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Moab: “What’s in a Name?”

Moab: “What’s in a Name?”

Last updated on: September 7, 2026 at 11:31 am by Dan Peterson

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Moab: “What’s in a Name?” 2026-09-07T11:31:08-06:00 Dan Peterson

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Delicate Arch, in Arches National Park, should be familiar to locals because it’s featured on many Utah automobile license plates. Arches, of course, is directly adjacent to Noah, Utah. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

I’m scheduled to record a discussion of the Old Testament books of Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah on Wednesday for future use by Hank Smith and John Bytheway on their followHim podcast. I like to make it a practice to read scriptural passages before pontificating on them, and I was doing some of that earlier today.

Here is how Zephaniah 2:8-11 reads in the King James Version:

8 I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached my people, and magnified themselves against their border.

9 Therefore as I live, saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them.

10 This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts.

11 The Lord will be terrible unto them: for he will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen.

Sunrise at Dead Horse Point, Utah, near Moab, by Pedro Szekely (Wikimedia Commons public domain image). The word sublime was, I think, created for such views as this.

And, just for the fun of it, here is the same passage in the English Standard Version:

8 “I have heard the taunts of Moab
    and the revilings of the Ammonites,
how they have taunted my people
    and made boasts against their territory.
9 Therefore, as I live,” declares the Lord of hosts,
    the God of Israel,
“Moab shall become like Sodom,
    and the Ammonites like Gomorrah,
a land possessed by nettles and salt pits,
    and a waste forever.
The remnant of my people shall plunder them,
    and the survivors of my nation shall possess them.”
10 This shall be their lot in return for their pride,
    because they taunted and boasted
    against the people of the Lord of hosts.
11 The Lord will be awesome against them;
    for he will famish all the gods of the earth,
and to him shall bow down,
    each in its place,
    all the lands of the nations.

Biblically, the term Moab refers to an area located on the eastern side of the Jordan River, as well as to Moab, a son of Abraham’s nephew, Lot. Today, the territory of Moab is located within the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, north of the territory anciently known as Edom (or Idumea).

Landscape Arch, in the Devils Garden area of Arches National Park, is the longest natural arch within the boundaries of the park and the fifth longest in the world. From the looks of it, I would guess that it doesn’t have much time left (geologically speaking). (Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de)

Reading this passage in Zephaniah 2 got me to thinking about the question of why anybody would want to give the name Moab to his or her town. After all, a defamatory story in the Bible portrays Moab and Ammon (and, therefore, the Moabites and the Ammonites) as the products of an incestuous relationship between a drunken Lot and his two daughters (see Genesis 19:30-38), and the Moabites are frequently denounced (by Isaiah and Jeremiah and other prophets) as idolatrous and sexually promiscuous, worshiping Chemish and Baal of Peor and even engaging in human sacrifice. To put it mildly, Moab doesn’t exactly have a positive reputation, overall, in the Hebrew Bible, although it has this saving grace: The wonderful character of Ruth, ancestral to the Davidic line of kings (and thus to the Messiah) and wholly admirable in her own right, was a Moabite woman.

Apparently, there is no certain account of the naming of the Utah town of Moab, although it appears to have received the name in or about 1880. One suggestion posits that it received the name because it was so far away from everything else, including the territorial capital and Church headquarters in Salt Lake City. It was, in a sense, “beyond the Jordan River.” Another suggestion has it that Moab comes from moapa, a Paiute word that evidently means “mosquito” or “mosquito water.” (There is a valley in southern Nevada that bears the name Moapa, but I’m not aware of any connection to Utah’s Moab.)

Balanced Rock, in Arches National Park (Photograph by Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de)

I want to call to your notice a podcast that I think is worthy of your attention:

Standard of Truth Podcast

“A podcast hosted by historian Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat, where we explore the early days of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the life and teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. They examine the original historical sources and provide context for events of the past. They approach the history of the church with faith, expertise, and humor.”

Gerrit Dirkmaat has, for several years now, been one of our favorite interviews for the Interpreter Foundation’s Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon documentary (which is available for viewing at no charge) as well as for our current ongoing Becoming Brigham series.

I also want to call your attention to the work of Morgan Deane, a military historian and former U.S. Marine whose publications include Offensive Warfare in The Book of Mormon and a Defense of the Bush Doctrine; Bleached Bones and Wicked Serpents: Ancient Warfare in the Book of Mormon; and the forthcoming The Book of Mormon and the Historical Just War Tradition. He is the author of several articles that have appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship and that are, as all Interpreter articles are, available online at no charge.

A view, by Clément Bardot, of the Colorado River from Dead Horse Point
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

Finally, duty impels me to alert you to brace yourself for another delivery of horrifying reports from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™: “Latter-day Saints Around the World: September 2026: Healthcare improves in the Philippines while schools receive needed resources in Guatemala: Newsroom features stories from its dozens of websites worldwide to show what members and leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are doing to serve their communities. Today, we feature news from Colombia, Guatemala, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Paraguay, Argentina and Peru.”

There ought, obviously, to be a law that would prevent such atrocities. Still today, though, theists are allowed to impose their cruelties upon the innocent folk around them almost completely without impediment or obstacle.

Posted from Moab, Utah

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