Moabites

The Moabites are the descendants of Lot through his elder daughter, settled east of the Jordan in territory bounded on the north by the Arnon. Across the UPDV they appear as kin to Israel whose land Yahweh refuses to give to Moses' generation, as the people of Chemosh, as the court that hires Balaam, as Eglon's tribute-extracting kingdom, as the homeland of Ruth, as the kingdom David subdues to slave-tribute, as Mesha's rebellion and the wall-sacrifice, and as the addressee of Jeremiah's long oracle of judgment and latter-days return.

Lot's Son and the People of Chemosh

Moab is named for a son. "And the firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites to this day" (Gen 19:37). The kinship is treated as binding on Israel's conduct: "Don't vex Moab, neither contend with them in battle; for I will not give you of his land for a possession; because I have given Ar to the sons of Lot for a possession" (Deut 2:9). The Moabites of Ar lie on Israel's marching route as Moses recalls how they, like the sons of Esau in Seir, did to him "until I will pass over the Jordan into the land which Yahweh our God gives us" (Deut 2:29).

Moab's god gives the people their epithet. The taunt-song over Heshbon addresses them directly: "Woe to you, Moab! You are undone, O people of Chemosh: He has given his sons as fugitives, And his daughters into captivity, To Sihon king of the Amorites" (Num 21:29).

The Border at the Arnon and the Plains of Moab

The Arnon defines the kingdom's northern edge. "From there they journeyed, and encamped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness, that comes out of the border of the Amorites: for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites" (Num 21:13). Jephthah's later memo to the king of Ammon turns on the same boundary: when Moab refused passage, Israel "went around the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and they encamped on the other side of the Arnon; but they didn't come inside the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab" (Judg 11:17-18).

The plains of Moab — the floodplain "by the Jordan at Jericho" — frame Israel's last wilderness chapter. The second census is taken there: "And Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying," (Num 26:3); "These are those who were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the sons of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho" (Num 26:63). The Deuteronomic covenant is concluded in the same place: "These are the words of the covenant which [the Speech of] Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb" (Deut 29:1). Moses' speech-frame opens with the same locus: "that Yahweh spoke to me, saying, You are this day to pass over Ar, the border of Moab" (Deut 2:17-18). And it is from the plains of Moab that Joshua receives the land grant: "These are the inheritances which Moses distributed in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan at Jericho, eastward" (Josh 13:32).

Balak, Balaam, and Baal-peor

Balak the son of Zippor is named king of Moab as the Amorite victories alarm him. "And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites" (Num 22:2). "And Moab said to the elders of Midian, Now this multitude will lick up all that is round about us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field. And Balak the son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time" (Num 22:4). He sends for a curse: "And he sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the River, to the land of the sons of Amav, to call him, saying, Look, there is a people come out from Egypt: see, they cover the face of the earth, and they dwell across from me. Come now therefore, I pray you, curse this people for me; for they are too mighty for me: perhaps I will prevail, that we may strike them, and that I may drive them out of the land; for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed" (Num 22:5-6).

The curse cannot be procured. "And [the Speech of] God said to Balaam, You will not go with them; you will not curse the people; for they are blessed" (Num 22:12). Balaam's stated rule is fixed: "If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I can't go beyond the mouth of Yahweh my God, to do less or more" (Num 22:18). The episode is later kept in Israel's memory: Joshua summarizes that "Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel: and he sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you⁺" (Josh 24:9); Jephthah taunts Ammon with "are you anything better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them?" (Judg 11:25); and Micah folds it into a confession of Yahweh's righteous acts: "O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him; [remember] from Shittim to Gilgal, that you⁺ may know the righteous acts of Yahweh" (Mic 6:5).

What the curse cannot do, the daughters of Moab attempt by other means. "And Israel dwelt in Shittim; and the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab: for they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods; and the people ate, and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself to Baal-peor: and the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel" (Num 25:1-3). The New Testament reaches back to the Balaam side of the same affair: those who have "forsaken the right way, they went astray, having followed the way of Balaam the [son] of Bosor, who loved the wages of wrongdoing" (2 Pet 2:15).

Ehud and Eglon

In the period of the judges, Moab returns as oppressor. Yahweh raises a deliverer against tribute: "But when the sons of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised them up a savior, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. And the sons of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab" (Judg 3:15). The sentence is delivered in private: "And Ehud came to him; and he was sitting by himself alone in the cool upper room. And Ehud said, I have a message from God to you. And he arose out of his seat" (Judg 3:20). "And Ehud escaped while they tarried, and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped to Seirah" (Judg 3:26). The relief lasts a generation; the cycle resumes only when "Ehud was dead" (Judg 4:1).

Ruth the Moabitess

The Moabite door also opens the other way. Famine drives Elimelech's sons to Moab: "And they took themselves wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelt there about ten years" (Ruth 1:4). Ruth's confession to Naomi binds her to Israel and to Israel's God: "Don't entreat me to leave you, and to return from following after you, for where you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge; your people will be my people, and your God my God" (Ruth 1:16). On Boaz's field her foreign origin is named without prejudice: "It is the Moabite damsel who came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab" (Ruth 2:6). She gleans with the maidens through both harvests (Ruth 2:7, Ruth 2:23), accepts Naomi's threshing-floor counsel — "All that you say I will do" (Ruth 3:5) — and is acknowledged in town as "a worthy woman" (Ruth 3:11). The same crossing also runs through Benjamin's genealogy: "And Shaharaim begot children in the field of Moab, after he had sent them away; Hushim and Baara were his wives" (1 Chr 8:8).

David: Refuge and Subjugation

Before the throne, David lodges his parents with the Moabite king. "And David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab: and he said to the king of Moab, Let my father and my mother, I pray you, come forth, [and be] with you⁺, until I know what God will do for me. And he brought them before the king of Moab: and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the stronghold" (1 Sam 22:3-4).

After the throne, the relation reverses. "And he struck Moab, and measured them with the line, making them to lie down on the ground; and he measured two lines to put to death, and one full line to keep alive. And the Moabites became slaves to David, and brought tribute" (2 Sam 8:2). The Chronicler repeats the verdict in shorter form: "And he struck Moab; and the Moabites became slaves to David, and brought tribute" (1 Chr 18:2). One of David's mighty-men exploits is set against Moabite figures: "And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a man of valor of Kabzeel, who had done mighty deeds, he slew the two [sons of] Ariel of Moab" (2 Sam 23:20; the Chronicler repeats it at 1 Chr 11:22).

Mesha, the Stone-Tribute, and the Wall

The tribute relation persists into the divided kingdom. "Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep-master; and he rendered to the king of Israel the wool of a hundred thousand lambs, and of a hundred thousand rams. But it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel" (2 Kgs 3:4-5). The retaliatory campaign reduces Moab's cities to debris: "And they beat down the cities; and on every good piece of land they cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the fountains of water, and felled all the good trees, until they left [only] its stones in Kir-hareseth; nevertheless the slingers went about it, and struck it" (2 Kgs 3:25). Cornered, Mesha makes a public sacrifice: "And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too intense for him, he took with him seven hundred men who drew the sword, to break through to the king of Syria; but they could not. Then he took his eldest son who should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt-offering on the wall. And there was great wrath against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land" (2 Kgs 3:26-27).

After Elisha's death the raids resume: "And Elisha died, and they buried him. Now the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year" (2 Kgs 13:20). In Judah's last days the Moabites are among the agents Yahweh marshals: "And Yahweh sent against him bands of the Chaldeans, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the sons of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of Yahweh, which he spoke by his slaves the prophets" (2 Kgs 24:2).

The Coalition Against Jehoshaphat

A coalition led by Moab opens the Jehoshaphat narrative: "And it came to pass after this, that the sons of Moab, and the sons of Ammon, and with them some of the Meunites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle" (2 Chr 20:1). The coalition unmakes itself: "And when they began to sing and to praise, Yahweh set ambushers against the sons of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were struck. For the sons of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, completely to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, everyone helped to destroy another" (2 Chr 20:22-23).

The Snare of Foreign Marriages

The Moabite snare reappears as a marriage problem in successive generations. "Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites" (1 Kgs 11:1). The post-exilic complaint runs in the same line: the people "haven't separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, [doing] according to their disgusting things, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the peoples of the lands" (Ezra 9:1-2). Nehemiah names the same intermarriages: "In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, of Ammon, [and] of Moab" (Neh 13:23).

The Prophets on Moab

The prayer of Sirach folds Moab into a request for divine humiliation of the proud nations: "Bring to nothing the head of the princes of Moab, Who says, 'There is none beside me'" (Sir 36:10).

Jeremiah's long oracle is the fullest prophetic word on Moab in the UPDV. It opens, "Of Moab. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe to Nebo! For it is laid waste; Kiriathaim is put to shame, it is taken; Misgab is put to shame and broken down" (Jer 48:1). The Chemosh-thread reaches its end: "For, because you have trusted in your works and in your treasures, you also will be taken: and Chemosh will go forth into captivity, his priests and his princes together" (Jer 48:7). The capstone sentence is national: "And Moab will be destroyed from being a people, because he has magnified himself against Yahweh" (Jer 48:42). The oracle closes with a reversal: "Yet I will bring back the captivity of Moab in the latter days, says Yahweh. Thus far is the judgment of Moab" (Jer 48:47).