According to the biblical account, Moab and Ammon were born to Lot and Lot's elder and younger daughters, respectively, in the aftermath of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Bible refers to both the Moabites and Ammonites as Lot's sons, born of incest with his daughters (Genesis 19:37–38).
God renewed his covenant with the Israelites at Moab before the Israelites entered the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 29:1). Moses died there (Deuteronomy 34:5), prevented by God from entering the Promised Land. He was buried in an unknown location in Moab and the Israelites spent a period of thirty days there in mourning (Deuteronomy 34:6–8).
Kerioth (Hebrew: קְרִיּוֹת, Qǝrīyyōṯ) is the name of two cities mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. The spelling Kirioth appears in the King James Version of Amos 2:2. The name means "cities," and is the plural of the Biblical Hebrew קריה.
Kirioth: A town in the south of Judea (Joshua 15:25). Judas Iscariot was probably a native, hence his name "Iscariot". It has been identified with the ruins of El Kureitein, about 10 miles south of Hebron. A city of Moab (Jeremiah 48:24,48:41), called Kirioth (Amos 2:2)
After the Battle of Megiddo, an officer of pharaoh Thutmose III (1479–1425 BC), in the pharaoh's 22 regnal year, reported: "That [wretched] enemy of Kadesh has come and has entered into Megiddo. He is [there] at this moment. He has gathered to him the princes of [every] foreign country [which had been] loyal to Egypt, as well as (those) as far as Naharin and M[itanni], them of Hurru, them of Kode, their horses, their armies."
[12] In several later military campaigns the Annals of Thutmose III mention Naharin, in particular those of his regnal years 33, 35, and 42.[13] After that time, records become more available from local sources until the empire's end in the mid-13th century BC.[14]
The strangely cruel terms given by Nahash for surrender were explained by Josephus as being the usual practice of Nahash. A more complete explanation came to light with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls: although not present in either the Septuagint or masoretic text, an introductory passage, preceding this narrative, was found in a copy of the Books of Samuel among the scrolls found in cave 4:
"[N]ahash, king of Ammonites would put hard pressure on the descendants of Gad and the descendants of Ruben and would gouge everyone’s right eye out, but no res(cuer) would be provided for Israel and there was not left anyone among the children of Israel in the Tr(ans Jordan) whose right eye Nahash the king of Ammonites did not gouge out but be(hold) seven thousand men (escaped the power of) Ammonites and they arrived at (Ya)besh Gilead. About a month later Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-Gilead."
In other words, Nahash had conquered the tribal lands of Gad and Reuben, and a portion of the population had fled from him to Jabesh-Gilead, which is why he laid siege to it.
