Moriah
Moriah is a region mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Judea in modern-day Israel. Known today as Mount Moriah. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Moriah holds extraordinary theological significance as the site of two foundational events in Scripture. It first appears in Genesis 22:2, when God commanded Abraham to take his son Isaac to "the land of Moriah" and offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains there. Abraham's obedient journey, his preparation of the altar, and God's last-moment provision of a ram as a substitute constitute one of the most profound narratives in the Bible, foreshadowing God's ultimate sacrifice of His own Son. Abraham named the place "The LORD Will Provide" (YHWH-yireh), declaring, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided" (Genesis 22:14). The second explicit mention of Moriah comes in 2 Chronicles 3:1, which states that Solomon began building the Temple "on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite." This connection between Abraham's sacrifice and Solomon's Temple establishes Moriah as the axis of Israel's worship, linking the covenant promises to the patriarchs with the permanent dwelling place of God's presence among His people.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Mount Moriah is identified with the Temple Mount (Haram esh-Sharif) in the Old City of Jerusalem. This elevated platform, expanded dramatically by Herod the Great in the first century BC, today supports the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The exposed bedrock beneath the Dome of the Rock, known as the Foundation Stone (Even HaShetiyah), is traditionally venerated as the site of Abraham's binding of Isaac and the location of the Holy of Holies in Solomon's Temple. Due to the extreme religious sensitivity of the site, no archaeological excavation has been permitted on the platform itself. However, excavations along the southern and western walls by Benjamin Mazar and Eilat Mazar have revealed Herodian masonry, ritual baths, and monumental staircases. The Temple Mount remains one of the most contested and sacred sites in the world.
Verse Appearances (1)
Gen
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]