 26, 28-29; 22:1, 3-4, 7-8,10, 14, 21, 36; 23:6-7, 17; 24:17; 25:1,26:3, 63; 31:12; 33:44,48-50; 35:1; 36:13. Deut 1:5; 2:8-9, 11,18, 29; 23:3; 29:1; 32:49; 34:1, 5-6, 8. Josh 13:32; 24:9. Judg 3:12, 14-15,17, 28-30,10:6, 11:15,17-18, 25. Ruth 1:1-2, 4,6, 22; 2:6; 4:3. I Sam 12:9; 14:47; 22:3-4. II Sam 8:2,12, 23:20. I Kgs 11:1, 7,33. II Kgs 1:1; 3:4-5, 7, 10,13, 18, 21-24,26; 13:20,23:13; 24:2. I Chr 1:46; 4:22; 8:8,11:22, 46; 18:2, 11. II Chr 20:1,10, 22-23. Ezra 9:1. Neh 13:1, 23. Ps 60:8; 83:6; 108:9. Is 11:14; 15:1-2,4-5, 8-9; 10:2,4, 6-7, 11-14; 25:10. Jer 9:26; 25:21; 27:3; 40:11; 48:1-2, 4, 9,11, 13, 15-16,18, 20, 24-26,28-29, 31, 33,35-36, 38-47. Ezek 25:8-9,11. Dan 11:41. Amos 2:1-2. Mic 6:5. Zeph 2:8-9