moriah Summary and Overview

the chosen of Jehovah. Some contend that Mount Gerizim is meant, but most probably we are to regard this as one of the hills of Jerusalem. Here Solomon's temple was built, on the spot that had been the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite (2 Sam. 24:24, 25; 2 Chr. 3:1). It is usually included in Zion, to the NE of which it lay, and from which it was separated by the Tyropoean valley. This was "the land of Moriah" to which Abraham went to offer up his son Isaac (Gen. 22:2). It has been supposed that the highest point of the temple hill, which is now covered by the Mohammedan Kubbetes-Sakhrah, or "Dome of the Rock," is the actual site of Araunah's threshing-floor. Here also, one thousand years after Abraham, David built an altar and offered sacrifices to God. (See JERUSALEM T0002043; NUMBERING THE PEOPLE T0002753.)

(chosen by Jehovah). 1. The land of Moriah --On "one of the mountains" in this district took place the sacrifice of Isaac. #Ge 22:2| Its position is doubtful, some thinking it to be Mount MOriah, others that Moreh, near Shechem, is meant. [See MOUNT MORIAH] 2. Mount Moriah. --The elevation on which Solomon built the temple, where God appeared to David "in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." it is the Eastern eminence of Jerusalem, separated from Mount Zion by the Tyropoeon valley. The tope was levelled by Solomon, and immense walls were built around it from the base to enlarge the level surface for the temple area. A tradition which first appears in a definite shape in Josephus, and is now almost universally accepted, asserts that the "Mount Moriah" of the Chronicles is identical with the "mountain" in "the land of Moriah" of Genesis, and that the spot on which Jehovah appeared to David, and on which the temple was built, was the very spot of the sacrifice of Isaac. (Smith, Stanley and Grove are, however, inclined to doubt this tradition.)

MORI'AH (chosen of Jehovah?). 1. The land where Abraham was directed to go and offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Gen 22:2. 2. A mount on which Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem. 2 Chr 3:1. It was in the eastern part of the city, overlooking the valley of the Kedron, and where was the threshing-floor of Araunah, 2 Sam 24:24; 1 Chr 21:24. It lay north-east of Zion, from which it was separated by the Tyropoeon valley. Solomon erected the temple upon the levelled summit of the rock, and then immense walls were erected from its base on the four sides, and the interval between them and the sides filled in with earth or built up with vaults, so as to form on the top a large area on a level with the temple. Most authorities agree in regarding this as the place whither Abraham went to offer Isaac, and therefore identical with No. 1, above. Samaritan tradition, however, claims that the place of Abraham's altar was on Mount Gerizim, and Stanley and Grove are inclined to accept the Samaritan claim: but the arguments in favor of this view are far from satisfactory. For a description of Moriah of Jerusalem, upon which now stands the Mohammedan mosque of Omar, see IV. Topography, under Jerusalem.

Genesis 22:2; 2 Chronicles 3:1. (See JEHOVAH JIREH; GERIZIM.) What Jehovah has made one see (this hophal mowreh occurs four times in the Pentateuch, nowhere in later books) "the vision of Jehovah". In the same neighborhood He vouchsafed a vision to Abram (Genesis 14; Genesis 15:1) after Melchizedek had met him in the valley near Salem and Abram paid tithe of the spoils of Chedorlaomer. Afterward on Moriah he offered Isaac (Genesis 22:2; Genesis 22:14). Abraham saw Moriah at some little distance (Genesis 22:4) on the third day; the distance, two days' journey from Beersheba, would just bring him to Zion, but not so far as Moreh and Gerizim (Genesis 12:6) where some fix Moriah. "The mount of the Lord" (Genesis 22:14) means almost always Mount Zion. The proverb "in the Mount of Jehovah it (or He) shall be seen" probably originated in Jerusalem under Melchizedek. Jehovah's vision to David in the same spot, before the preparation for building the temple there, revived the name Moriah (2 Samuel 24:16; 2 Samuel 24:24-25.) The threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite was the spot on which David reared an altar by Gad's direction from Jehovah. The Angel of Jehovah had stood by Araunah's threshing floor; there David saw Him, and Araunah (Ornan) also, subsequently on turning back, saw Him and hid himself. Then Ornan saw David, and made over to him the threshing floor (1 Chronicles 21:15-16; 1 Chronicles 21:18-26). Jehovah testified His acceptance of David's sacrifice there by sending down fire to consume it (Leviticus 9:24; 1 Kings 18:24; 1 Kings 18:38; 2 Chronicles 7:1). So thenceforth David sacrificed there, and no longer on the altar at Gibeon where the tabernacle was, separate from the ark, which was at Zion; for he could not go to Gibeon on account of the sword of the Angel, i.e. the pestilence. God's answer to his sacrifice at this altar of the threshing floor, and God's removal of the plague, determined David's choice of it as the site of the temple (1 Chronicles 28:2; 1 Chronicles 21:28; 1 Chronicles 22:1; 2 Chronicles 3:1, etc.). It lay, like all threshing floors, outside the city, upon Mount Moriah, N.E. of Zion. Evidently the threshing floor on Moriah was near the real Mount Zion, the city of David (on the eastern not the western half of Jerusalem).