MOABITE
395
MOABITE
fiercer character than before, viz. xxv, 10-12, Here the extermination, the utter annihilation of Moab is con- templated by the prophet with triumph, as one of the lirst results of tlie re-estabhshment of Jehovah on Mount Zion: "In this mountain shall the hand of Jehovah rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw — the straw of his own threshing-floors at j\Iad- menah — is trodden down for the dunghill. And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them — namely, of the Moabites — as one that swimmeth spread- eth forth his hands to swim, buffet following buffet, right and left, with terrible rapidity, as the strong swim- mer urges his way forward; and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands. And the fortress of Blisgab — thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, to the dust." If, ac- cording to the custom of interpreters, this and the pre- ceding chapter (xxiv) are understood as referring to the destruction of Babylon, then this sudden burst of indignation towards Jloab is extremely puzzling. But, if the passage is examined with that view, it will per- .haps be found to contain some expressions which sug- gest the possibility of Moab having been at least within the ken of the prophet, even though not in the fore- ground of his vision, during a great part of the passage. The Hebrew words rendered " city" in xxv, 2 — two en- tirely distinct terms — are positively, with a slight vari- ation, the names of the two chief Moabitish strongholds, the same which are mentioned in xv, 1, and one of which is in the Pentateuch a synonyme for the entire nation of Moab. In this light ver. 2 may be read as follows : " For thou hast made of Ar a heap ; of Kir the defenced a ruin; a palace of strangers no h)nger is Ar, it shall never be rebuilt." Tlie same words are found in ver. 10 and 12 of the preceding chapter, in company with chutsoth (A. Vers. " streets"), which we know from Numb, xxii, 39 to have been the name of a Moabite town. See Kirjath-iiuzotii. A distinct echo of them is again heard in xxv, 3, 4; and, finally, in xxvi, 1, 5 there seems to be yet another reference to the same two towns, acquiring new force from the denunciation which closes the preceding chapter: "Moab shall be brought down, the ffirtress and the walls of Misgab shall be laid low; but in the land of Judah this song shall be sung, Wur Ar, our city, is strong. . . . Trust in the Lord Je- hovah, who bringeth down those that d^vell on high : the lofty Kir, he layeth it low,' " etc. It is perhaps an additional corroboration of this view to notice that the remarkable expressions in xxiv, 17, " Fear, and the pit, and the snare," etc., actually occur in Jeremiah (xlviii, 43), in his denunciation of Moab, embedded in the old prophecies out of which, like Isa. xv, xvi, this passage is compiled, and the rest of which had certainly, as orig- inally uttered, a direct and even exclusive reference to Moab.
Between the time of Isaiah's denunciation and the destruction of Jerusalem we have hardly a reference to Moab. Zephaniah, writing in the reign of Josiah, re- proaches them (ii, 8-lOj for their taunts against the people of Jehovah, but no acts of hostility are recorded either on the one side or the other. From one passage in Jeremiah (xxv, 9-11), delivered in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, just before the first appearance of Nebu- chadnezzar, it is apparent that it was the belief of the prophet that the nations surrounding Israel — and Moab among the rest — were on the eve of devastation by the Chaldajans, and of a captivity for seventy j'ears (see ver. 11), from which, however, they should eventually be restored to their o^xn country (ver. 12, and xlviii, 47). From another record of the events of the same pe- riod, or of one just subsequent (2 Kings xxiv, 2), it would appear, however, that jMoab made terms with the Chaldaeans, and for a time acted in concert with them in harassing and plundering the kingdom of Jehoiakim.
Four or five j-ears later, in the first year of Zedek'iah (Jer. xxvii, 1), these hostilities must have ceased, for there was then a regiUar intercourse between Moab and
the court at Jerusalem (ver. 3), possibly, as Bunsen sug- gests (^Bibelwerl; Propketen, p. 536), negotiating a com- bined resistance to the common enemy. The brunt of the storm must have fallen on Judah and Jerusalem. The neighboring nations, including INIoab, when the danger actually arrived, probably adopted the advice of Jeremiah (xxvii, 11), and thus escaped, though not without much damage, yet without being carried away as the Jews were. That these nations did not suffer to' the same extent as Juda;a is evident from the fact that many of the Jews took refuge there when their own land was laid waste (Jer. xl, 11). Jeremiah expressly testifies that those who submitted themselves to the king of Babylon, though they would have to bear a severe yoke — so severe that their very wild animals would be enslaved — yet by such submission should purchase the privilege of remaining in their own countrj^ The re- moval from home, so dreadful to the Shemitic mind, was to be the fate only of those who resisted (Jer. xxvii, 10, 11 ; xxviii, 14). This is also supported by the allusion of Ezekiel, a few years later, to the cities of Moab, cities formerly belonging to the Israelites, which, at the time when the prophet is speaking, were still flourishing, " the glory of the country," destined to become at a fut- ure day a prey to the Bene-kedem, the "men of the East" — the Bedouins of the great desert of the Euphra- tes (Ezek. xxv, 8-11).