MOABITES, a people descended from Moab, the son of Lot by his elder daughter (Gen. xis. 37). and consequently related to the Ammo nites, with whom we find them closely connected in their subseouent history. [AmmormrEs.] The earliest accounts represent them as dwell ing in the country on the east of the Dead Sea and the river Jordan, on both banks of the river Arnon (Wady Modjeb), from which they had driven out the Emim, who were said to be a tribe of giants. (Deut.
; Gen. xiv. 5.) The plains on the east of the Jordan near its mouth were called from them the Plains of Moab. (Numb. xxii. 1; Josh. xiii. 32 ; Deut. xxxiv. I, 8.) At the division of Canaan among the tribal of larael, this tract of country was given to Reuben and Gad ; but by the command of God, the Israelites left the Moabites in undid turbot poseession of their country. (Dent ii. 9.) During the existence of the Hebrew kingdoms, the relations of the two peoples were some times friendly, but more frequently hostile. and the details ere given or alluded to in many parts of the historical books of the Old Testa went According to Josephits, the Moabites were reduced to subjection by Nebuchadnezzar in the fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem.
Antiq ' x. 9, 7.) Their name ultimately disappeared in that of the Arabians.
The Moabltes were a pastoral people. (2 Kings, iii. 4.) Their country was well adapted for reaming cattle, and also produced corn and wine. (Ruth, i. I ; Is. xii. 8-10.) It contained many mountains and fertile valleys, and was well watered by the Arnomi, the Zered, and other rivers which fall into the Dead Sea. The Land is now desolate, the sand and
salt of the desert and the Dead Sea continually encroaching upou it ; but the number of ruins of towns,—the remains of aucieut highways, often paved, with milestones bearing the names of some of the Romrtn emperors,—the forms of the ancient fields, which may yet be traced,— all testify to the former existence of a large population, which the fertility of the land was able to support, and which must have con tinued to exist to a period much later than the time when the Scripture accounts of this people cease.
Ar was their capital, called also Kabbala-Moab, and the ruins still bear the name of Rabba. The ruins are upon a low hill in a plain through which runs the stream Boni-Hamod, which falls into the Dead Sea. They occupy a space of about a mile in circumference, with many remains of private houses, but none entire. The principal objects are a temple or palace, of which a wall and some niches yet remain,the gate of another building. and two Corinthian columns. Aa there were no springs in the district, two reservoirs were formed, of which the largest has been cut out of the solid rock. There aro also several cisterns.
(Burckhardt's Trarcls in Syria ; Irby and Mangles's Trarcts ; Mac michael's Journey ; Lord Lindsay's Letters.)