MOABITE
393
MOABITE
spoils taken from the Moabitish cities and sanctuaries went to swell the treasure acquired from the enemies of Jehovah, which David was amassing fur the future Temple (2 Sain, viii, 11, 12; 1 Chron. xviii, 11). It was the first time that the prophecy of Balaam had been fultilled — "Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of Ar," that is of ]\Ioab. So signal a vengeance can only have been occasioned bj^' some act of perfidy or in- sult, like that which brought down a similar treatment en the Ammonites (2 Sam. x). But as to any such act the narrative is absolutely silent. It has been conject- nred that the king of Moab l)etrayed the trust which David reposed in him, and either himself killed Jesse and his wife, or surrendered them to Saul. But this, though not iuiprobable, is nothing more than conjecture.
It must have been a considerable time before Moab recovered from so severe a blow. Of this we have evi- dence in the fact of its not being mentioned in the account of the campaign in which the Ammonites were subdued, when it is not probable they would have re- frained from assisting their relatives had they been in a condition to do so. Throughout the reign of Solomon they no doubt shared in the universal peace which sur- rounded Israel; and tlie only nieution <if the name oc- curs in the statement that there were 51o;ibites among the foreign women in the loy.il liaittn. ami. as a natural consequence, that the Mu.il.iii^h \v<ii>hi|i was tolerated, or perhaps encouraged (1 Kings xi, 1, 7, oo). The high place for Chemosii, '-the abomination of iSIoab," was consecrated "on the mount facing Jerusalem," where it remained till its " defilement" by Josiah (2 Kings xxiii, 13), nearly four centuries afterwards.
3. At the disruption of the kingdom, Moab seems to have fallen to the northern realm, probably for the same reason that has been already remarked in the case of Eglon and Ehud — that the fords of Jordan lay within the territory of Benjamin, who for some time after the separation clung to its ancient ally, the house of Ephra- im. But, be this as it may, at the death of Ahab, eighty years later, we find Sloab paying him the enor- mous tribute, apparently annual, of 100,000 rams, and the same nr.mber of wethers with their fleeces; an amount which testifies at once to the severity of the terms imposed by Israel, anil to the remarkable vigor of character and wealth of natural resources which could enable a little country to raise year by year this enor- mous impost, and at the same time support its own peo- ple in prosperity and afiluence. This afHuence is shown bj" the treasures which they left on the field of Bera- choth (2 Chron. xx, 25), no less than by the general condition of the country, indicated in the narrative of Joram's invasion; and in the passages of Isaiah and Jeremiah which are cited further on in this article. It is not surprising that the Moabites should have seized the moment of Ahab's death to throw off so burdensome a yoke; but it; is surprising that, notwithstanding such a drain on their resources, they were ready to incur the risk and expense of a war with a state in every respect far their superior. Their first step, after asserting their independence, was to attack the kingdom of Judah in company with tlieir kindred the Ammonites, and, as seems probable, the Mehunim, a roving semi-Edomitish people from the mountains in the south-east of Palestine (2 Chron. xx). The army was a huge, heterogeneous horde of ill-assorted elements. The route chosen for the invasion was round the southern end of the Dead Sea, thence along the beach, and by the pass of En-gedi to the level of the upper country. But the expedition contained within itself the elements of its own destruc- tion. Before they reached the enemy dissensions arose betwaen the heathen strangers and the children of Lot; distrust followed, and finally panic ; and Avhen the army of Jehoshaphat came in sight of them they found that they had nothing to do but to watch the extermination of one half the huge host by the other half, and to seize the prodigious booty which was left on the field. Dis-