M O A 
Judah, and the king of Edom his tributary, made an ex¬ 
pedition for this purpofe; the refult of which was, the 
defeat of the Moabites and the devaftation of a great part 
of their country. It was not long before the Moabites, 
entering into an alliance with the Ammonites, the Edo¬ 
mites of Mount Seir, and other neighbouring nations, 
attempted to revenge the Ioffes they had fuftained in this 
invafion of their country on Jehoihaphat king of Judah, 
who had encouraged Jelioram to undertake it. Their at¬ 
tempt proved unfuccefsful, and terminated in their total 
ruin. After this period the Moabites do not feem to have 
difturbed Ifrael for many years. On the declenfion of 
the kingdom of Ifrael, they feem to have retaken from 
the tribes of Reuben and Gad a great part of the land 
which formerly belonged to them, before the invafion of 
Sihon ; but, elated by their luccefs, they behaved with 
pride and infolence, in confequence of which feveral of 
the ancient prophets, and Ifaiah in particular, threatened 
them with utter deltru6lion. After the dreadful dilcom- 
fiture of the army of Sennacherib the fon of Shalmanefer, 
the Moabites often revolted from his fucceffors, and were 
as often reduced, till they were entirely fubdued by Ne¬ 
buchadnezzar; but, upon Nebuchadnezzar’s departure 
from Judea and Syria, after his fecond expedition into 
thefe parts, they, with the other neighbouring nations, 
propofed to Zedekiah to enter into a league againft the 
Chaldaeans, to which that prince confented, on the ac- 
ceffion of the Egyptians to their confederacy; but this 
meafure, adopted by Zedekiah againft the remonftrance of 
the prophet Jeremiah, became the occafion of his utter 
ruin ; for his new allies defected him in his diftrefs. From 
this period hiftory makes little mention of the Moabites, 
who became fubjefil to the great empires, and at length 
coalelced as one people with the neighbouring nations 
which inhabited the defects of Syria; fo that, although 
Jofephus mentions the Moabites as a dillinft nation long 
after, obferving that they were fubdued by Alexander 
Jannaeus king of the Jews, and that in his time they were 
a numerous nation ; yet, in the third-century after Chrift, 
they had loft their ancient name, and were comprehended 
under the more general denomination of Arabians. Anc. 
Univ. Hiji. vol. i. 
MO'AB, a town of Arabia, in the province of Hadra- 
maut: eighty-three miles weft of Hadramaut. 
MO'AB, a town of Arabia Felix, in the province of 
Yemen, and relidence of the prince, built in the year 1708, 
between Damar and Sanaa. 
MO'AB, or EL RA'BA, a town of Syria: fifty miles 
fouth-eaft of Jerufalem. 
MO'ABITE, a defcendant from Moab ; an inhabitant 
of Moab, which fee. 
MO'ABITESS, a female defcendant from Moab, See. 
MOADI'AH, [Hebrew.] A man’s name. 
MOAGANO'RE, a town of Hindooltan, in Golconda: 
ten miles north-weft of Rachore. „ 
MOA'GES, a duller of fmall illands, in the Caribbean 
Sea, near the coaft of South America, at the entrance of 
the Gulf of Venezuela. 
MOAMA'A, a port and good harbour of Nubia, in the 
Red Sea : fifteen miles fouth of Aidab. 
To MOAN, v. a. [from masnan, Sax. to grieve. An¬ 
ciently written mane or mene ; like the Saxon original.] 
To lament; to deplore.—Edward lore it ment..It. ofBrunhe. 
Ye floods, ye woods, ye echoes, moan 
My dear Columbo dead and gone. Prior. 
To MOAN, v. n. To grieve ; to make lamentation. In 
the following paffage from Shakefpeare, the old copies read 
means, the fame as moans. See the etymology of the verb 
aftive: 
Thus Ihe moans: 
Afleep, my love ? What, dead, my dove ? Mulf. N. Dream. 
The gen’rous band redreflive fearch’d 
Into the horrours of the gloomy jail. 
Unpity Id and unheard, where mifery moans. Thomfon, 
MOB 593 
MOAN, f. Lamentation ; audible farrow ; grief ex- 
prefled in words or cries : 
I have difabled mine eftate, 
By (hewing fomething a more lwelling port 
Than my faint means would grant continuance; 
Nor do I now make moan to be abridg’d 
From fuch a noble rate. Skakejpeare's Merck, of Ven. 
Sullen moans, hollow groans, 
And cries of tortur’d ghofts. Pope's Ode St. Cecilia. 
MOANESS', a cape on the north coaft of the illand of 
Shetland. Lat. 60.44. N. Ion. 1. 32,. W. 
MO'ANFUL, adj. Lamentable; exprefling forrow; ex¬ 
citing forrow.—Look upon all the lad moneful objects in 
the world, betwixt whom ail our companion is wont to be 
divided. Hammond's Works. 
MO'ANFULLY, adv. With lamentation.—This our 
poets are ever moanfnlly linging. Barrow on Contentment^ 
(ed. 1685.) 
MOANGUN'GE, a town of Bengal 1 feventy-two miles’ 
north-north-weft of Dacca 
MO'ANING,y.’ The adl of lamenting. 
MO'AR, a town of Hindooltan, in Bahar : twenty-two 
miles north-eaft of Bahar. 
MOAT, f. [motte , Fr. a mound ; mota, low Lat.] A 
canal of water round a houfe or caftle for defence.—The 
caltle I found of good ftrength, having a great moat round 
about it, the work of a noble gentleman, of whofe unj 
thrifty fon he had bought it. Sidney. 
The fortrefs thrice himfelf in perfon ftorm’d ; 
Your valour bravely did th’ affault fultain, 
And fill’d the moats and ditches with the llain. Dn/den. 
To MOAT, v. a. To furround with canals by way of 
defence.—He fees he can hardly approach greatnefs, but,- 
as a moated caftle, he mull firft pafs the mud and filth with 
which it is»jncompaffed. Dryden. 
An arm of Lethe, with a gentle flow, 
The palace moats, and o’er the pebbles creeps, 
And with foft murmurs calls the coming fleeps. Dryden. 
MOAT MOUNTAIN, a mountain of New Hampjfhire. 
Lat. 44. N. Ion. 71.10. W. 
MOATAZ'ALITES, Motazalites, or Separatijls, d 
religious fe£t among the Turks, who deny all forms and 
qualities of the divine Being; or who diveft God of his 
attributes. 
There are two opinions among the Turkilh divines con¬ 
cerning God. The firft admits metaphyfical forms, or at¬ 
tributes ; as, that God has wifdom, by which he is wife; 
power, by which he is powerful; eternity, by which he is 
eternal, &c. The fecond allows God to be wife, powerful, 
eternal; but will not allow any form or quality in God, 
for fear of admitting a multiplicity. Thofe who follow 
this latter opinion are called Moatazalites ; they who fol¬ 
low the former, Scphalites. 
The Moatazalites alfo denied abfolute predeftination, 
and affirmed that man is a free agent. They held that, if 
a profeffor of the fame religion be guilty of a grievous fin, 
and die without repentance, he will be eternally damned, 
though his punilhment will be lighter than that of the in¬ 
fidels. Moreover they denied all vilion of God in para- 
dife by the corporeal eye, and rejected all comparilbns or 
fimilitudes applied to God. This fefil is faid to have firft: 
invented the lcholaftic divinity, and is fubdivided into no 
lels than twenty inferior feefts, which mutually brand ong 
another with infidelity. Sale's Prelim. Difc. 
MO'ATE, or Moate Grenogue, a poll-town, or ra¬ 
ther village, in the county of Wellmeath, Ireland. It is 
fifty-two miles weft-by-north from Dublin, and feven,an<J 
a half from Athlone. 
MO'ATING, J. The a£l of furrounding with a moat. 
MOAWI'YAH, fixth caliph of the Arabians. Seethe 
article Arabia, vol. ii. p. 13. 
MOB, J'. [contracted from mobile, Lat. Mr. Malone 
believes the word mobily to have been firft introduced into, 
•i our 
