Smith's Bible Dictionary

Moloch — Mysia

1. Uncoined money.—It is well known that ancient nations that were without a coinage weighed the precious metals, a practice represented on the Egyptian monuments, on which gold and silver are shown to have been kept in the form of rings. We have no evidence of the use of coined money before the return from the Babylonian captivity; but silver was used for money, in quantities determined by weight, at least as early as the time of Abraham; and its earliest mention is in the generic sense of the price paid for a slave. Genesis 17:13. The 1000 pieces of silver paid by Abimelech to Abraham, Genesis 20:16, and the 20 pieces of silver for which Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelites, Genesis 37:28, were probably rings such as we see on the Egyptian monuments in the act of being weighed. In the first recorded transaction of commerce, the cave of Machpelah is purchased by Abraham for 400 shekels of silver. The shekel weight of silver was the unit of value through the whole age of Hebrew history, down to the Babylonian captivity.

2. Coined money.—After the captivity we have the earliest mention of coined money, in allusion, as might have been

The Persian (or golden) Daric. expected, to the Persian coinage, the gold daric (DAV dram). Ezra 2:69; Ezra 8:27; Nehemiah 7:70, Nehemiah 7:71, Nehemiah 7:72. [DARIC.] No native Jewish coinage appears to have existed till Antiochus VII Sidetes granted Simon Maccabæus the license to coin money, b.c. 140; and it is now generally agreed that the oldest Jewish silver coins

Jewish Half-shekel. belong to this period. They are shekel and half-shekels, of the weight of 220 and 110 grains. With this silver there was associated a copper coinage. The abundant money of Herod the Great, which is of a thoroughly Greek character, and of copper only, seems to have

Shekel of the Sanctuary. been a continuation of the copper coinage of the Maccabees, with some adaptation to the Roman standard. In the money of the New Testament we see the native copper coinage side by side with the Græco-Roman copper, silver, and gold. (The first coined money mentioned in the Bible refers to the Persian coinage, 1 Chronicles 29:7; Ezra 2:69, and is translated dram. It is the Persian daric, a gold coin worth about $5.50. The coins mentioned by the evangelists, and first those of silver, are the following: The stater, Matthew 17:24-27, called piece of money, was a Roman coin equal to four drachmas. It was worth 55 to 60 cents, and is of about the same value as the Jewish stater, or coined shekel. The denarius, or Roman penny, as well as the

Denarius of Cæsar. Greek drachma, then of about the same weight, are spoken of as current coins. Matthew 22:15-21; Luke 20:19-25. They were worth about 15 cents. Of copper coins the farthing and its half, the mite, are spoken of, and these probably formed the chief native currency. (The Roman farthing (quadrans) was a brass coin

Assarion (farthing). Actual size. worth .375 of a cent. The Greek farthing (as or assarion) was worth four Roman farthings, i.e., about one cent and a half. A mite was half a farthing, and therefore was worth about two-tenths of a cent if the half of the Roman farthing, and about 2 cents if the half of the Greek farthing. See table of Jewish weights and measures.—Ed.)

Money-changers

Money-changers. Matthew 21:12; Mark 11:15; John 2:15. According to Exodus 30:13-15, every Israelite who had reached or passed the age of twenty must pay into the sacred treasury, whenver the nation was numbered, a half-shekel as an offering to Jehovah. The money-changers whom Christ, for their impiety, avarice and fraudulent dealing, expelled from the temple were the dealers who supplied half-shekels, for such a premium as they might be able to exact, to the Jews from all parts of the world who assembled at Jerusalem during the great festivals, and were required to pay their tribute or ransom money in the Hebrew coin.

Month

Month. From the time of the institution of the Mosaic law downward the month was a lunar one. The cycle of religious feasts commencing with the passover depended not simply on the month, but on the moon; the 14th of Abib was coincident with the full moon; and the new moons themselves were the occasions of regular festivals. Numbers 10:10; Numbers 28:11-14. The commencement of the month was generally decided by observation of the new moon. The usual number of months in a year was twelve, as implied in 1 Kings 4:7; 1 Chronicles 27:1-15; but since twelve lunar months would make but 354½ days, the years would be short twelve days of the true year, and therefore it follows as a matter of course that an additional month must have been inserted about every third year, which would bring the number up to thirteen. No notice, however, is taken of this month in the Bible. In the modern Jewish calendar the intercalary month is introduced seven times in every nineteen years. The usual method of designating the months was by their numerical order, e.g., “the second month,” Genesis 7:11, “the fourth month,” 2 Kings 25:3; and this was generally retained even when the names were given, e.g., “in the month Zif, which is the second month.” 1 Kings 6:1. The names of the months belong to two distinct periods. In the first place we have those peculiar to the period of Jewish independence, of which four only, even including Abib, which we hardly regard as a proper name, are mentioned, viz.: Abib, in which the passover fell, Exodus 13:4; Exodus 23:15; Exodus 34:18; Deuteronomy 16:1, and which was established as the first month in commemoration of the exodus, Exodus 12:2; Zif, the second month, 1 Kings 1 Kings 6:1, 1 Kings 6:37; Bul, the eighth, 1 Kings 6:38; and Ethanim, the seventh. 1 Kings 8:2. In the second place we have the names which prevailed subsequent to the Babylonish captivity; of these the following seven appear in the Bible: Nisan, the first, in which the passover was held, Nehemiah 2:1; Esther 3:7; Sivan, the third, Esther 8:9; Baruch 1:8; Elul, the sixth, Nehemiah 6:15; 1 Maccabees 14:27; Chisleu, the ninth, Nehemiah 1:1; Zechariah 7:1; 1 Maccabees 1:54; Tebeth, the tenth, Esther 2:16; Sebat, the eleventh, Zechariah 1:7; 1 Maccabees 16:14; and Adar, the twelfth. Esther 3:7; Esther 8:12; 2 Maccabees 15:36. The names of the remaining five occur in the Talmud and other works; they were, Iyar, the second, Targum; 2 Chronicles 30:2; Tammuz, the fourth; Ab, the fifth; Tisri, the seventh; and Marcheshvan, the eighth. The name of the intercalary month was Ve-adar, i.e., the additional Adar. The identification of the Jewish months with our own cannot be effected with precision on account of the variations that must inevitably exist between the lunar and the solar month. Nisan (or Abib) answers to March; Zif or Iyar to May; Sivan to June; Tammuz to July; Ab to August; Elul to September; Ethanim or Tisri to October; Bul or Marcheshvan to November; Chisleu to December; Tebeth to January; Sebat to February; and Adar to March.

Month of	Jewish Name.	No. of Days.	Beginning with the new moon and corresponding with our	Products.	Jewish Festivals
Sacred Year.	Civil Year.
I.	VII.	Abib or Nisan.	30	March, April	Barley Ripe.Fig in blossom.	Passover.Unleavened Bread.
II.	VIII.	Iyar or Zif	29	April and May	Barly Harvest.
III.	IX.	Sisan or Sivan	30	May and June	Wheat harvest.	Pentecost.
IV.	X.	Tammuz	29	June, July	Early vintage.
V.	XI.	Ab	30	July, August	Ripe figs.
VI.	XII.	Elul	29	August, Sept.	General vintage.
VII.	I.	Tisri	30	Sept., Oct.	Ploughing and sowing.	Feast of Trumpets. Atonement. Feast of Tabernacles.
VIII.	II.	Bul	29	Oct., Nov.	Latter grapes.
IX.	III.	Chisleu	30	Nov., Dec.	Snow.	Dedication.
X.	IV.	Tebeth	29	Dec., Jan.	Grass after rain.
XI.	V.	Shebat	30	Jan., Feb.	Winter fig.
XII.	VI.	Adar	29	Feb., March	Almond blossom.	Purim.
XIII.		Ve-adar, intercalary.

Moon

Moon. The moon held an important place in the kingdom of nature, as known to the Hebrews. Conjointly with the sun, it was appointed “for signs and for seasons, and for days and years”; though in this respect it exercised a more important influence, if by the “seasons” we understand the great religious festivals of the Jews, as is particularly stated in Psalm 104:19, and more at length in Sirach 43:6, Sirach 43:7. The worship of the moon prevailed extensively among the nations of the East, and under a variety of aspects. It was one of the only two deities which commanded the reverence of all the Egyptians. The worship of the heavenly bodies is referred to in Job 31:26, Job 31:27, and Moses directly warns the Jews against it. Deuteronomy 4:19. In the figurative language of Scripture, the moon is frequently noticed as presaging events of the greatest importance through the temporary or permanent withdrawal of its light. Isaiah 13:10; Joel 2:31; Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:24.

Moon New

Moon, New. [NEW MOON.]

Morasthite The

Mor’asthite, The, that is, the native of a place named Moresheth. It occurs twice—Jeremiah 26:18; Micah 1:1—each time as the description of the prophet Micah.

Mordeca-i

Mor’deca-i (little man, or worshipper of Mars), the deliverer, under divine Providence, of the Jews from the destruction plotted against them by Haman the chief minister of Xerxes; the institutor of the feast of Purim. The incidents of his history are too well known to need to be dwelt upon. [ESTHER.] Three things are predicated of Mordecai in the book of Esther: (1) That he lived in Shushan; (2) That his name was Mordecai, son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish the Benjamite who was taken captive with Jehoiachin; (3) That he brought up Esther.

Moreh

Mo’reh (teacher).

1. The plain or plains (or, as it should rather be rendered, the oak or oaks) of Moreh. The oak of Moreh was the first recorded halting-place of Abram after his entrance into the land of Canaan. Genesis 12:6. It was at the “place of Shechem,” ch. Genesis 12:6, close to the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim. Deuteronomy 11:30.

2. The hill of Moreh, at the foot of which the Midianites and Amalekites were encamped before Gideon’s attack upon them. Judges 7:1. It lay in the valley of Jezreel, rather on the north side of the valley, and north also of the eminence on which Gideon’s little band of heroes was clustered. These conditions are most accurately fulfilled if we assume Jebel ed-Duhy, the “Little Hermon” of the modern travellers, 1815 feet above the Mediterranean, to be Moreh, the Ain-Jalood to be the spring of Harod, and Gideon’s position to have been on the northeast slope of Jebel Fukûa (Mount Gilboa), between the village of Nuris and the last-mentioned spring.

Moresheth-gath

Mor’esheth-gath (possession of Gath), a place named by the prophet Micah. Micah 1:14. The prophet was himself a native of a place called Moresheth.

Moriah

Mori’ah (chosen by Jehovah).

1. The land of Moriah.—On “one of the mountains” in this district took place the sacrifice of Isaac. Genesis 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 Tyropœon valley. The top 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.)

Mortar

Mortar, “a wide-mouthed vessel in form of an inverted bell, in which substances are pounded or bruised with a pestle.”—Webster. The simplest and probably most ancient method of preparing corn for food was by pounding it between two stones. The Israelites in the desert appear to have possessed mortars and handmills among their necessary domestic utensils. When the manna fell they gathered it, and either ground it in the mill or pounded it in the mortar till it was fit for use. Numbers 11:8. So in the present day stone mortars are used by the Arabs to pound wheat for their national dish kibby. Another word occurring in Proverbs 27:22 probably denotes a mortar of a larger kind in which corn was pounded: “Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.” Corn may be separated from its husk and all its good properties preserved by such an operation, but the fool’s folly is so essential a part of himself that no analogous process can remove it from him. Such seems the natural interpretation of this remarkable proverb. The language is intentionally exaggerated, and there is no necessity for supposing an allusion to a mode of punishment by which criminals were put to death by being pounded in a mortar. A custom of this kind existed among the Turks, but there is no distinct trace of it among the Hebrews. Such, however, is supposed to be the reference in the proverb by Mr. Roberts, who illustrates it from his Indian experience.

Mortar

Mortar. Genesis 11:3; Exodus 1:14; Leviticus 14:42, Leviticus 14:45; Isaiah 41:25; Ezekiel 13:10, Ezekiel 13:11, Ezekiel 13:14, Ezekiel 13:15; Ezekiel 22:28; Nahum 3:14. The various compacting substances used in Oriental buildings appear to be—

1. Bitumen, as in the Babylonian structures; 2. Common mud or moistened clay; 3. A very firm cement compounded of sand, ashes, and lime, in the proportions respectively of 1, 2, 3, well pounded, sometimes mixed and sometimes coated with oil, so as to form a surface almost impenetrable to wet or the weather. In Assyrian and also Egyptian brick buildings, stubble or straw, as hair or wool among ourselves, was added to increase the tenacity.

Moserah

Mo’serah (bonds), Deuteronomy 10:6, apparently the same as Moseroth, Numbers 33:30, its plural form, the name of a place near Mount Hor.

Moses

Mo’ses (Heb. Môsheh, “drawn,” i.e., from the water; in the Coptic it means “saved from the water”), the legislator of the Jewish people, and in a certain sense the founder of the Jewish religion. The immediate pedigree of Moses is as follows:

The history of Moses naturally divides itself into three periods of 40 years each. Moses was born at Goshen, in Egypt, b.c. 1571. The story of his birth is thoroughly Egyptian in its scene. His mother made extraordinary efforts for his preservation from the general destruction of the male children of Israel. For three months the child was concealed in the house. Then his mother placed him in a small boat or basket of papyrus, closed against the water by bitumen. This was placed among the aquatic vegetation by the side of one of the canals of the Nile. The sister lingered to watch her brother’s fate. The Egyptian princess, who, tradition says, was a childless wife, came down to bathe in the sacred river. Her attendant slaves followed her. She saw the basket in the flags, and despatched divers, who brought it. It was opened, and the cry of the child moved the princess to compassion. She determined to rear it as her own. The sister was at hand to recommend a Hebrew nurse, the child’s own mother. Here was the first part of Moses’ training—a training at home in the true religion, in faith in God, in the promises to his nation, in the life of a saint—a training which he never forgot, even amid the splendors and gilded sin of Pharaoh’s court. The child was adopted by the princess. From this time for many years Moses must be considered as an Egyptian. In the Pentateuch this period is a blank, but in the New Testament he is represented as “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,” and as “mighty in words and deeds.” Acts 7:22. This was the second part of Moses’ training.

The second period of Moses’ life began when he was forty years old. Seeing the sufferings of his people, Moses determined to go to them as their helper, and made his great life-choice, “choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.” Hebrews 11:25, Hebrews 11:26. Seeing an Israelite suffering the bastinado from an Egyptian, and thinking that they were alone, he slew the Egyptian, and buried the corpse in the sand. But the people soon showed themselves unfitted as yet to obtain their freedom, nor was Moses yet fitted to be their leader. He was compelled to leave Egypt when the slaying of the Egyptian became known, and he fled to the land of Midian, in the southern and southeastern part of the Sinai peninsula. There was a famous well (“the well,” Exodus 2:15) surrounded by tanks for the watering of the flocks of the Bedouin herdsmen. By this well the fugitive seated himself and watched the gathering of the sheep. There were the Arabian shepherds, and there were also seven maidens, whom the shepherds rudely drove away from the water. The chivalrous spirit which had already broken forth in behalf of his oppressed countrymen broke forth again in behalf of the distressed maidens. They returned unusually soon to their father, Jethro, and told him of their adventure. Moses, who up to this time had been “an Egyptian,” Exodus 2:19, now became for a time an Arabian. He married Zipporah, daughter of his host, to whom he also became the slave and shepherd. Exodus 2:21; Exodus 3:1. Here for forty years Moses communed with God and with nature, escaping from the false ideas taught him in Egypt, and sifting out the truths that were there. This was the third process of his training for his work; and from this training he learned infinitely more than from Egypt. Stanley well says, after enumerating what the Israelites derived from Egypt, that the contrast was always greater than the likeness. This process was completed when God met him on Horeb, appearing in a burning bush, and, communicating with him, appointed him to be the leader and deliverer of his people.

Now begins the third period of forty years in Moses’ life. He meets Aaron, his next younger brother, whom God permitted to be the spokesman, and together they return to Goshen in Egypt. From this time the history of Moses is the history of Israel for the next forty years. Aaron spoke and acted for Moses, and was the permanent inheritor of the sacred staff of power. But Moses was the inspiring soul behind. He is incontestably the chief personage of the history, in a sense in which no one else is described before or since. He was led into a closer communion with the invisible world than was vouchsafed to any other in the Old Testament. There are two main characters in which he appears—as a leader and as a prophet. (1) As a leader, his life divides itself into the three epochs—the march to Sinai; the march from Sinai to Kadesh; and the conquest of the transjordanic kingdoms. On approaching Palestine the office of the leader becomes blended with that of the general or the conqueror. By Moses the spies were sent to explore the country. Against his advice took place the first disastrous battle at Hormah. To his guidance is ascribed the circuitous route by which the nation approached Palestine from the east, and to his generalship the two successful campaigns in which Sihon and Og were defeated. The narrative is told so briefly that we are in danger of forgetting that at this last stage of his life Moses must have been as much a conqueror and victorious soldier as was Joshua. (2) His character as a prophet is, from the nature of the case, more distinctly brought out. He is the first as he is the greatest example of a prophet in the Old Testament. His brother and sister were both endowed with prophetic gifts. The seventy elders, and Eldad and Medad also, all “prophesied.” Numbers 11:25-27. But Moses rose high above all these. With him the divine revelations were made “mouth to mouth.” Numbers 12:8. Of the special modes of this more direct communication, four great examples are given, corresponding to four critical epochs in his historical career. (a) The appearance of the divine presence in the flaming acacia tree. Exodus 3:2-6. (b) In the giving of the law from Mount Sinai, the outward form of the revelation was a thick darkness as of a thunder-cloud, out of which proceeded a voice. Exodus 19:19; Exodus 20:21. On two occasions he is described as having penetrated within the darkness. Exodus 24:18; Exodus 34:28. (c) It was nearly at the close of these communications in the mountains of Sinai that an especial revelation of God was made to him personally. Exodus 33:21, Exodus 33:22; Exodus 34:5, Exodus 34:6, Exodus 34:7. God passed before him. (d) The fourth mode of divine manifestation was that which is described as beginning at this juncture, and which was maintained with more or less continuity through the rest of his career. Exodus 33:7. It was the communication with God in the tabernacle from out the pillar of cloud and fire. There is another form of Moses’ prophetic gift, viz., the poetical form of composition which characterizes the Jewish prophecy generally. These poetical utterances are—

1. “The song which Moses and the children of Israel sung” (after the passage of the Red Sea). Exodus 15:1-19. 2. A fragment of a warsong against Amalek. Exodus 17:16. 3. A fragment of a lyrical burst of indignation. Exodus 32:18. 4. The fragments of warsongs, probably from either him or his immediate prophetic followers, in Numbers 21:14, Numbers 21:15, Numbers 21:27-30, preserved in the “book of the wars of Jehovah,” Numbers 21:14; and the address to the well. ch. Numbers 21:18. 5. The song of Moses, Deuteronomy 32:1-43, setting forth the greatness and the failings of Israel. 6. The blessing of Moses on the tribes. Deuteronomy 33:1-29. 7. The 90th Psalm, “A prayer of Moses, the man of God.” The title, like all the titles of the psalms, is of doubtful authority, and the psalm has often been referred to a later author.

Character.—The prophetic office of Moses can only be fully considered in connection with his whole character and appearance. Hosea 12:13. He was in a sense peculiar to himself the founder and representative of his people; and in accordance with this complete identification of himself with his nation is the only strong personal trait which we are able to gather from his history. Numbers 12:3. The word “meek” is hardly an adequate reading of the Hebrew term, which should be rather “much enduring.” It represents what we should now designate by the word “disinterested.” All that is told of him indicates a withdrawal of himself, a preference of the cause of his nation to his own interests, which makes him the most complete example of Jewish patriotism. (He was especially a man of prayer and of faith, of wisdom, courage, and patience.) In exact conformity with his life is the account of his end. The book of Deuteronomy describes, and is, the long last farewell of the prophet to his people. This takes place on the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year of the wanderings, in the plains of Moab. Deuteronomy 1:3, Deuteronomy 1:5. Moses is described as 120 years of age, but with his sight and his freshness of strength unabated. Deuteronomy 34:7. Joshua is appointed his successor. The law is written out and ordered to be deposited in the ark. ch. Deuteronomy 31. The song and the blessing of the tribes conclude the farewell. chs. Deuteronomy 32, Deuteronomy 33. And then comes the mysterious close. He is told that he is to see the good land beyond the Jordan, but not to possess it himself. He ascends the mount of Pisgah and stands on Nebo, one of its summits, and surveys the four great masses of Palestine west of the Jordan, so far as it can be discerned from that height. The view has passed into a proverb for all nations. “So Moses the servant of Jehovah died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of Jehovah. And he buried him in a ‘ravine’ in the land of Moab, ‘before’ Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. . . . And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days.” Deuteronomy 34:5, Deuteronomy 34:6, Deuteronomy 34:8. This is all that is said in the sacred record. (This burial was thus hidden probably—(1) To preserve his grave from idolatrous worship or superstitious reverence; and (2) Because it may be that God did not intend to leave his body to corruption, but to prepare it, as he did the body of Elijah, so that Moses could in his spiritual body meet Christ, together with Elijah, on the mount of transfiguration.)

Moses is spoken of as a likeness of Christ; and as this is a point of view which has been almost lost in the Church, compared with the more familiar comparisons of Christ to Adam, David, Joshua, and yet has as firm a basis in fact as any of them, it may be well to draw it out in detail. (1) Moses is, as it would seem, the only character of the Old Testament to whom Christ expressly likens himself: “Moses wrote of me.” John 5:46. It suggests three main points of likeness: (a) Christ was, like Moses, the great prophet of the people—the last, as Moses was the first. (b) Christ, like Moses, is a lawgiver: “Him shall ye hear.” (c) Christ, like Moses, was a prophet out of the midst of the nation, “from their brethren.” As Moses was the entire representative of his people, feeling for them more than for himself, absorbed in their interests, hopes and fears, so, with reverence be it said, was Christ. (2) In Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 12:24-29; Acts 7:37, Christ is described, though more obscurely, as the Moses of the new dispensation—as the apostle or messenger or mediator of God to the people—as the controller and leader of the flock or household of God. (3) The details of their lives are sometimes, though not often, compared. Acts 7:24-28, Acts 7:35. In Jude 9 is an allusion to an altercation between Michael and Satan over the body of Moses. It probably refers to a lost apocryphal book, mentioned by Origen, called the “Ascension” or “Assumption of Moses.” Respecting the books of Moses, see PENTATEUCH.

Moth

Moth. By the Hebrew word we are certainly to understand some species of clothes-moth (tinea). Reference to the destructive habits of the clothes-moth is made in Job 4:19; Job 13:28; Psalm 39:11, etc. (The moth is a well-known insect which in its caterpillar state is very destructive to woollen clothing, furs, etc. The egg of the moth, being deposited on the fur or cloth, produces a very small shining insect, which immediately forms a house for itself by cuttings from the cloth. It eats away the nap, and finally ruins the fabric. There are more than 1500 species of moths.—McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopedia.)

Cloth Moths.

Mother

Mother. The superiority of the Hebrew over all contemporaneous systems of legislation and of morals is strongly shown in the higher estimation of the mother in the Jewish family, as contrasted with modern Oriental as well as ancient Oriental and classical usage. The king’s mother, as appears in the case of Bath-sheba, was treated with special honor. Exodus 20:12; Leviticus 19:3; Deuteronomy 5:16; Deuteronomy 21:18, Deuteronomy 21:21; 1 Kings 2:19; Proverbs 10:1; Proverbs 15:20; Proverbs 17:25; Proverbs 29:15; Proverbs 31:1, Proverbs 31:30.

Mount

Mount. Isaiah 29:3; Jeremiah 6:6, etc. [SIEGE.]

Mount Mountain

Mount, Mountain. The Hebrew word har, like the English “mountain,” is employed for both single eminences more or less isolated, such as Sinai, Gerizim, Ebal, Zion, and Olivet, and for ranges, such as Lebanon. It is also applied to a mountainous country or district.

Mountain of the Amorites

Mountain of the Amorites, specifically mentioned Deuteronomy 1:19, Deuteronomy 1:20; comp. Deuteronomy 1:44. It seems to be the range which rises abruptly from the plateau of et-Tih, south of Judea, running from a little south of west to north of east, and of which the extremities are the Jebel Araif en-Nakah westward and Jebel el-Mukrah eastward, and from which line the country continues mountainous all the way to Hebron.

Mourning

Mourning. One marked feature of Oriental mourning is what may be called its studied publicity and the careful observance of the prescribed ceremonies. Genesis 23:2; Job 1:20; Job 2:12.

1. Among the particular forms observed the following may be mentioned: (a) Rending the clothes. Genesis 37:29, Genesis 37:34; Genesis 44:13, etc. (b) Dressing in sackcloth. Genesis 37:34; 2 Samuel 3:31; 2 Samuel 21:10, etc. (c) Ashes, dust or earth sprinkled on the person. 2 Samuel 13:19; 2 Samuel 15:32, etc. (d) Black or sad-colored garments. 2 Samuel 14:2; Jeremiah 8:21, etc. (e) Removal of ornaments or neglect of person. Deuteronomy 21:12, Deuteronomy 21:13, etc. (f) Shaving the head, plucking out the hair of the head or beard. Leviticus 10:6; 2 Samuel 19:24, etc. (g) Laying bare some part of the body. Isaiah 20:2; Isaiah 47:2, etc. (h) Fasting or abstinence in meat and drink. 2 Samuel 1:12; 2 Samuel 3:35; 2 Samuel 12:16, 2 Samuel 12:22, etc. (i) In the same direction may be mentioned diminution in offerings to God, and prohibition to partake of sacrificial food. Leviticus 7:20; Deuteronomy 26:14. (k) Covering the “upper lip,” i.e., the lower part of the fact, and sometimes the head, in token of silence. Leviticus 13:45; 2 Samuel 15:30; 2 Samuel 19:4. (l) Cutting the flesh, Jeremiah 16:6, Jeremiah 16:7; Jeremiah 41:5; beating the body. Ezekiel 21:12; Jeremiah 31:19. (m) Employment of persons hired for the purpose of mourning. Ecclesiastes 12:5; Jeremiah 9:17; Amos 5:16; Matthew 9:23. (n) Akin to the foregoing usage the custom for friends or passers-by to join in the lamentations of bereaved or afflicted persons. Genesis 50:3; Judges 11:40; Job 2:11; Job 30:25, etc. (o) The sitting or lying posture in silence indicative of grief. Genesis 23:3; Judges 20:26, etc. (p) Mourning feast and cup of consolation. Jeremiah 16:7, Jeremiah 16:8. 2. The period of mourning varied. In the case of Jacob it was seventy days, Genesis 50:3; of Aaron, Numbers 20:29, and Moses, Deuteronomy 34:8, thirty. A further period of seven days in Jacob’s case. Genesis 50:10. Seven days for Saul, which may have been an abridged period in the time of national danger. 1 Samuel 31:13.

With the practices above mentioned, Oriental and other customs, ancient and modern, in great measure agree. Arab men are silent in grief, but the women scream, tear their hair, hands, and face, and throw earth or sand on their heads. Both Mohammedans and Christians in Egypt hire wailing-women, and wail at stated times. Burckhardt says the women of Atbara in Nubia shave their heads on the death of their nearest relatives—a custom prevalent also among several of the peasant tribes of upper Egypt. He also mentions wailing-women, and a man in distress besmearing his face with dirt and dust in token of grief. In the “Arabian Nights” are frequent allusions to similar practices. It also mentions ten days and forty days as periods of mourning. Lane, speaking of the modern Egyptians, says, “After death the women of the family raise cries of lamentation called welwelıh or wilwúl, uttering the most piercing shrieks, and calling upon the name of the deceased, ‘Oh, my master! Oh, my resource! Oh, my misfortune! Oh, my glory!’ See Jeremiah 22:18. The females of the neighborhood come to join with them in this conclamation: generally, also, the family send for two or more neddâbehs or public wailing-women. Each brings a tambourine, and beating them they exclaim, ‘Alas for him!’ The female relatives, domestics and friends, with their hair dishevelled and sometimes with rent clothes, beating their faces, cry in like manner, ‘Alas for him!’ These make no alteration in dress, but women, in some cases, dye their shirts, head-veils, and handkerchiefs of a dark-blue color. They visit the tombs at stated periods.”—Mod. Eg. iii. 152, 171, 195.

Mourning.

Mouse

Mouse (the corn-eater). The name of this animal occurs in Leviticus 11:29; 1 Samuel 6:4, 1 Samuel 6:5; Isaiah 66:17. The Hebrew word is in all probability generic, and is not intended to denote any particular species of mouse. The original word denotes a field-ravager, and may therefore comprehend any destructive rodent. Tristram found twenty-three species of mice in Palestine. It is probable that in 1 Samuel 6:5 the expression “the mice that mar the land” includes and more particularly refers to the short-tailed field-mice (Arvicola agrestis, Flem.), which cause great destruction to the corn-lands of Syria.

The Field Mouse.

Mowing

Mowing. As the great heat of the climate in Palestine and other similarly-situated countries soon dries up the herbage itself, hay-making in our sense of the term is not in use. The “king’s mowings,” Amos 7:1, may perhaps refer to some royal right of early pasturage for the use of the cavalry.

Moza

Mo’za (fountain).

1. Son of Caleb the son of Hezron. 1 Chronicles 2:46.

2. Son of Zimri and descendant of Saul. 1 Chronicles 8:36, 1 Chronicles 8:37; 1 Chronicles 9:42, 1 Chronicles 9:43.

Mozah

Mo’zah (fountain), one of the cities in the allotment of Benjamin, Joshua 18:26 only, named between hac-Cephirah and Rekem.

Mulberry trees

Mulberry trees (Heb. becâı̂m). Mention of these is made only in 2 Samuel 5:23, 2 Samuel 5:24 and 1 Chronicles 14:14. We are quite unable to determine what kind of tree is denoted by the Hebrew word. Some believe pear trees are meant; others the aspen or poplar, whose leaves tremble and rustle with the slightest breeze, even when the breeze is not otherwise perceptible. It may have been to the rustling of these leaves that the “going in the tree tops” refers. 2 Samuel 5:23, 2 Samuel 5:24.

Mule

Mule, a hybrid animal, the offspring of a horse and an ass. “The mule is smaller than the horse, and is a remarkably hardy, patient, obstinate, sure-footed animal, living, ordinarily, twice as long as a horse.”—McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopedia. It was forbidden to the Israelites to breed mules, but sometimes they imported them. It would appear that only kinds and great men rode on mules. We do not read of mules at all in the New Testament; perhaps therefore they had ceased to be imported.

Muppim

Mup’pim (serpent), a Benjamite, and one of the fourteen descendants of Rachel who belonged to the original colony of the sons of Jacob in Egypt. Genesis 46:21. (b.c. 1706.) In Numbers 26:39 the name is given as SHUPHAM.

Murder

Murder. The law of Moses, while it protected the accidental homicide, defined with additional strictness the crime of murder. It prohibited compensation or reprieve of the murderer, or his protection if he took refuge in the refuge city, or even at the altar of Jehovah. Exodus 21:12, Exodus 21:14; Leviticus 24:17, Leviticus 24:21; 1 Kings 2:5, 1 Kings 2:6, 1 Kings 2:31. The duty of executing punishment on the murderer is in the law expressly laid on the “revenger of blood”; but the question of guilt was to be previously decided by the Levitical tribunal. In regal times the duty of execution of justice on a murderer seems to have been assumed to some extent by the sovereign, as was also the privilege of pardon. 2 Samuel 13:39; 2 Samuel 14:7, 2 Samuel 14:11; 1 Kings 2:34. It was lawful to kill a burglar taken at night in the act, but unlawful to do so after sunrise. Exodus 22:2, Exodus 22:3.

Mushi

Mu’shi (yielding), the son of Merari the son of Kohath. Exodus 6:19; Numbers 3:20; 1 Chronicles 6:19, 1 Chronicles 6:47; 1 Chronicles 23:21, 1 Chronicles 23:23; 1 Chronicles 24:26, 1 Chronicles 24:30.

Music

Music.

1. The most ancient music.—The inventor of musical instruments, like the first poet and the first forger of metals, was a Cainite. We learn from Genesis 4:21 that Jubal the son of Lamech was “the father of all such as handle the harp and organ,” that is, of all players upon stringed and wind instruments. The first mention of music in the times after the deluge is in the narrative of Laban’s interview with Jacob, Genesis 31:27; so that, whatever way it was preserved, the practice of music existed in the upland country of Syria, and of the three possible kinds of musical instruments, two were known and employed to accompany the song. The three kinds are alluded to in Job 21:12. On the banks of the Red Sea Moses and the children of Israel sang their triumphal song of deliverance from the hosts of Egypt; and Miriam, in celebration of the same event, exercised one of her functions as a prophetess by leading a procession of the women of the camp, chanting in chorus the burden of the song of Moses. The song of Deborah and Barak is cast in a distinctly metrical form, and was probably intended to be sung with a musical accompaniment as one of the people’s songs. The simpler impromptu with which the women from the cities of Israel greeted David after the slaughter of the Philistines was apparently struck off on the spur of the moment, under the influence of the wild joy with which they welcomed their national champion, “the darling of the sons of Israel.” 1 Samuel 18:6, 1 Samuel 18:7. Up to this time we meet with nothing like a systematic cultivation of music among the Hebrews, but the establishment of the schools of the prophets appears to have supplied this want. Whatever the students of these schools may have been taught, music was an essential part of their practice. Professional musicians soon became attached to the court.

2. The golden age of Hebrew music.—David seems to have gathered round him “singing men and singing women.” 2 Samuel 19:35. Solomon did the same, Ecclesiastes 2:8, adding to the luxury of his court by his patronage of art, and obtaining a reputation himself as no mean composer. 1 Kings 4:32. But the temple was the great school of music, and it was consecrated to its highest service in the worship of Jehovah. Before, however, the elaborate arrangements had been made by David for the temple choir, there must have been a considerable body of musicians throughout the country. 2 Samuel 6:5. (David chose 4000 musicians from the 38,000 Levites in his reign, or one in ten of the whole tribe. Of these musicians 288 were specially trained and skillful. 1 Chronicles 25:6, 1 Chronicles 25:7. The whole number was divided into 24 courses, each of which would thus consist of a full band of 154 musicians, presided over by a body of 12 specially-trained leaders, under one of the twenty-four sons of Asaph, Heman, or Jeduthun as conductor. The leaders appear to have played on the cymbals, perhaps to mark the time. 1 Chronicles 15:19; 1 Chronicles 16:5. All these joined in a special chant which David taught them, and which went by his name. 1 Chronicles 23:5. Women also took part in the temple choir. 1 Chronicles 13:8; 1 Chronicles 25:5, 1 Chronicles 25:6. These great choirs answered one to another in responsive singing; thus the temple music must have been grand and inspiring beyond anything known before that time.

3. Character of Hebrew music.—As in all Oriental nations, the music of the Hebrews was melody rather than harmony, which latter was then unknown. All, old and young, men and maidens, singers and instruments, appear to have sung one part only in unison, or in octaves. “The beauty of the music consisted altogether in the melody”; but this, with so many instruments and voices, was so charming that “the whole of antiquity is full of the praises of this music. By its means battles were won, cities conquered, mutinies quelled, diseases cured.”—Ed.)

4. Uses of music.—In the private as well as in the religious life of the Hebrews music held a prominent place. The kings had their court musicians, 2 Chronicles 35:25; Ecclesiastes 2:8; and in the luxurious times of the later monarchy the effeminate gallants of Israel amused themselves with devising musical instruments while their nation was perishing (“as Nero fiddled while Rome was burning”). But music was also the legitimate expression of mirth and gladness. The bridal processions as they passed through the streets were accompanied with music and song. Jeremiah 7:34. The music of the banquets was accompanied with songs and dancing. Luke 15:25. The triumphal processions which celebrated a victory were enlivened by minstrels and singers. Exodus 15:1, Exodus 15:20; Judges 5:1; Judges 11:34. There were also religious songs. Isaiah 30:29; James 5:13. Love songs are alluded to in Psalm 45, title, and Isaiah 5:1. There were also the doleful songs of the funeral procession, and the wailing chant of the mourners. The grape-gatherers sang at their work, and the women sang as they toiled at the mill, and on every occasion the land of the Hebrews during their national prosperity was a land of music and melody.

Musical instruments of the Hebrews

Musical instruments of the Hebrews. (There has been great obscurity as to the instruments of music in use among the Hebrews, but the discoveries on the monuments of Egypt and Assyria have thrown much light upon the form and nature of these instruments.

I. Stringed instruments.—

1. The harp or lyre. [See illustration.] 2. The psaltery, the name of various large instruments of the harp kind. 3. The sackbut, a harp-like instrument of four strings and of triangular form. 4. A kind of lute or guitar (mahalath), in titles to Psalm 53 and Psalm 88, with a long, flat neck, and a hollow body of wood whose surface was perforated with holes. There were three strings, and the whole instrument was three or four feet long. 5. The gittith, in titles to Psalm 8, Psalm 81, Psalm 84, a stringed instrument, probably found by David at Gath, whence its name.

I. Egyptian Harps.

II. Instruments of percussion.—

1. The timbrel, a form of tambourine, a narrow hoop covered with a tightened skin, and struck with the hand. On the Egyptian monuments are three kinds—the circular, the square, and another formed by two squares separated by a bar. 2. The drum (toph). Of this there were many varieties, some of them resembling modern drums. The Egyptians had a long drum, of wood or copper, 2½ feet long, resembling the tom-tom of India, and beaten by the hand. Another form was shaped like a cask with bulging centre, and was made of copper. It was of the same length as the other, but larger around, and was beaten with sticks. Another drum was more like our kettle-drum; and one of these, the rabbins say, was placed in the temple court to call the priests to prayer, and could be heard from Jerusalem to Jericho. 3. Bells (paamon), attached to the high priest’s dress, and rung by striking against the knobs, shaped like pomegranates, which were hung near them. 4. Cymbals. The earliest cymbals were probably finger-cymbals—small plates of metal fastened to the thumb and middle finger, and struck together. Afterward there were the large cymbals, played with both hands. 5. Systra (menaanim), 2 Samuel 6:5, there translated cornets. The systrum was a carved bronze or copper frame, with a handle, in all from 8 to 18 inches long, with movable rings and bars. It was shaken with the hand, and the rings and bars made a piercing metallic sound by striking against the bronze frame. 6. The triangle (shalishim), 1 Samuel 18:6, a musical instrument (machol) used for accompanying the dance, and several times translated dancing. Psalm 150:3-5. It was a metallic rim or frame, sometimes with a handle, and had small bells attached to it, or bars across on which were strung metallic rings or plates. It was held in the hand, and was played by the women at weddings and merry-makings.

II. Instruments of Percussion.

III. Wind instruments.—

1. The syrinx, pandean pipe or bagpipe (ugab); translated “organ” in Genesis 4:21. Either like the bagpipe, or a series of pipes from 5 to 23 in number, though usually only 7. 2. The horn, in the form of an animal’s horn even when made of metal, but originating in the use of the horns of cattle. 3. The trumpet (shophar), same as horn, 2. 4. The straight trumpet. 5. The flute (halil, meaning “bored through”), a pipe perforated with holes, originally made from reeds, but afterward of wood, bone, horn, or ivory. It was chiefly consecrated to joy or pleasure. 6. The flute, alluded to in Daniel 3:5; probably a kind of double flageolet. 7. The dulcimer, Daniel 3:5, a kind of bagpipe with two shrill reeds. The modern dulcimer is a triangular instrument strung with about 59 brass wires, and played upon with little sticks or metallic rods. It more resembles the ancient psaltery than the dulcimer of Daniel 3:5.—Ed.)

III. Wind Instruments.

Mustard

Mustard is mentioned in Matthew 13:31; Matthew 17:20; Mark 4:31; Luke 13:19; Luke 17:6. It is generally agreed that the mustard tree of Scripture is the black mustard (Sinapis nigra). The objection commonly made against any sinapis being the plant of the parable is that the seed grew into “a tree,” in which the fowls of the air are said to come and lodge. As to this objection, it is urged with great truth that the expression is figurative and Oriental, and that in a proverbial simile no literal accuracy is to be expected. It is an error, for which the language of Scripture is not accountable, to assert that the passage implies that birds “built their nests” in the tree: the Greek word has no such meaning; the word merely means “to settle or rest upon” anything for a longer or shorter time; nor is there any occasion to suppose that the expression “fowls of the air” denotes any other than the smaller insessorial kinds—linnets, finches, etc. Hiller’s explanation is probably the correct one—that the birds came and settled on the mustard-plant for the sake of the seed, of which they are very fond. Dr. Thomson also says he has seen the wild mustard on the rich plain of Akkar as tall as the horse and the rider. If, then, the wild plant on the rich plain of Akkar grows as high as a man on horseback, it might attain to the same or a greater height when in a cultivated garden. The expression “which is indeed the least of all seeds” is in all probability hyperbolical, to denote a very small seed indeed, as there are many seeds which are smaller than mustard. “The Lord in his popular teaching,” says Trench (“Notes on Parables,” 108), “adhered to the popular language”; and the mustard-seed was used proverbially to denote anything very minute; or it may mean that it was the smallest of all garden seeds, which it is in truth.

The Mustard Plant.

Muth-labben

Muth-labben. “To the chief musician upon Muth-labben” is the title of Psalm 9, which has given rise to infinite conjecture. It may be either upon the death (muth) of the fool (labben), as an anagram on Nabal, or as Gesenius, “to be chanted by boys with virgins’ voices,” i.e., in the soprano.

Myra

My’ra, an important town in Lycia, on the southwest coast of Asia Minor, on the river Andriacus, 2½ miles from its mouth, referred to in Acts 27:5. Myra (called Dembra by the Greeks) is remarkable still for its remains of various periods of history.

Myrrh

Myrrh. This substance is mentioned in Exodus 30:23 as one of the ingredients of the “oil of holy ointment”; in Esther 2:12, as one of the substances used in the purification of women; in Psalm 45:8; Proverbs 7:17, and in several passages in Canticles, as a perfume. The Greek occurs in Matthew 2:11 among the gifts brought by the wise men to the infant Jesus; and in Mark 15:23 it is said that “wine mingled with myrrh” was offered to, but refused by, our Lord on the cross. Myrrh was also used for embalming. See John 19:39 and Herod. ii. 86. The Balsamodendron myrrha, which produces the myrrh of commerce, has a wood and bark which emit a strong odor; the gum which exudes from the bark is at first oily, but becomes hard by exposure to the air. (This myrrh is in small yellowish or white globules or tears. The tree is small, with a stunted trunk, covered with light-gray bark. It is found in Arabia Felix. The myrrh of Genesis 37:25 was probably ladanum, a highly-fragrant resin and volatile oil used as a cosmetic, and stimulative as a medicine. It is yielded by the cistus, known in Europe as the rock rose, a shrub with rose-colored flowers, growing in Palestine and along the shores of the Mediterranean.—Ed.) For wine mingled with myrrh see GALL.

Myrrh.

Myrtle

Myrtle, a plant mentioned in Nehemiah 8:15; Isaiah 41:19; Isaiah 55:13; Zechariah 1:8, Zechariah 1:10, Zechariah 1:11. The modern Jews still adorn with myrtle the booths and sheds at the feast of tabernacles. Formerly, as we learn from Nehemiah, Nehemiah 8:15, myrtles grew on the hills about Jerusalem. “On Olivet,” says Dean Stanley, “nothing is now to be seen but the olive and the fig tree”; on some of the hills near Jerusalem, however, Hasselquist observed the myrtle. Dr. Hooker says it is not uncommon in Samaria and Galilee. The Myrtus communis is the kind denoted by the Hebrew word. (It is a shrub or low tree, sometimes ten feet high, with green shining leaves, and snow-white flowers bordered with purple, “which emit a perfume more exquisite than that of the rose.” The seeds of the myrtle, dried before they are ripe, form our allspice.—Ed.)

Myrtle.

Mysia

Mys’ia (land of beech trees), Acts 16:7, Acts 16:8, was the region about the frontier of the provinces of Asia and Bithynia. The term is evidently used in an ethnological, not a political, sense.