Bible Question: what part did the moabites and ammonites have in Gods promised line of blessing |
Bible Answer: We know scarcely anything of the history of the Moabites after the account of their origin in Genesis 19 until the time of the exodus. It would seem, however, that they had suffered from the invasions of the Amorites, who, under their king Sihon, had subdued the northern part of Moab as far as the Arnon (Numbers 21:21-31). This conquest was no doubt a result of the movement of the Amorites southward, when they were pressed by the great wave of Hittite invasion that overran Northern Syria at the end of the 15th and the early part of the 14th centuries BC. The Amorites were forced to seek homes in Palestine, and it would seem that a portion of them crossed the Jordan and occupied Northern Moab, and here the Israelites found them as they approached the Promised Land. They did not at first disturb the Moabites in the South, but passed around on the eastern border (Deut. 2:8-9) and came into conflict with the Amorites in the North (Numbers 21:21-26), defeating them and occupying the territory (Numbers 21:31-32). But when Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, saw what a powerful people was settling on his border, he made alliance with the Midianites against them and called in the aid of Balaam, but as he could not induce the latter to curse them he refrained from attacking the Israelites (Numbers 22; Numbers 24). The latter, however, suffered disaster from the people of Moab through their intercourse with them (Numbers 25). Some time before the establishment of the kingdom in Israel the Midianites overran Moab, as would appear from the passage in Genesis 36:35, but the conquest was not permanent, for Moab recovered its lost territory and became strong enough to encroach upon Israel across the Jordan. Eglon of Moab oppressed Israel with the aid of Ammon and Amalek (Judges 3:13-14), but Eglon was assassinated by Ehud, and the Moabite yoke was cast off after 18 years. Saul smote Moab, but did not subdue it (1 Samuel 14:47), for we find David putting his father and mother under the protection of the king of Moab when persecuted by Saul (1 Samuel 22:3-4). But this friendship between David and Moab did not continue. When David became king he made war upon Moab and completely subjugated it (2 Samuel 8:2). On the division of the kingdom between Rehoboam and Jeroboam the latter probably obtained possession of Moab (1 Kings 12:20), but it revolted and Omri had to reconquer it (M S), and it was tributary to Ahab (2 Kings 1:1). It revolted again in the reign of Ahaziah (2 Kings 1:1; 2 Kings 3:5), and Moab and Ammon made war on Jehoshaphat and Mt. Seir and destroyed the latter, but they afterward fell out among themselves and destroyed each other (2 Chron. 20). Jehoshaphat and Jehoram together made an expedition into Moab and defeated the Moabites with great slaughter (2 Kings 3). But Mesha, king of Moab, was not subdued (2 Kings 3:27), and afterward completely freed his land from the dominion of Israel (M S). This was probably at the time when Israel and Judah were at war with Hazael of Damascus (2 Kings 8:28-29). Bands of Moabites ventured to raid the land of Israel when weakened by the conflict with Hazael (2 Kings 13:20), but Moab was probably subdued again by Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:25), which may be the disaster to Moab recounted in Isaiah 15. After Mesha we find a king of the name of Salamanu and another called Chemosh-nadab, the latter being subject to Sargon of Assyria. He revolted against Sennacherib, in alliance with other kings of Syria and Palestine and Egypt, but was subdued by him, and another king, Mutsuri, was subject to Esarhaddon. These items come to us from the Assyrian monuments. When Babylon took the place of Assyria in the suzerainty, Moab joined other tribes in urging Judah to revolt but seems to have come to terms with Nebuchadnezzar before Jerusalem was taken, as we hear nothing of any expedition of that king against her. On the war described in Judith, in which Moab (Judith 1:12, etc.) plays a part. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. |
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Questions and/or Subjects for Bible general Archive 4 | Author | ||
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The Jewel | ||
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alfalpha | ||
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escar.smith@yahoo.com | ||
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escar.smith@yahoo.com | ||
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DeanD | ||
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DeanD | ||
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Lee 1947 | ||
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EdB | ||
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alfalpha | ||
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najuaua | ||
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najuaua |