Moab

Moab () was an ancient Levantine kingdom whose territory is today located in southern Jordan. The land is mountainous and lies alongside much of the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. The existence of the Kingdom of Moab is attested to by numerous archaeological findings, most notably the Mesha Stele, which describes the Moabite victory over an unnamed son of King Omri of Israel, an episode also noted in 2 Kings 3. The Moabite capital was Dibon. According to the Hebrew Bible, Moab was often in conflict with its Israelite neighbours to the west.

Etymology

The etymology of the word Moab is uncertain. The earliest Biblical annotation is found in the Koine Greek Septuagint (Genesis 19:37), which describes the meaning of the name as ἐκ τοῦ πατρός μου ("from my father"), an obvious allusion to the account of Moab's parentage. Other etymologies which have been proposed regard it as a corruption of "seed of a father", or as a participial form from "to desire", thus connoting "the desirable (land)".

The medieval commentator Rashi maintained that the word Mo'ab means "from the father", since ab in Hebrew and Arabic and other Semitic languages means "father". He writes that as a result of the "immodesty" of Moab's name, God did not command the Israelites to refrain from inflicting pain upon the Moabites in the manner in which he did with regard to the Ammonites.