Moab: The seed of the father, or, according to others, the desirable land,1. The eldest son of Lot
(Genesis 19:37) of incestuous birth.
2. Used to denote the people of Moab
(Numbers 22:3-14; Judges 3:30; 2 Samuel 8:2)
(Jeremiah 48:11,13)
3. The land of Moab
(Jeremiah 48:24) called also the "country of Moab"
(Ruth 1:2,6; 2:6) on the east of Jordan and the Dead Sea, and south
of the Arnon
(Numbers 21:13,26) In a wider sense it included the whole
region that had been occupied by the Amorites. It bears the
modern name of Kerak. In the Plains of Moab, opposite Jericho
(Numbers 22:1; 26:63; Joshua 13:32) the children of Israel had their last
encampment before they entered the land of Canaan. It was at
that time in the possession of the Amorites
(Numbers 21:22) "Moses
went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to
the top of Pisgah," and "died there in the land of Moab,
according to the word of the Lord"
(Deuteronomy 34:5,6) "Surely if we had
nothing else to interest us in the land of Moab, the fact that
it was from the top of Pisgah, its noblest height, this
mightiest of the prophets looked out with eye undimmed upon the
Promised Land; that it was here on Nebo, its loftiest mountain,
that he died his solitary death; that it was here, in the valley
over against Beth-peor, he found his mysterious sepulchre, we
have enough to enshrine the memory in our hearts."
