The plain of Moab lay east of the Dead Sea, south of the River Arnon. According to a scurrilous story (Gen. 19: 30–37) the Moabites owed their origin to an incestuous union between Lot and his first‐born daughter. There were regular contacts between Moabites and Israelites, and Ruth the Moabitess became David's great‐grandmother (Ruth 4: 17). There were conflicts with Moab during the reigns of Saul and David (2 Sam. 8: 2). In the 8th and 7th cents. the Moabites were under the power of the Assyrians and suffered defeat when the Babylonians triumphed in the 6th cent. Moabites worshipped the god Chemosh (Jer. 48: 46), who did not save them, and any future rehabilitation would be seen as the work of Yahweh (Jer. 48: 47).