The+Moabites


 * History **

When Lot and his daughters were rescued from Sodom and Gomorrah, they lived in the wilderness of Zoar. Lot’s daughters despaired of ever being married, and they conspired to get Lot drunk and have children by him. Lot’s eldest daughter had a son and named him ‘Moab,’ which means ‘father.’ His descendants were the Moabites. Lot’s younger daughter had a son named ‘Ammon:’ ‘son of my people.’ He became the father of the Ammonites. [|[i]] The Moabites grew into a strong and wealthy people who ruled themselves as a separate tribal nation for over a thousand years. The main area they inhabited was the plateau east of the Dead Sea. The coastal areas were mainly used for agriculture, and shepherding was common over all the land. [|[ii]] The Moabites’ history is interwoven with their neighbors (and kinsmen, since Lot was Abraham’s nephew), the Israelites. [|[iii]] ** List of major Biblical passages where Moab is mentioned  **

Genesis 19:30-38 – Moab, son of Lot, is born Numbers 22-23 – Moab’s king, Balak, hires the prophet Balaam to curse Israel; it fails Numbers 24:17 – Balaam predicts Israel’s destruction of Moab Numbers 25:1 – Moab leads Israel astray from God Deuteronomy 2:8-29 – Israel is not given Moab’s land, because they are the descendants of Lot Judges 3:12-30 – Moab’s control over Israel is broken Judges 11:17 – Moabites refuse to allows Israel to cross through their land Ruth 1 – Moab is a place of refuge when Israel is in drought I Samuel 22:3-5 – David leaves his parents in the protection of the king of Moab when Saul is hunting him Jeremiah 48 – the prophet Jeremiah predicts Moab’s destruction Ezekiel 25:8-11 – Ezekiel prophecies against Moab Micah 6:5 – Micah remembers the story of Balak king of Moab and Balaam the prophet Zephaniah 2:8-9 – Zephaniah prophesies against Moab [|[iv]] ** National Structure  **

Moab seems to have preserved a sense of tribalism in its culture, even in later years when it assumed a more organized, “state” identity. Moab built fortifications, city walls, a road system, a water reservoir, public buildings, and monumental art, much like a state government would do. Yet many elements of the culture held onto the Moabites’ tribal, nomadic heritage. Israel and Moab have a common ancestor, which belief is typical of tribal peoples. Israel was also organized in a tribal pattern, which indicates Moab would have had similar traits. The Mesha and Karak Inscriptions indicate that, similar to Israel, Moab was populated by people groups that were related but divided themselves into a number of “territories.” The Mesha Inscription also refers to Moabites, not as Moabites, but with their home city/territory designation—i.e., people of Aharon. Moab’s culture was very similar to Israel’s and other Near Eastern cultures. Multiple generations frequently lived together in houses built for the purpose, and family graves designed to be used multiple times were commonplace. [|[v]] ** Israel’s interaction with Moab  **

Israel was not given any of Moab’s land when they began conquering their Promised Land, because the Moabites were their distant relatives, and Lot’s descendants, who had been given that land by God (Deuteronomy 2:8-29). Before crossing the Jordan, the Israelites allowed themselves to be seduced by Moabite women and were led into idolatrous behavior by them. Later, when Israel was established, they asked the Moabites for permission to travel along the ‘King’s Highway,’ which crossed the Moabite plateau. The Moabites refused (Judges 11:17). Balak, the king of Moab, grew anxious over Israel’s success against the other Canaanite tribes; he hired Balaam the prophet to curse them. However, Balaam was only able to pronounce blessing upon the Israelites (Numbers 22-24). Eglon, a later king of Moab, invaded Canaan as far as Jericho and made the Israelites his vassals for eighteen years before Ehud the prophet assassinated him (Judges 3:12-30). Despite the Moabites’ unfriendly behavior, the Israelites were forbidden to attack the Moabites—a command they later ignored. Saul defeated the Moabites in battle (I Samuel 14:47), and David brought his parents to them for protection when he was being hunted by Saul (I Samuel 22:3-5). When David became king, he defeated the Moabites once more and subjected them to decimation and a tribute (II Samuel 8:11-12). The story of Ruth suggests that there was a positive side to the Israel-Moab relationship as well, one that honoured the laws of kindred and hospitality. Solomon continued to collect tribute from Moab, and he married several Moabite women and set up a shrine to the Moabite god Chemosh in Jerusalem. [|[vi]] After Solomon’s death, the Moabites began to break free, but were subdued during Omri of Israel’s reign (around 885-874 B.C.). They broke free against Jehoram and Jehoshaphat (II Kings 3:4), when Mesha king of Moab sacrificed his eldest son. This act struck terror into the invaders and allowed the Moabites to prevail; it is recorded on the Moabite Stone, which was discovered in Dibon in 1968 (Barclay 1968, 46). During the later part of the 8th century B.C. the Moabites were tributaries to Assyria; they gained their freedom when the empire collapsed. [|[vii]] ** Works Cited  **

I. Barclay, William, editor. 1968. // The Bible and History //. Great Britain: Lutterworth Press. II. Barker, William P. 1966. // Everyone in the Bible //. Westwood, CA: Fleming H. Revell Company. III. Strong, James. 1979. // The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible //. McLean, VA: Macdonald Publishing Company. IV. Tenney, Merrill C., editor. 1975. // The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible //. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. V. Wenham, Gordon J. 1994. // Word Biblical Commentary: Volume 2 //. Dallas, TX: Word Books. VI. Younker, Randall W. 1997. “Moabite Social Structure.” // The Biblical Archaeologist // 60, no. 4 (December 1).

[|[i]] Gordon J. Wenham, Word Biblical Commentary: Volume 2 (Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1994), 62. [|[ii]] Merrill C. Tenney, The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1975), 258. [|[iii]] William P. Barker, Everyone in the Bible (Westwood, CA: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1966), 248. [|[iv]] James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (McLean, VA: Macdonald Publishing Company, 1979), 686. [|[v]] Randall W. Younker, “Moabite Social Structure,” // The Biblical Archaeologist //60, no. 4 (December 1997): 1-10. [|[vi]] William Barclay, The Bible and History (Great Britain: Lutterworth Press, 1968), 46. [|[vii]] Merrill C. Tenney, The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1975), 260.

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