Moab was a nation that existed within the modern nation of Jordan. Those descendants of Moab who have remained in the same region as their ancestors are today known as Jordanians. Politicians have redrawn historic borders and renamed ancient properties in the Middle East, yet the ancestry of persons who currently reside in these regions cannot be altered.
The Moabites were descendants of Abraham’s nephew Lot, who with his two daughters fled Sodom prior to its abrupt destruction (Genesis 19). Lot and his daughters, according to the Old Testament, became cave dwellers soon after their escape.
The two young ladies devised a plan to repopulate the earth after concluding that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was likely global. In order to become pregnant and maintain the family line, they got their father intoxicated and slept with him; both of them gave birth to sons. The older sister gave her son the name Moab, and he eventually became the progenitor of the Moabite people.
The region inhabited by the Moabites is referred to as “the field of Moab” (surrounded by natural defences), “the land of Moab” (open territory from Arnon north to Gilead), and “the plains of Moab” (in the tropical depths of the Jordan River valley).
