Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

LOT’S LAST DAYS 19: 1-38
spreading their “abominations” of false gods among the
Israelites and debasing their moral ideals through inter-
marriage). (Cf. Num. ZJ:l-J, 1 Ki. 1l:l-8, 2 Ki, 23:13,
1 Chron. 8:8, Ezra 9:l-4; Neh. 13:l-3, 23-27). Note
also the predictions of divine judgments on the Moabites
and the Ammonites (Isa., chs. 11, 16; Jer., chs. 48, 49;
Ezek. 25:5, 8-11; Amos 2:l-2; Zeph. 2:9). As for political
and military maneuvers and battles, cf. Judg. 3:12-30,
11:17-18, 11:25; Num., chs. 22-24; Josh. 24:9; Judg.
11:17-18, 11:29-33; 1 Sam. 14:47, 22:3-4; 2 Sam. 8:2;
1 Ki. 1l:l-7, 2 IG. 1:1, 3:J-27, 13:20; 2 Chron., ch. 20;
Mic. 6:J, etc.) .
There is another side to this coin, however, which
cannot be ignored, as follows: (1) Yahweh did not permit
the Israelites to distress the Moabites and Ammonites in
passing through their territories because those lands had
already been allotted to the children of Lot for a possession
(Deut. 2:2, 9, 19). (2) Moses died in the land of Moab,
where from the summit of Pisgah he was given a view of
the Land of Promise, from Dan and Gilead on the North to
the valley of Jericho even unto Zoar, on the South; “and
the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab
thirty days” (Deut. 34:l-8). (3) The book of Ruth
indicates free travel and friendly relations between Judah
and Moab. (4) The king of Moab brought aid to David
against Saul and provided shelter for David’s parents in a
time of crisis (1 Sam. 22:3-4). ( 5 ) The Moabites and
Ammonites are represented as having been used by Jehovah
as instruments for the punishing of Judah (2 ICi. 24:l-4).
In view of these scriptures, to speak of the account
of the origins of the Moabites and the Ammonites (Gen.
19:30-38) as “a fiction of Israelite animosity,” “a gibe at
Israel’s foes,” etc., as the critics have done, is absurd.
Leupold (EG, 576): “Again and again critics label this
whole story the outgrowth of a mean prejudice on the part
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