Moab

מוֹאָב

Where is Moab? The plateau east of the Dead Sea, in Jordan. I mark it certain.

Balaam stood on the heights of Moab to curse Israel and blessed it instead. Moses died in Moab, on Mount Nebo. And Ruth left Moab to follow Naomi to Bethlehem.

By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker

Site today
The plateau east of the Dead Sea, in Jordan
How sure
Certain The name, the sources and the finds all agree.
Location
31.2291° N, 35.6702° E (Google Maps)
Moab on the hand-drawn Map of Biblical Israel
Moab on our hand-drawn Map of Biblical Israel. Get the full map as a print →

How we know where it was

The Bible always puts Moab in the same place, east of the Dead Sea, with Edom to the south and Ammon to the north. Its usual northern border was the Arnon, the deep canyon now called Wadi Mujib. But Moab often held the plateau north of the Arnon as well. That is why Israel's last camp before crossing the Jordan is called the plains of Moab.

Then a stone settled it. In 1868 the Mesha Stele turned up at Dhiban, biblical Dibon. On it Mesha king of Moab, the same Mesha the Book of Kings describes, claims that he threw off Israel's rule. He names Medeba, Ataroth and Nebo. Moab's own king and the Bible are drawing the same map.

Visiting today

Mount Nebo, Madaba, Dhiban, the Wadi Mujib canyon and Kerak castle are all in Jordan. The Mesha Stele itself is in the Louvre.

Read it in the Bible

Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.

See Moab on the interactive map →

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