III. Later History. — After the return from the captiv- ity, it was a Moabite, Sanballat of Horonaim, who took the chief i)art in annoying and endeavoring to hinder the operations of the rebuilders of Jerusalem (Neb. ii, 19 ; iv, 1 ; vi, 1 ; etc.). He confined himself, however, to the same weapons of ridicule and scurrility which we have already noticed Zephaniah resenting. From Sanballat's words (Neh. ii, 19) we shoidd infer that he and his country were subject to " the king," that is, the king of Babylon. During the interval since the return of the lirst caravan from Babylon the illegal practice of mar- riages between the Jews and the other people around, jMoab among the rest, had become frequent. So far had this gone that the son of the high-priest was married to an Ammonirish woman. Even among the families of Is- rael who returned from the captivity was one bearing the name of PAiiATH-MoAn (Ezra ii, 6; viii, 4; Neh. iii, 11 ; etc.), a name which must certainly denote a Mo- abitish connection, though to the nature of the connec- tion no clue seems to have been yet discovered. By Ezra and Nehemiah the practice of foreign marriages was strongly repressed, and we never hear of it again becoming prevalent.
In the book of Judith, the date of which is laid shortly after the return from the captivity (iv, 3), Moabites and Ammonites are represented as dwelling in their ancient seats, and as obeying the call of the Assyrian general. Their "princes" (Jpxovrfc) and "governors" {iiyovfxi- voi) are mentioned (v, 2; vii, 8). The Maccabees, much as they ravaged the country of the Ammonites, do not appear to have molested jMoab proper, nor is the name either of Moab or of any of the towns south of the Arnon mentioned throughout those books. Josephns not only speaks of the district in which Heshbon was situated as "Moabitis" {Ant. xiii, 15, 4; also War, iv, 8, 2), but expressly says that even at the time he wrote they were a " very great nation" (^Ant. i, 11, 5). (See 5 i\Iacc. xxix, 19.) Noldeke, in his recent work, Ueher die Amalekiter und einige andere nachharvijlker der Is- raeliten (Gijttingen, 1804), p. 3, insists that the final extinction of Ammonites and Moabites dates from the appearance of the Yemen tribes Salib and Gassan in the eastern districts of the Jordan. This would bring them down to about A.D. 200.
In the time of Eusebius (Onomasf. Mtti«/3), i. e. cir. A.D. 380, the name appears to have been attached to the district, as well as to the town of Eabbath— both of which were called Moab. It also lingered for some time in the name of the ancient Kir-Moab, which, as Cha- rakmoba, is mentioned by Ptolemy (Reland, Palxst. p.
MOABITE 39
463), and as late as the Council of Jerusalem, A.D. 536, ' formed the see of a bishop under the same title (ibid. p. i 533). Since that time the modern name Kerak has su- ' perseded the older one, and no trace of Jloab lias been I found either in records or in the country itself. I
IV. (Uof/riipliy and C/iuniclerislics.— Like the other conntrics east of Jordan, Moab has until recently been | very little visited by Europeans, and beyond its general characteristics liardly any tiling is known of it. Of the character of t lie face of the country travellers only give i slight reports, and among these there is considerable ' variation even when the same district is referred to. Thus between Kerak and Kabba, Irby (p. 141 a) found "a line country," of great natural fertility, with "reap- ers at work and the corn luxuriant in all directions;"' | and the same district is described by liurckhardt as ] "very fertile, and large tracts cultivated" {Si/r. July 15); while De Saulcy, on the other hand, pronounces that "from Shihan (six miles north of Kabba) to the Wady Kerak the country is perfectly bare, not a tree or a bush to be seen" (^Voyage, i, 353); which, again, is contradicted by Seetzen, who not only found the soil very good, but encumbered with wormwood and other shrubs (Seetzen, i, 410). These discrepancies are no doubt partly due to difference in the time of year and other temporary causes, but they are not essentially contradictory; for wliile the whole region has been de- nuded of all liabitations and larger forms of vegetation, it is still a rich pasture-ground for the Bedouins who roam in every direction over it, and who likewise till its extensive tields of wheat and barley. In one thing all writers agree — tlie extraordinary number of ruins which are scattered over the country, and which, what- ever the present condition of the soil, are a sure token of its wealth in former ages (Seetzen, i, 412). Some of the most remarkable of these have recently been de- scribed by Tristram. The whole country is undulating, and, after the general level of the plateau is reached, without any serious inequalities; and in this and the absence of conspicuous vegetation has a certain resem- blance to the downs of the southern counties of England.
Of the lawimuje of the Moabites we know nothing or next to nothing. In the few communications recorded as taking place between them and the Israelites no inter- preter is mentioned (see Kuth; I Sam. xxii, 3, 4; etc.). From the origin of the nation apd other considerations we may jjcrliaps conjecture that their language was more a dialect of Hebrew than a different tongue. This, indeed, would follow from the connection of Lot, their founder, with Abraham. It is likewise confirmed by the remarkable inscription recently discovereil. Sec MiisuA. The narrative of Numb, xxii-xxiv must be founded on a ^Moabitisli chronicle, though in its present condition doubtless niiicb altered from what it originally was be- fore it came into the hands of the author of the book of Numbers. No attemjit seems yet to have been made to execute the dillicult but interesting task of examining the record with the view of restoring it to its pristine form. Tlie following are the names of Moabiiish per- sons preserved in the Bible— probably Hebraized in their adoption into the Hible records; of such a transition we seem to have a trace in Shomer and Shimrith (see below): Zippor, Ualak, l'2glon, Kuth, Orpah (nair), ISIesha (Sa"*^), Itlimah (1 Cliron. xi, 46), Sliom\'r'(2 Kings xii, 21), or Shimrith (2 Chron. xxiv, 26), Sanbal- lat. Add to these — I'^mini, the name by which they called the Kephaim wlio originally inhabited their coun- try, and whom the .\inmonites called Zamzummim or Zu/.itn ; Ciiemosli, or Chemi.sh (.ler. xlviii. 7 ), the deity of the nation. Of names of places tiie following mav be mentioned: IMoal), with its comjiounds, Scdr'-^Ioab.lhe lields of Moab (.V.V. "the country of Moal/'); Arboth- :Moab, the deserts (A. Y. " the plains") of Moab, that is, the part of the Arabah occupied by the ^Moabites; ham- Mishor, the high undulating countr}' of Moab proper (A.Y. "the plain"); Ar, or Ar-Moab C^i*) — this Gcse-