Bible Studies In The Word of God

Moab and The Medeba Plateau
 

The heartland of ancient Moab was the high, hilly region lying between the Arnon and Zered river canyons east of the southern half of the Dead Sea, approximately 30 by 30 miles in size. This is a mixed region of Cenomanian limestone and Senonian chalk, with large outcroppings of basalt on the higher elevations. The highest hills in Moab run about 3,600 feet, but an elevation of 4,282 feet is reached in the south above the Zered.

 

North of the Arnon is a lower plateau of Senonian chalk (approximately 2,300 feet in elevation) that the Bible calls the mishor ("plateau" or "tableland"—Deut. 3:10; Josh. 13:9, 16). Cenomanian limestone and reddish Nubian sandstone are exposed on the western scarp of this plateau as it drops into the rift valley and Dead Sea. A common name for this region is the Medeba Plateau, after Medeba (modern Madaba), its most important city today.

 

The remains of a mosaic floor from the ruins of a sixth-century AD Byzantine church in the city of Madaba depict the oldest known map of Palestine. This beautiful map was originally 77 by 20 feet in size and showed the world of the eastern Mediterranean from Lebanon to the Nile Delta. Unfortunately, only the area from south central Palestine to the Nile, about one third of the original remains. The Medeba map is an invaluable primary source for the geography and settlement of the land of Palestine during the Byzantine period. Of particular note is the map's depiction of Jerusalem, which graphically shows the primary streets, gates, and buildings of the city of that time.

 

The Arnon (Deut. 2:24) and Zered (Deut. 2:13), like the Yarmuk and Jabbok farther north, are huge water erosion canyons that have cut deeply into the Transjordanian hills, channeling most of the region's rainfall into the rift valley. At 2,300 feet deep, the Arnon is perhaps the most dramatic of all. From rim to rim the Arnon spans over three miles, and the torturous road that crosses this chasm today, close to the ancient route of the King's Highway, can take an hour to traverse by bus.

 

While rainfall on the Dead Sea scarcely tops four inches per year, these higher hills to the east receive amounts only somewhat less than the hills west of the Jordan—on average 10 inches on the Medeba Plateau and 16 in Moab proper. During the biblical period, this was the land of the shepherd Mesha, king of Moab and contemporary of Ahab, where he "raised sheep, and he had to supply the king of Israel with a hundred thousand lambs and with the wool of a hundred thousand rams" (2 Kings 3:4). Today the level chalk tableland north of the Arnon is one of Jordan's prime grain producing areas.

 

The tranquil book of Ruth is set in the turbulent period of the judges. The story opens with a famine gripping Bethlehem (Ruth 1:1), a not-too-unusual occurrence for a city whose agricultural lands drop toward the chalk wilderness east of the watershed ridge. Naomi, her husband Elimelech, and their two sons left their ancestral home in Bethlehem to journey to the higher hills of Moab to the east (Ruth 1:2), an area where rainfall was more reliable, if less in overall amounts. Here they tried to piece together an agricultural and shepherding existence like the one they left behind in Judah. Naomi eventually returned home to Bethlehem with only her daughter-in-law Ruth (Ruth 1:6-19).

 

During the Old Testament period, the major cities on the Medeba Plateau and in Moab were located on the route of the King's Highway. From north to south, these were Heshbon (Num. 21:25-26), Medeba (Num. 21:30) and Dibon (Num. 21:30) north of the Arnon, and Ar (Num. 21:28) and Kir-hareseth (2 Kings 3:25) in Moab proper. Heshbon was the city of Sihon, whose Amorite kingdom Moses and the Israelites conquered on their way to Canaan (Num. 21:21-31; Deut. 2:24-37). Kir-hareseth was the capital of the kingdom of Moab; the remains of the Crusader castle of Kerak dominate the site today.

 

Of note during the time of the New Testament is Machaerus, Herod the Great's desert fortress east of the rift valley. Machaerus sits on the scarp of the Medeba Plateau east of the Dead Sea. According to Josephus, John the Baptist was beheaded here by Herod Antipas, who ruled the region of Perea which included Machaerus, at the behest of his new wife, Herodias (Mark 6:14-29).

 

Throughout the biblical period the Medeba Plateau was a frontier zone between the kingdoms of Moab and Israel, and each tried to contain the other by seizing the plateau and its highways. Moses gave the Medeba Plateau to the tribe of Reuben after conquering Sihon (Josh. 13:15-23), but by the time of the judges, the Moabite king Eglon had crossed both the plateau and the Jordan River to set up residence in Jericho, the city of palms (Judg. 3:12-30). Later Moab and, by implication, the Medeba Plateau were subject to both David (2 Sam. 8:2, 11-12) and Ahab, king of Israel (2 Kings 1:1). Ahab's claim on the plateau had been anticipated when Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho (1 Kings 16:34), securing that city as a launching pad for Israelite control east of the Jordan. After Ahab's death Mesha king of Moab pushed Moabite influence back onto the Medeba Plateau (2 Kings 3:4-5); the Mesha Stele (Moabite Stone) tells of this expansion from Moab's point of view. Moab remained Israel's eastern nemesis throughout the period of the monarchy and was the object of prophetic wrath by Amos (2:1-3), Isaiah (15:1-16:14), and Jeremiah (48:1-47).