MOAB, MOABITES
which was not interfered with till the time of Josiah. However severely Moab suffered at the hands of Jeroboam Π., it recovered speedily, and became more prosperous than ever, so that Isaiah (ἢ) and Jeremiah (?) do not hesitate to adapt and ex- vand the pictures of the pride and prosperity of
Moab, and the lists of its numerous cities, in their descriptions of the doom that threatened Moab at the hands, first of the Assyrians and then of the Chaldeans. The attitude of Is 15f. is still sympathetic ; but Jer expresses the bitter resent- ment inspired by the alliance of Moab with the besiegers of Jerusalem in 48" ‘Cursed be he that doeth the work of J” negligently, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.’ Jer also (48") testifies to the continued ῬΧΟΒΡΕΣΟΥ of Moab and its consequent corruption: ‘Moab hath been undisturbed from his youth; he hath settled on his lees; he hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel ; he hath not gone into captivity: there- fore his taste remaineth in him, his scent is not changed.’* Jeremiah, or an editor, has incorpor- ated Nu 2133 as vv.“t.+ Cf. Jer 9° 25°! 278; ISAIAH, Book OF ; JEREMIAH, BOOK OF.
In Is and Jer we see Moab, at the height of its Prosperity, suddenly seized in the grip of an over- whelming calamity: here the curtain falls upon its history. The land is still for some time called Moab, and the name lingered on even into the Chris- tian era; the term Moabite is occasional] epEves to cities or people of the district, and doubtless survivors of the old race were still to be found in the land; but there seems no evidence of the existence of Moab as a state, even a dependent state, after the Exile, and we know that at the time of the Maccabean revolt Moab was occupied by the Nabatean Arabs (1 Mac 9%; Jos, Ant. XUI. xiii. 3, 5, xvi. 4, XIV. i. 4). A comparison of the last two passages shows that Josephus uses *Moabites’ for the Nabatwan Arabs, which ex-
lains the statement in Ant. I. xi. 5, that the
Toabites were still a very great people in hia time. 1 Mac never names the Moabites, even in such passages as 58 (cf. Bevan, Dan. p. 199; Baethgen, Ps. p. 260). The comparative silence of post-exilic literature as to Moab suggests an early date for its disappearance ; even in Neh 47 the Arabians have taken the place of Moab as the allies of Ammon. Possibly Moab, in its pride, unduly tasked the patience of Nebuchadnezzar and was overthrown, and the bulk of its popula- tion deported ; then the Arabs may have occupied Moab and absorbed the remnant of the people ; or the Nabateans may have conquered Moab (cf. ARETAS). Then Is 15f., Jer 48, if late editions of an earlier lament, may have been inspired by the report of this great catastrophe; Ezk 25°" states that Moab shall be conquered by the children of the East, i.e. Arabs.
The post-exilic references to Moab are as follows : —In the apocalyptic Is 24-27, variously dated from the time of the Exile to that of Alexander the Great, Moab is the one Gentile people mentioned by name (2519) as doomed. Unless the section is contemporary with Jer 48,7 ‘ Moab,’ like ‘Edom’ and ‘ Babylon,’ in later times is used as a type of the enemies of God (Cheyne, ‘ Isaiah’ in PB p. 204). Ezr 9), Neh 13! are mere references to ancient literature. Sanballat the Horonite (Neh 2” etc.) may have belonged to Beth-horon; even if he belonged to Horonaim, he may have been one of
*If Bozrah is Bosrah esh-Sham in the Hauran, the territory of Moab had extended far to the N.E. ; but cf. ΒΟΖΒΑΗ.
t Unless Jer 482 ‘In Heshbon they have devised evil against her,’ #.¢. Moab, is a deliberate modification of the ancient poem, connected with the insertion of Nu 2125f.; it seems better to read with Giesebrecht, ‘Against Heshbon they have devised evil,’ omitting my « against her.’
2 Of. Jer 486° with Is 2417f.,
MOADIAH
MODERATION 413
its Arabian conquerors ; and if a Moabite, merely an individual who survived the ruin of the state. In Dn 11" Moab may be merely the country, or else combined with Edom and Ammon through the influence of older literature. Similar con- siderations may explain the occurrence of Moab in the late psalms (60° 83° 108°), unless the lists of peoples in these psalms are fragments from older poems. The references to Moabites in Jth are entirely unhistorical, and due to a use of older literature.
See also arts. AMMON, Epom, GAD, ISRAEL, JUDAH, REUBEN.
Lrrgraturs.—The Commentaries on Vor Jed referring to Moab, and the Histories of Israel on the relations of Israel to Moab; Wellhausen, art. Moas in Encycl. Brit.9; Olermont- Ganneau, Recueil d'Archéol. Orient. ii. 185-234.
For the Geography—Tristram, Land of Moab; Conder, Heth and Moab; G. A. Smith HGHL 517-5 3; Stanley, Sin. and Pal. 819-884; Buhl, GAP 45-50; Pictu Pal. ii. 198 Α΄.
For the Religion—W. R. Smith, RS 376, 460; Baethgen, Beitrdge z. Sem. Religionagesch. pp. 18 ff., 79, 89, 210, 238, 256-
261. On Moabite Stone, see above ; also in Driver, Heb. Text of Sam. Ιχχχν ff.; and for other literature, in Ginsburg and Lidzbarski.