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Smith's Bible Dictionary
while the country is almost bare of larger vegetation, it is still a rich pasture-ground, with occasional
fields of grain. The land thus gives evidence of its former wealth and power.—ED.)
Moabite Stone, The
In the year 1868 Rev. F. Klein, of the Church Missionary Society at Jerusalem, found at Dhiban
(the biblical Dibon), in Moab, a remarkable stone, since called the Moabite Stone. It was lying on
the ground, with the inscription uppermost, and measures about 3 feet 9 inches long, 2 feet 4 inches
wide and 1 foot 2 inches thick. It is a very heavy, compact black basalt. An impression was made
of the main block, and of certain recovered parts broken off by the Arabs. It was broken by the
Arabs, but the fragments were purchased by the French government for 32,000 francs, and are in
the Louvre in Paris. The engraved face is about the shape of an ordinary gravestone, rounded at
the top. On this stone is the record in the Phoenician characters of the wars of Mesha, king of Moab,
with Israel. (2 Kings 3:4) It speaks of King Omri and other names of places and persons mentioned
in the Bible, and belongs to this exact period of jewish and Moabite history. The names given on
the Moabite Stone, engraved by one who knew them in daily life, are, in nearly every case, identical
with those found in the Bible itself, and testify to the wonderful integrity with which the Scriptures
have been preserved. “The inscription reads like a leaf taken out of a lost book of Chronicles. The
expressions are the same; the names of gods, kings and of towns are the same.”—(See Rawlinson’s
“Historical Illustrations;” American Cyclopedia ; and Bibliotheca Sacra, Oct. 20, 1870.—ED.)
Moadiah
(Nehemiah 12:17) Elsewhere Nehe 12:5 Called Maadiah.
Modin
a place not mentioned in either the Old or the New Testament, though rendered immortal by
its connection with the history of the Jews in the interval between the two. It was the native city of
the Maccabaean family, 1 Macc. 13:25, and as a necessary consequence contained their ancestral
sepulchre. ch. 2:70; 9:19; 13:25-30. At Modin the Maccabean armies encamped on the eves of two
of their most memorable victories—that of Judas over Antiochus Eupator, 2 Macc. 13:14, and that
of Simon over Cendebeus. 1 Macc. 16:4. The only indication of the position of the place to be
gathered from the above notices is contained in the last, from which we may infer that it was near
“the plain,” i.e. the great maritime lowland of Philistia. ver. 5. The description of the monuments
seems to imply that the spot was so lofty as to be visible from the sea, and so near that even the
details of the sculpture were discernible therefrom. All these conditions, excepting the last, are
tolerably fulfilled in either of the two sides called Latran and Kubub .
Moladah
(birth, race), a city of Judah, one of those which lay in the district of “the south.” (Joshua 15:26;
19:2) In the latter tribe it remained at any rate till the reign of David, (1 Chronicles 4:28) but by
the time of the captivity it seems to have come back into the hands of Judah, by whom it was
reinhabited after the captivity. (Nehemiah 11:26) It may be placed at el-Milh, which is about 4
English miles from Tell Arad, 17 or 18 from Hebron, and 9 or 10 due east of Beersheba.
Mole
•Tinshemeth.
(Leviticus 11:30) It is probable that the animals mentioned with the tinshemeth in
the above passage denote different kinds of lizards; perhaps, therefore, the chameleon is the animal
intended.
•Chephor peroth is rendered “moles” in (Isaiah 2:20) (The word means burrowers, hole-diggers,
and may designate any of the small animals, as rats and weasels, which burrow among ruins. Many
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William Smith