Mna'son CSlvdmov, porh, remindiiu/), a Christian with whom Paul lodged during his last visit at Jerusa- lem (Acts xxi, IG). A.D. 55. He seems to have been a native of Cyprus, but an inhabitant of Jerusalem, like Barnabas (comp. Acts xi, 19, 20). He was well known to the Christians at Coesarea, and may have been a friend of Barnabas (Acts iv, 3G), but appears not to have been before this acquainted with Paul. Some think tliat he was converted by Paul and Barnabas while at Cyjirus (Acts xiii, 9); but the designation "an old disciple" («^Y"'OC l^'aSrr]T}]c) has more generally induced the conclusion that he was converted by Jesus himself, and was perhaps one of the seventy (see Kuinbl, Comment. ad loc).
Mo'ab (Heb. Moiib', 3X113, water [i. e. seed] of hat father, with allusion to his incestuous origin [see be- low]; Sept. M(iiH/3), the son of Lot and his eldest daughter, and founder of the Moabitish people (Gen. xix, 30-38). B.C. 2063. ]\Ioab is also used for the country or territory of the Moabites (Jer. xlviii, 4) ; and also for the people of IMoab (Numb, xxii, 3-14; Judg. iii, 30; 2 Sam. viii, 2; 2 Kings i, 1 ; Jer.xlviii, 11, 13). The " Plains of Moab," near Jericho, was the last station of the Hebrews ii> their journey to Canaan (Numb, xxi, 33 ; xxii, 1 ; xxxiii, 48). The proper territory of the Moabites, more fully called the feld of ^foab (1,'uth i,
I, 2, G ; ii, 6 ; iv, 3), lay on the east of the Dead Sea and the Jordan, strictly on the south of the torrent Arnon (Numb, xxi, 13, 26; Judg. xi, 18); but in a wider sense it included also the region anciently occupied by the Amoritcs over against Jericho, usually calletl the jilains (deserts) of Jfoab (Numb, xxii, 1; xxiv, 3; xxxi. 12; xxxiii, 40, 50; xxxv, 1 ; Deut.xxxiv, 1); or elsewhere simply the /««(/<;/' J/o((i (Dent, i, 5; xxviii, G9; xxxii, 49 ; xxxiv, 5) ; which latter region was afterwards as- signed to the Ileubenites, but during the cajitivity was again occupied by the Moabites (see Isa. xv, xvi; Jer. xlviii). It is now called the district ^>{ K<rak, from the city of that name, anciently Kir-Moab — Gcsenius. See jMoahitk ; Paiiatii-^Ioais.
As to the etymology of the name, " various explana- tions have been proposed. (1.) The Sept, inserts the words Xeyovrra ' tK rov Trarpog f-tov, saying ' from my father,' as if 2S'2. This is followed by the old inter- preters; as Josephus (Ant. i, 11, 5), Jerome's Quasi. Hebr. in Genesim, the gloss of the Pseudo-Jon. Targum ; and in modern times by De Wette (/iibd), Tuch {Geiu
II. 370), and J. D. Michaelis ( />'. fiir L'nffdehrtiuX (2.) By Hiller (Onovu p. 414) and Simon (Onom. p, 479) it is
IMOABITE 31
derived from ::^ XS'l^, 'ingressus, i. e. coitus, patris.' (3.) KoseumuUer (see Schumann, Genesis, p. 302) pro- poses to treat IB as equivalent for W^^, water,ivi accord- ance with the figure employed by Balaam iu Numb, xxiv, 7 (as above adoiued). This is countenanced by Jerome—' aqua paterna' {Comm. in Mic. vi, 8)— and has the great authority of Gesenius in its favor {Thes. p. 775 a) \ also of Furst {IIa?idwb.\i.707) and Bunsen (Jiibel- werk). (4.) A derivation, probably more correct etymo- logically than either of the above," is that suggested by Maurer from the root SX;;', ' to desire'—' the desirable land'— with reference to the extreme fertility of the re- gion occupied by Moab (see also Furst, Ilwb. p. 707 h). No hint, however, has yet been discovered in the Bible records of such an origin of the name" (Smith).
MOAB, Plains of (2X1^ rS^'}^, Arboth' 3foab', Deserts of Moab), a plain east of the Jordan, opposite Jericho (Numb, xxii, 1 ; xxvi, 13 ; Josh, xiii, 32), where the Israelites under Moses pitched their encampment on their way into Canaan (Numb, sxxi, 12 ; xxxiii, 48 sq.; Deut. i, 1, 5), in the vicinity of Nebo (Deut. xxxiv, 1, 8). It is the level spot in the great depres- sion of the GhOr into which Wady Hesban opens, be- tween Wadys Kefrein and Jerlfeh, a part of it being called the Valley of Shettim (q. v.). It then belonged to the Amorites (Numb, xxi, 22 sq.), but earlier to the Moabites, whence it had its name. In the division of the country it fell to the Gadites and Renbenites (Numb.. xxxii, 33 sq. ; Josh, xiii, 32). — AViner, i, 403 ; ii, 98, See
MOABITE.
Mo'abite (Heb. Modbi', ''SSi^, a Gentile from Moub, Deut. xxiii, 24 ; Neh. xiii" 1 ; fem. n-^nxir, 2 Chron. xxiv, 26- or n^^XI^, Euth i, 22, etc.;" plur. ni^2X"T2, Ruth i, 4; 1 Kings xi, 1, a Moabitess, or "woman of Moab;" once rendered "Moabitish," Ruth ii, 6), the designation of a tribe descended from Moab the son of Lot, and consequently related to the Hebrews (Gen. xix, 37). In the following account of them we largely follow that in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible.
I. Locality and Early History. — Zoar was the cradle of the race of Lot. Although the exact position of this town has not been determined, there is no doubt that it was situated on the south-eastern border of the Dead Sea. From this centre the brother-tribes spread themselves. Ammon (q. v.), whose disposition seems throughout to have been more roving and unsettled, went to the north- . east and took possession of the pastures and waste tracts which lay outside the district of the mountains; that which in earlier times seems to have been known as Ham, and inhabited by the Zuzini or Zamzummim (Gen. xiv, 5 ; Deut. ii, 20). The Moabites, whose habits were more settled and peaceful, remained nearer their original seat. ThC' rich highlands which crown the eastern side of the chasm of the Dead Sea, and extend northwards as far as the foot of the mountains of Gilead, appear at that early date to have borne a name, which in its Hebrew form is presented to us as Shaveh-Kiria- thaim, and to have been inhabited by a branch of the great race of the Rephaim. Like the Horim before the descendants of Esau, the Avim before the Philistines, or the indigenous races of the New World before the set- tlers from the West, this ancient people, the Emim, gradually became extinct before the Moabites, who thus obtained possession of the whole of the rich elevated tract referred to — a district fortj- or fifty miles in length by ten or twelve in width, the celebrated Belka and Kerak of the modern Arabs, the most fertile on that side of Jordan, no less eminently fitted for pastoral pur- suits than the maritime plains of Philistia and Sharon, on the west of Palestine, are for agriculture. With the highlands they occupied also the lowlands at their feet, the plain which intervenes between the slopes of the mountains and the one perennial stream of Palestine, and through which they were enabled to gain access, at pleasure to the fords of the river, and thus to the couii-