MO'AB. The name given to a people occupy ing the high table-land east of the Dead Sea and the southern section of the Jordan. The southern boundary was Edom, the eastern. Ammon and the desert: the northern boundary shifted from time to time, but in general was marked by a line some miles beyond the northern extremity of the Dead Sea. This land of Moab is a plateau about 3000 feet above the Mediterranean Sea. The western slopes are generally steep and the aspect of the Moabite Mountains rising to the plateau is bar ren. In the spring the hills are covered with grass and portions of the plateau are now sown with corn. It has streams in abundance; besides the Anton, which divides the plateau, springs and brooks intersect the country. To the east the plateau is separated from the desert by low roll ing hills. Numerous ruins testify to the former prosperity of the district, while the hundreds of rude stone monuments (stone-circles, dolmens, cairns), show that it was densely settled in very early days. According to the biblical account, Noah, the eponymous ancestor of the Moabites, was a son of Lot by one of his daughters (Gen. xix. 37). This story, which traces both Noah and Ammon to an incestuous connection, may 1w a bit of tribal slander by writers to throw discredit on their hated rivals and foes.
(See LOT.) The close affiliation, however, tween Hebrews and Noabites, which is indicated by the story, is correct. Not only was the lan guage of Moab practically identical with Hebrew, but Moabites and Hebrews belong to the same branch of the Semitic stock, and for an in definite period Hebrew and Moabitish history form an inseparable unit. The story of the sepa ration of Abraham and Lot embodies a remin iscence of a union once existing between Hebrew and Moabitish clans which was dissolved by a rpm rrel over land—to this day a common cause for hostility among Bedouin clans. The land of .Nloab was included in the Egyptian suprem acy over Western Asia in the period from the seventeenth to the thirteenth century mc., and the name Moab occurs in a list of con quests inscribed by Rameses II. (e.1300 me.) on one of his monuments at Luxor. The rela tions between Moab and Israel during the por tion of Hebrew history known to us were gen erally hostile. and this hostility is traced back by tradition to the days of the Exodus (cf. Deut. xxiii. 4-3I, but the oldest document we have re garding Moab is a fragment of a song (Num. xxi. 21-30), recalling a victory of the Ammonites over Moab and the subsequent defeat of the Am monites by the Hebrews. The song, which bears marks of antiquity, may date from the early struggles of the Hebrews, anterior to the at tempts of the latter to conquer Canaan to the west of the Jordan. On the other hand, the story
of the endeavor of Balak, King of Moab, to secure the services of lialaani to curse Israel (Num. xxiisxxiv.) is to be looked upon as a Midrash based upon the persistent hostility between Israel and Moab and illustrating the invincible character of the former. Coming to a period for which the historical traditions are less uncertain. we find that after the conquest of Canaan the Hebrews were frequently at the mercy of the Mo abites, as well as of Ammonites and Amalekites. We learn of a King Eglon of Moab, who held the in subjection for eighteen years (Judges iii.), from which they were freed by Ehud, a Benjamite. Saul appears to have held the Moah ites in check, while under David they actually became tributary to the Hebrews; and this con dition continued after the separation of the South ern Hebrews until the days of Ahab, when Moab began to resist and finally, on the death of Ahab, threw off the yoke. This happened during the reign of King Mesha, who describes his victories over Israel on the monument known as the Moabite Stone (q.v.). When the advance of the Assyrian power threatened the independence of the various Palestinian principalities. we find the Moabites occasionally in alliance with the Hebrews against the common foe, but subsequently we find them on the side of Babylonia and abetting the de struction of the Southern Hebrew kingdom. Moab was saved from extinction, but of course became tributary to Babylonia. Inc post-exilie sections of the Books of Isaiah and Jeremiah we tind refer ences to Noah which point to the continued ex istence and in a measure prosperity of the coun try, but otherwise throw no light upon its his tory. The name lingered on into the Christian era. During the Roman occupancy of Palestine the land of Moab was still densely inhabited, as the Roman and Greek remains show, but gradu ally the Arabs of the desert overran it, and what culture once existed there came to an end. It remained for modern travelers like Seetzen and Burckhardt to rediscover it, but it is still one of those districts of Palestine in which it is dangerous to travel. The chief god of the Moabites was Chemosh (q.v.) and their religion, so far as we know it, bore the characteristic marks of early Semitic. cults. Cmisult Robert son Smith, Religion of the Seinitcs, pp. 376 and 460 (Edinburgh, 1894) ; Tristram. Land of Moab New York. 1874) ; Corder, nett, and Moab (Loudon, 1883) ; George Adam Smith, //i.sloriral Geography of the Holy Land (London, 1S97) Clermont-Ganneau, Recucil d'arehf'ologie orien tate, vol. ii.. pp. 185-234 (1889).