Lives of Scripture
Moab
A nation east of the Dead Sea descended from Lot's son Moab (Genesis 19:36-38), often hostile toward Israel. Balak, king of Moab, hired Balaam to curse Israel as they camped nearby (Numbers 22-24), and Moabite women later drew Israelite men into idolatry at Baal-peor (Numbers 25). Ruth was a Moabite who married into an Israelite family, and after being widowed chose to follow her mother-in-law Naomi back to Bethlehem and to Naomi's God, later becoming David's great-grandmother (Ruth 1-4) — striking given that the law of Moses barred Moabites from Israel's assembly for ten generations (Deuteronomy 23:3-6). Moab remained a recurring military opponent through the monarchy period and drew judgment oracles from several prophets.
The Moabites
The Moabites traced their descent to Moab, the son born to Lot by his older daughter after the destruction of Sodom (Genesis 19:30-37). They lived on the plateau east of the Dead Sea and worshiped Chemosh, whom Scripture calls their god (Numbers 21:29). Israel was told not to seize their land (Deuteronomy 2:9), yet Moab's king Eglon oppressed Israel for eighteen years until Ehud killed him (Judges 3:12-30).
Relations were never simple. David, Ruth's great-grandson, left his parents in the care of the king of Moab while Saul hunted him (1 Samuel 22:3-4), but later conquered Moab and made it pay tribute (2 Samuel 8:2). Solomon married Moabite women and built a high place for Chemosh near Jerusalem (1 Kings 11:1, 7). After Ahab died, King Mesha of Moab rebelled, and when the armies of Israel, Judah, and Edom had him trapped, he sacrificed his own son on the city wall (2 Kings 3:4-27). An inscription Mesha set up, the Moabite Stone found in 1868, tells his side of that rebellion and names Omri king of Israel. Isaiah and Jeremiah gave long oracles of judgment against Moab (Isaiah 15-16; Jeremiah 48), though Jeremiah's ends with a promise that God would one day restore Moab's fortunes (Jeremiah 48:47). After the exile, marriages with Moabites were among the sins Ezra and Nehemiah confronted (Ezra 9:1; Nehemiah 13:1-3, 23). Through Ruth, a Moabite woman stands in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:5).
References: Genesis 19:37; Numbers 22-25; Ruth 1; 2 Kings 3; 2 Kings 24:2
People connected to Moab
- Balak (M) — its king, who hired Balaam to curse Israel
Numbers 22:2-6
- Chilion (M) — Elimelech's son, who married and died in this land
Ruth 1:2-5
- Eglon (M) — its king, who oppressed Israel for eighteen years
Judges 3:12-14
- Ehud (M) — killed King Eglon and subdued this nation
Judges 3:21-30
- Elimelech (M) — left Bethlehem for this land in a famine and died there
Ruth 1:1-3
- Joram (M) — Israel's king, who marched against this land with Judah and Edom
2 Kings 3:6-7
- Mahlon (M) — Elimelech's son, who married Ruth in this land and died there
Ruth 1:4-5
- Mesha (M) — its king, who rebelled against Israel and sacrificed his own son
2 Kings 3:4-5; 2 Kings 3:27
- Naomi (F) — left this land for Bethlehem after losing her husband and both sons here
Ruth 1:6-7
- Orpah (F) — Naomi's daughter-in-law, who turned back to this, her own land
Ruth 1:14
- Ruth (F) — a widow of this land who left it to follow Naomi and Naomi's God
Ruth 1:16-19