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Merom, Thewaters of – Mess

Page 160 of 259

Merom, Thewaters of

Thescene of Joshua’s victory over the northern kings; usually identifled with Lake Huleh in the Upper Jordan Valley (, ). This identification is accepted by Robinson iBRPa. 440), G. A. Smith (HGHU, 481), and others. It is questioned by Socin (Baedeker’s PalOstina), Buhl (GA P), and Guthe (BibelwHrterbuch, s.v.), the last suggesting an impossible position near Meirdn, at the base of Jebd Jermuk. Joshua’s crowning victory would not be located by such ‘waters’ as are to be found there. The kings were encamped at Beroth, not far from Kadesh (Jos. Ant. V. i. 18), but probably they descended, as did Demetrius at a later date (Ant. xm. v. 7), to battle in the plain, better suited than the rough uplands for the chariots on which they depended. There is nothing to wonder at in the disappearance of the ancient name, in a land where so many names have perished. It is almost certainly the lake Semechonitis of Ant. v. v. 1; the district to the N. was known as Ulatha (Ant. xv. X. 3; BJ 1. XX. 4). This is the first appearance of the modern name — Ulatha = Huleh— which covers both the lake and the district. The water is supplied by the fountains of the Jordan at Hasbeiyeh, Banlas, and Tell el-Kadi, by the springs at ‘Ain el-Balata and’ Ain el- Mellaha on the western side of the valley; Mt. Hermon and the neighbouring slopes also drain into the basin. In shape Baheiret d-HUleh is almost triangular. It lies 7 ft. above sea-level. The open water is about four miles in length by about three miles at the broadest part. It Is from 10 to 16 ft. in depth. To the N. stretch great breadths of marsh land, with dense thickets of papyrus reeds, through which. In various channels, the streams find their way to the lake. Water fowl of all kinds abound, and the place is a sort of fisherman’s paradise. The Ghawarineh Arabs occupy the valley, till the soil, tend the buffaloes, hunt, and fish. The hair tent is seldom seen: their ‘houses’ are ‘built’ of the papyrus reed. W. Ewinq.

Meronothite

A designation applied In the OT to two men. 1. Jehdeiah (). 2. Jadon (). From the context of Meronoth would appear to have been in the neighbourhood of Gibeon and Mlzpah.

Meroz

A place which the angel of Jahweh bids men curse, together with its inhabitants, because they did not come to fight Jahweh’s battle against Sisera. It is mentioned only in . and probably owes its mention merely to the fact that it ‘lay in the line of Sisera’s flight’ (Moore). W. O. B. Oesteeley.

Merran

Baruch 3:23 only. Probably d was misread r in the Sem. original, and the name =Midian (cf . , , ).

Mesaloth

See Arbela.

Mesha

1. Son of Shaharaim, a Benjamlte (). 2. Firstborn of Caleb ().

Mesha

A king of Moab in the 9th cent. B.C. According to an inscription (on the ‘Moabite Stone’ discovered at Dibon in 1868) describing his deeds, he expelled the Israelitish inhabitants from northern Moab, or from a portion of the debatable land between the two monarchies east of the northern third of the Dead Sea. Under Omri, the builder of Samaria, the border of Israel had been extended southwards to near its ancient limits ( ff.) and Mesha reclaimed it by vindictive warfare, from Kiriathaim as far as Nebo. also deals with the relation between northern Israel and Mesha, and it is difficult to reconcile the two accounts in every detail. The matter can best be dealt with here by giving the most probable order of the events: (1) the conquest by Omri [Inscription, lines 4, 5] about B.C. 880; (2) the expulsion of the Hebrews by Mesha in the time of Ahab [Inscr. 1. 8 ff.] about B.C. 855, Mesha’s ‘forty years’ being, as also often in Hebrew narrative, a round number; (3) the refusal of Mesha to again submit, which is all that the Hebrew of 2. K (EV ‘rebelled’) necessarily implies; (4) the unsuccessful expedition by Joram and his allies to reduce Mesha to submission, recorded in .

J. F. M ‘Curdy.

Mesha

Mesha is mentioned as marking one of the boundaries of the territory ascribed to the descendants of Joktan In . Its position has not yet been satisfactorily identified. The proposed identification with the late territory of Mesene at the head of the Persian Gulf is improbable. A better case can be made out for identifying it with Mash or Mashu, a general term in the Assyrian inscriptions for the Syro-Arabian desert; though the passage suggests that a single place, or tribe, rather than so vast a region, is referred to. If the vowel points be emended the word may be read as Massa, the name of a son of Ishmael in and . Traces of this latter tribe have been sought in place names in central Arabia, but no identification yet suggested can be regarded as certain.

L. W. King.

Meshach

The name Mishael, by which one of Daniel’s three companions, of the children of Judah, was originally called, was changed by the prince of the eunuchs into Meshach ( and ch. 3). Such changes of name were not uncommon; they marked the fact that a new state of life had now begun. The meaning of the name is quite uncertain.

Meshech

1. The name of a people of Asia Minor mentioned after Tubal as among the sons of Japheth (). These two peoples, possibly kindred, appear almost always in conjunction in OT; so even in , where read ‘Meshech’ instead of ‘that draw the bow’ (the word for ‘bow’ being a supplementary gloss). In Fs 120 Meshech and Kedar appear as types of barbarous and warlike people, just as Meshech and Tubal are represented in . In the Assyrian annals the Taball and Mtishkl, who are undoubtedly the same as Tubal and Meshech, are found again together (as fierce opponents of Assyria in the 12th cent, b.c), the former lying to the north-east of Cilicia and the latter eastward between them and the Euphrates. The Tibareni and Moschi of the classical writers must stand tor the same two peoples. names them as trading in slaves and articles of bronze.

2. In " Meshech" is written by mistake for ‘Mash’ (cf. ) J. F. M’Cubdt.

Meshelebhah

The eponym of a family of Korahite doorkeepers ( ) = Shelemiah of , Shallum of , and Meshullam of .

Meshezabel

1. One of those who helped to repair the wall (). 2. One of those who sealed the covenant (). 3. The father of Pethahiah ().

Meshillemith

A priest ()) called in Meshillemoth.

Meshillemoth

1. An Ephraimite () 2. A priest () called in .

Meshobab

A Simeonite ().

Mesh

Mesh tJlLAM.— 1. 2. 3. Three Benjamltes ( 9’- 4. A Gadite (). 5. The grandfather of Shaphan (). 6. The father of Hilkiah (1 Ch ). 7. Another priest of the same family (). 8. A Kohathite (). 9. A son of Zerubbabel (). 10. One of the ‘chief men’ whose services were enlisted by Ezra to procure Levites ()) called in 1 Esdras 8:44 Mosollamus. 11, A Levite who opposed Ezra’s proceedings in connexion with the foreign marriages () called in 1 Esdras 9:14 Mosollamus. 12. One of those who had married foreign wives () called in 1 Esdras 9:30 Olamus. 13. Son of Berechiah, one of those who helped to repair the walls of Jerusalem (). His daughter was married to Tobiah (). 14. Son of Besodeiah. He helped to repair the old gate (). 15. One of the company that stood at Ezra’s left hand during the reading of the Law (). 16. 17. A priest and a chief of the people who sealed the covenant (, ). 18. One of the princes of Judah who marched in procession at the dedication of the walls of Jerusalem (). 19. 20. 21. Two heads of priestly houses and a porter in the time of the high priest Joiakim ( [see Meshelemzab]) .

Meshullemeth

Wife of king Manasseh and mother of Amon ().

MESOPOTAMIA =Aram-naharalm (see Aram).

Mess

A mess is any dish of food sent to the table (Lat. missum, Fr. mes). The word occurs in , , Sirach 30:18, and RV introduces it at

James Hastings (ed.), with John A. Selbie and John C. Lambert, Dictionary of the Bible (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1909). Public domain. Scan of Cornell University Library’s copy from the Internet Archive; text from its OCR, with the Bible references read again from the page images.