Moab
Scripture first
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A famine drives Elimelech's family from Bethlehem to the fields of Moab, where Ruth enters the story.
Moab held the high plateau east of the Dead Sea between the Arnon and the Zered. Its relations with Israel ran the whole range: oppression under Eglon, fear under Balak, war under David, and marriage and faith in the book of Ruth.
The prophets pronounce oracles against Moab, yet Isaiah's weeping over Moab shows judgment spoken with grief, not pleasure.
The nation east of the Dead Sea, kinsman to Israel through Lot, and the homeland of Ruth.
- Moab, the plains of Moab
The Moabite plateau is high, well watered and cut off from Judah by the Dead Sea rift. It was near enough to raid and intermarry, and far enough to be a refuge in famine, exactly as Ruth 1 assumes.
- Ruth 1:1-4 A famine drives Elimelech's family from Bethlehem to the fields of Moab, where Ruth enters the story.
- Numbers 22:1-4 Balak of Moab hires Balaam against Israel
- Deuteronomy 34:1-6 Moses dies in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho
- Ruth 4:13-17 Ruth the Moabitess becomes the grandmother of David
- 2 Kings 3:26-27 The king of Moab's desperate sacrifice on the wall
What we know
Certain
- Scripture places Moab east of the Dead Sea, and the Moabite Stone of King Mesha confirms a Moabite kingdom at war with Israel.
Disputed
- Some border sites between Moab and Ammon are debated.