Ezekiel 25:8-11

Prophecy against Moab

The Moabites, like the Ammonites, were recognised by Israel as a kindred people (Genesis 19:30). Technically the border of Moab on the N. was the Arnon, but they had pretensions to the district lying beyond this stream at least as far as the head of the Dead Sea, and these pretensions they often asserted. Practically the tribes of Reuben and Gad seem to have been unable to make good their claim to this territory by dispossessing the Moabites. The peoples appear to have mixed together, and frequently Moab is found in possession of the fertile district and the numerous cities which covered it (Mesha's Inscrip.). The country was subdued by David, and on the division of the kingdom fell as a dependency to northern Israel, to which it paid a yearly tribute of 200,000 fleeces of wool (2 Kings 3:4), though making frequent struggles for independence (2 Kings 1:1; 2 Kings 3:5; 2 Kings 13:20). Unlike the Ammonites, who continued a half-nomad people, the Moabites became more a settled nation, and appear to have attained to a considerable degree of civilization. Their language was closely allied to Hebrew, and the art of writing appears familiar as early as the beginning of the 9th century (Mesha's Inscrip.). After the intervention of the Assyrians in western Asia Moab with the neighbouring peoples became tributary to that power. Hostilities between Israel and Moab were too frequent, and along with Ammon they helped towards the downfall of Judah at the hands of the Chaldeans (2 Kings 24:2; Zephaniah 2:8). Their warfare was characterized by inhuman excesses (Amos 2:1), and the people are stigmatised as proud and boastful (Isaiah 15, 16; Zephaniah 2:8-10). Moab is referred to after the return (Ezra 9:1; Nehemiah 13:1; the ref. Isaiah 25:10 is of uncertain date and meaning), and as late as Daniel 11:41.