Moab
A place in the Bible
A people and a land east of the Dead Sea. The Moabites were Israel’s neighbors.
What happened here
- Naomi: in a time of famine, Naomi left Bethlehem for Moab with her husband and her two sons. There the three men died.
- Ruth: she was a Moabite, Naomi’s daughter-in-law. She would not leave her and said to her, “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”
- Moses: he died in the land of Moab, and the Israelites mourned him for thirty days on the plains of Moab.
Today
It was in the middle of present-day Jordan.
Where it appears in the Bible
Ruth 1:1-5; Ruth 1:16; Deuteronomy 34:5; Deuteronomy 34:8
What the Bible says
Ruth 1:1-5
1In the days of one of the judges, when the judges ruled, there came a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem Juda, went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons. 2He was named Elimelech, and his wife, Noemi: and his two sons, the one Mahalon, and the other Chelion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem Juda. And entering into the country of Moab, they abode there. 3And Elimelech the husband of Noemi died: and she remained with her sons. 4And they took wives of the women of Moab, of which one was called Orpha, and the other Ruth. And they dwelt there ten years. 5And they both died, to wit, Mahalon and Chelion: and the woman was left alone, having lost both her sons and her husband.
Ruth 1:16
She answered: Be not against me, to desire that I should leave thee and depart: for whithersoever thou shalt go, I will go: and where thou shalt dwell, I also will dwell. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.
Deuteronomy 34:5
And Moses the servant of the Lord died there, in the land of Moab, by the commandment of the Lord:
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Source: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “Moab, Moabites”