Moses (continued) – Muppim

Moses (continued)

The place held by Moses in the New Testament is as unique as in the Old Testament, though far less prominent. Indeed, he holds the same place, though presented in a different light. In the Old Testament he is the type of the Prophet to be raised up "like unto" him. It is the time of types, and Moses, the type, is most conspicuous. In the New Testament the Prophet "like unto Moses" has come. He now stands out the greatest One in human history, while Moses, the type, fades away in the shadow. It is thus he appears in Christ's remarkable reference to him: "He wrote of me" (John 5:46). The principal thing which Moses wrote specifically of Christ is this passage: "Yahweh thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me" (Deuteronomy 18:15,Deuteronomy 18:18). Again in the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is the formal passing over from the types of the Old Testament to the fulfillment in the New Testament, Jesus is made to stand out as the Moses of the new dispensation (Hebrews 3:1–19; Hebrews 12:24–29). Other most important New Testament references to Moses are Matthew 17:3; Mark 9:4; Luke 9:30; John 1:17,John 1:45; John 3:14; Romans 5:14; Jude 1:9; Revelation 15:3.

II. Work and Character.

So little is known of the private life of Moses that his personal character can scarcely be separated from the part which he bore in public affairs. It is the work he wrought for Israel and for mankind which fixes his place among the great ones of earth. The life which we have just sketched as the life of the leader of Israel is also the life of the author, the lawgiver, and the prophet.

1. The Author:

It is not within the province of this article to discuss in full the great critical controversies concerning the authorship of Moses which have been summed up against him thus: "It is doubtful whether we can regard Moses as an author in the literary sense" (HDB, III, 446; see PENTATEUCH; DEUTERONOMY). It will only be in place here to present a brief statement of the evidence in the case for Moses. There is no longer any question concerning the literary character of the age in which Moses lived. That Moses might have written is indisputable. But did he write, and how much? What evidence bears at these points?

(1) "Moses Wrote."

The idea of writing or of writings is found 60 times in the Pentateuch It is definitely recorded in writing purporting to be by Moses. 7 times that Moses wrote or was commanded to write (Exodus 17:14; Exodus 34:27; Exodus 39:30; Numbers 17:2,Numbers 17:3; Deuteronomy 10:4; Deuteronomy 31:24) and frequently of others in his times (Deuteronomy 6:9; Deuteronomy 27:3; Deuteronomy 31:19; Joshua 8:32). Joshua at the great convocation at Shechem for the taking of the covenant wrote "these words in the book of the law of God" (Joshua 24:26). Thus is declared the existence of such a book but 25 years after the death of Moses (compare Bible Student, 1901, 269-74). It is thus clearly asserted by the Scriptures as a fact that Moses in the wilderness a little after the exodus was "writing" "books."

(2) Moses' Library.

There are many library marks in the Pentateuch, even in those portions which by nearly all, even the most radical, critics are allowed to be probably the writings of Moses. The Pentateuch as a whole has such library marks all over it.

On the one hand this is entirely consistent with the known literary character of the age in which Moses lived. One who was "instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" might have had in his possession Egyptian records. And the author of this article is of that class to whom Professor Clay refers, who believe "that Hebraic (or Amoraic) literature, as well as Aramaic, has a great antiquity prior to the 1st millennium BC" (Clay, Amurru, 32).

On the other hand, the use of a library to the extent indicated by the abiding marks upon the Pentateuch does not in the least militate against the claim of Moses for authorship of the same. The real library marks, aside from the passages which are assigned by the critics to go with them, are far less numerous and narrower in scope than in Gibbon or in Kurtz. The use of a library no more necessarily endangers authorship in the one case than in the other.

(3) The Moses-Tradition.

A tradition from the beginning universally held, and for a long time and without inherent absurdity, has very great weight. Such has been the Moses-tradition of authorship. Since Moses is believed to have been such a person living in such an age and under such circumstances as might suitably provide the situation and the occasion for such historical records, so that common sense does not question whether he could have written "a" Pentateuch, but only whether he did write "the" Pentateuch which we have, it is easier to believe the tradition concerning his authorship than to believe that such a tradition arose with nothing so known concerning his ability and circumstances. But such a tradition did arise concerning Moses. It existed in the days of Josiah. Without it, by no possibility could the people have been persuaded to receive with authority a book purporting to be by him. The question of the truthfulness of the claim of actually finding the Book of the Law altogether aside, there must have been such a national hero as Moses known to the people and believed in by them, as well as a confident belief in an age of literature reaching back to his days, else the Book of the Law would not have been received by the people as from Moses. Archaeology does not supply actual literary material from Israel much earlier than the time of Josiah, but the material shows a method of writing and a literary advancement of the people which reaches far back for its origin, and which goes far to justify the tradition in Josiah's day. Moreover, to the present time, there is no archaeological evidence to cast doubt upon that tradition.

(4) The Pentateuch in the Northern Kingdom.

The evidence of the Pentateuch in the Northern Kingdom before the fall of Samaria is very strong--this entirely aside from any evidence from the Sam Pentateuch. Although some few insist upon an early date for that book, it is better to omit it altogether from this argument, as the time of its composition is not absolutely known and is probably not very far from the close of the Babylonian exile of Judah. But the prophets supply indubitable evidence of the Pentateuch in the Northern Kingdom (Hosea 1:10; Hosea 4:6; Hosea 8:1,Hosea 8:13; Hosea 9:11; Hosea 12:9; Amos 5:21,Amos 5:22; Amos 8:5; compare Green, Higher Criticism and the Pentateuch, 56-58).

(5) Evidence for the Mosaic Age.

Beyond the limit to which historical evidence reaches concerning the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, internal evidence for the Mosaic age as the time of its composition carries us back to the very days of Moses. Egyptian words in the Pentateuch attest its composition in the Mosaic age, not because they are Egyptian words, for it is quite supposable that later authors might have known Egyptian words, but because they are Egyptian words of such marked peculiarities in meaning and history and of such absolutely accurate use in the Pentateuch, that their employment by later authors in such a way is incredible. The list of such words is a long one. Only a few can be mentioned here. For a complete list the authorities cited must be consulted. There is ye'or, for the streams of Egypt; achu, for the marshy pasture lands along the Nile; shesh, for the "fine white linen" of the priests; "the land of Rameses" for a local district in lower Egypt; tsaphenath pa`neach, Joseph's Egyptian name, and acenath, the name of Joseph's Egyptian wife, and many other Egyptian words (see Lieblein, in PSBA, May, 1898, 202-10; also The Bible Student, 1901, 36-40).

(6) The Obscurity of the Doctrine of the Resurrection in the Pentateuch.

This obscurity has been urged against the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. Because of the popular belief concerning the doctrine of the resurrection among the Egyptians, this objection to the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch becomes the most forcible of all the objections urged by critics. If the Pentateuch was written by Moses when Israel had just come out of Egypt, why did he leave the doctrine of the resurrection in such obscurity? The answer is very simple. The so-called Egyptian doctrine of the resurrection was not a doctrine of resurrection at all, but a doctrine of resuscitation. The essential idea of resurrection, as it runs through Scripture from the first glimpse of it until the declaration of Paul: "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body" (1 Corinthians 15:35–45), is almost absolutely beyond the Egyptian vision of the future life. With the Egyptians the risen body was to live the same old life on "oxen, geese, bread, beer, wine and all good things" (compare for abundant illustration Maspero's Guide to Cairo Museum). The omission of the doctrine of the resurrection from the Pentateuch at the later date assigned by criticism is very hard to account for. In view of some passages from the Psalms and the Prophets, it appears inexplicable (Job 19:25–27; Psalms 16:10; Psalms 49:15; Isaiah 26:19; Ezekiel 37:1–28; Daniel 12:2). The gross materialism of the Egyptian doctrine of the rising from the dead makes the obscurity of the doctrine of the resurrection in the Pentateuch in Moses' day perfectly natural. Any direct mention of the subject at that time among a people just come out of Egypt would have carried at once into Israel's religion the materialism of the Egyptian conception of the future life. The only way by which the people could be weaned away from these Egyptian ideas was by beginning, as the Pentateuch does, with more spiritual ideas of God, of the other world and of worship. The obscurity of the doctrine of the resurrection in the Pentateuch, so far from being against the Mosaic authorship, is very cogent reason for believing the Pentateuch to have come from that age, as the only known time when such an omission is reasonably explicable. Lord, in his lectures, though not an Egyptologist, caught sight of this truth which later work of Egyptologists has made clear (Moses, 45). Warburton had a less clear vision of it (see Divine Legation).

(7) The Unity of the Pentateuch.

Unity in the Pentateuch, abstractly considered, cannot be indicative of particular time for its composition. Manifestly, unity can be given a book at any time. There is indisputably a certain appearance of unity in narrative in the Pentateuch, and when this unity is examined somewhat carefully, it is found to have such peculiarity as does point to the Mosaic age for authorship. The making of books which have running through them such a narrative as is contained in the Pentateuch which, especially from the end of Genesis, is entangled and interwoven with dates and routes and topographical notes, the history of experiences, all so accurately given that in large part to this day the route and the places intended can be identified, all this, no matter when the books were written, certainly calls for special conditions of authorship. A narrative which so provides for all the exigencies of desert life and so anticipates the life to which Israel looked forward, exhibits a realism which calls for very special familiarity with all the circumstances. And when the narrative adds to all this the life of a man without breaks or repetitions adverse to the purpose of a biography, and running through from beginning to end, and not a haphazard, unsymmetrical man such as might result from the piecing together of fragments, but a colossal and symmetrical man, the foremost man of the world until a greater than Moses should appear, it demands to be written near the time and place of the events narrated. That a work of fiction, struck off at one time by one hand, might meet all these requirements at a later date, no one can doubt, but a scrap-book, even though made up of facts, cannot do so. In fact, the scraps culled. out by the analysis of the Pentateuch do not make a connected life-story at all, but three fragmentary and disconnected stories, and turn a biography, which is the binding-thread of the books, into what is little better than nonsense.

The unity of the Law, which also can be well sustained, is to the same effect as the unity of the narrative in certifying the narrative near to the time and place of the events narrated. The discussion of the unity of the Law, which involves nearly the whole critical controversy of the day, would be too much of a digression for an article on Moses (see LAW; LEVITICUS; DEUTERONOMY; also Green, Higher Criticism and the Pent; Orr, POT; Wiener, Biblical Sac., 1909--10).

Neither criticism nor archaeology has yet produced the kind or degree of evidence which rationalism demands for the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. No trace has yet been found either of the broken tablets at Mt. Sinai or of the autograph copy of the Law of the Lord "by the hand of Moses" brought out of the house of the Lord in the days of Josiah. Nor are these things likely to be found, nor anything else that will certify authorship like a transcription of the records in the copyright office. Such evidence is not reasonably demanded. The foregoing indications point very strongly to the production of the Pentateuch in the Mosaic age by someone as familiar with the circumstances and as near the heart of the nation as Moses was. That here and there a few slight additions may have been made and that, perhaps, a few explanations made by scribes may have slipped into the text from the margin are not unlikely (Numbers 12:3; Deuteronomy 34:1–12), but this does not affect the general claim of authorship.

Psalms 90:1–17 is also attributed to Moses, though attempts have been made to discredit his authorship here also (Delitzsch, Commentary on the Psalms). There are those who perhaps still hold to the Mosaic authorship of the Book of Job. But that view was never more than a speculation.

2. The Lawgiver:

The character of Moses as lawgiver is scarcely separable from that of Moses as author, but calls for some separate consideration.

(1) The extent of the Mosaic element in the Pentateuch legislation has been so variously estimated that for any adequate idea of the discussion the reader must consult not only other articles (LAW; COVENANT, BOOK OF THE; PENTATEUCH) but special works on this subject. In accord with the reasons presented above for the authorship of the Pentateuch in Mosaic times, the great statesman seems most naturally the author of the laws so interwoven with his life and leadership. Moses first gave laws concerning the Passover (Exodus 13:1–22). At Sinai, after the startling revelation from the summit of the mountain, it is most reasonable that Moses should gather the people together to covenant with God, and should record that event in the short code of laws known as the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 24:7). This code contains the Moral Law (Exodus 20:1–17) as fundamental, the constitution of theocracy and of all ethical living. This is followed by a brief code suitable to their present condition and immediate prospects (Exodus 20:24–26; Exodus 20:21–23). Considering the expectations of both leader and people that they would immediately proceed to the promised land and take possession, it is quite in order that there should be laws concerning vineyards and olive orchards (Exodus 23:11), and harvests (Exodus 23:10–16) and the first-fruits (Exodus 23:19). Upon the completion of the tabernacle, a priest-code became a necessity. Accordingly, such a code follows with great minutiae of directions. This part of the Law is composed almost entirely of "laws of procedure" intended primarily for the priests, that they might know their own duties and give oral instruction to the people, and probably was never meant for the whole people except in the most general way. When Israel was turned back into the wilderness, these two codes were quite sufficient for the simple life of the wanderings. But Israel developed. The rabble became a nation. Forty years of life under law, under the operation of the Book of the Covenant in the moralities of life, the Priestly Code in their religious exercises, and the brief statutes of Leviticus for the simple life of the desert, prepared the people for a more elaborate code as they entered the promised land with its more complex life. Accordingly, in Deuteronomy that code was recorded and left for the guidance of the people. That these various codes contain some things not now understood is not at all surprising. It would be surprising if they did not. Would not Orientals of today find some things in Western laws quite incomprehensible without explanation?

That some few items of law may have been added at a later time, as some items of history were added to the narrative, is not at all unreasonable, and does in no way invalidate the claim of Moses as the lawgiver, any more than later French legislation has invalidated the Corsican's claim to the Napoleonic Code.

The essential value of the Mosaic legislation is beyond comparison. Some of the laws of Moses, relating as they did to passing problems, have themselves passed away; some of them were definitely abrogated by Christ and others explicitly fulfilled; but much of his legislation, moral, industrial, social and political, is the warp and woof of the best in the great codes of the world to this day. The morality of the Decalogue is unapproached among collections of moral precepts. Its divinity, like the divinity of the teachings of Jesus, lies not only in what it includes, but also in what it omits. The precepts of Ptah-hotep, of Confucius, of Epictetus include many things found in the Decalogue; the Decalogue omits many things found among the maxims of these moralists. Thus, in what it excludes, as in what it includes, the perfection of the Decalogue lies.

(2) It should be emphasized that the laws of Moses were codes, not a collection of court decisions known to lawyers as common law, but codes given abstractly, not in view of any particular concrete case, and arranged in systematic order (Wiener, Biblical Sac., 1909-10). This is entirely in harmony with the archaeological indications of the Mosaic and preceding ages. The Code of Hammurabi, given at least 5 centuries before, is one of the most orderly, methodical and logical codes ever constructed (Lyon, JAOS, XXV, 254).

3. The Prophet:

The career and the works and the character of Moses culminate in the prophetic office. It was as prophet that Moses was essentially leader. It was as prophet that he held the place of highest eminence in the world until a greater than Moses came.

(1) The statesman-prophet framed a civil government which illustrated the kingdom of God upon earth. The theocracy did not simulate any government of earth, monarchy, republic or socialistic state. It combined the best elements in all of these and set up the most effective checks which have ever been devised against the evils of each.

(2) The lawgiver-prophet inculcated maxims and laws which set the feet of the people in the way of life, so that, while failing as a law of life in a sinful world, these precepts ever remain as a rule of conduct.

(3) The priest-prophet prepared and gave to Israel a ritual of worship which most completely typified the redemptive mercy of God and which is so wonderfully unfolded in the Epistle to the Hebrews, as it has been more wonderfully fulfilled in the life and atoning death of Christ.

(4) In all the multiform activities of the prophetic career he was a type of Christ, the type of Christ whose work was a "tutor unto Christ."

Moses' revelation of God ever transcends the speculations of theologians about God as a sunrise transcends a treatise on the solar spectrum. While the speculations are cold and lifeless, the revelation is vital and glorious. As an analysis of Raphael's painting of the transfiguration belittles its impression upon the beholder, while a sight of the picture exalts that scene in the mind and heart, so the attempts of theologians to analyze God and bring Him within the grasp of the human mind belittle the conception of God, dwarf it to the capacity of the human intellect, while such a vision of Him as Moses gives exalts and glorifies Him beyond expression. Thus, while theologians of every school from Athanasius to Ritschl come and go, Moses goes on forever; while they stand cold on library shelves, he lives warm in the hearts of men.

Such was the Hebrew leader, lawgiver, prophet, poet; among mere men, "the foremost man of all this world."

LITERATURE.

Commentaries on the Pentateuch; for rabbinical traditions, compare Lauterbach in Jewish Encyclopedia; for pseudepigraphical books ascribed to Moses, see Charles, Assumption of Moses; for Mohammedan legends, compare DB; Ebers, Egypten und die Bucher Mosis; for critical partition of books of Moses, compare the Polychrome Bible and Bennett in HDB; for comprehensive discussion of the critical problems, compare POT.

M. G. Kyle

Moses, Assumption Of

a-sump'-shun.

See APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE.

Moses, Song Of

The name given to the song of triumph sung by Moses and the Israelites after the crossing of the Red Sea and the destruction of the hosts of Pharaoh (Exodus 15:1–18). The sublimity of this noble ode is universally admitted. In magnificent strains it celebrates the deliverance just experienced, extolling the attributes of Yahweh revealed in the triumph (Exodus 15:1–12), then anticipates the astonishing effects which would flow from this deliverance in the immediate future and later (Exodus 15:13–18). There seems no reason to doubt that at least the basis of the song--possibly the whole--is genuinely Mosaic. In the allusions to the guidance of the people to God's holy habitation, and to the terror of the surrounding peoples and of the Canaanites (Exodus 15:13–18), it is thought that traces are manifest of a later revision and expansion. This, however, is by no means a necessary conclusion.

Driver, who in LOT, 8th edition, 30, goes with the critics on this point, wrote more guardedly in the 1st edition (p. 27): "Probably, however, the greater part of the song is Mosaic, and the modification or expansion is limited to the closing verses; for the general style is antique. and the triumphant tone which pervades it is just such as might naturally have been inspired by the event which it celebrates."

The song of Moses is made the model in the Apocalypse of "the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb," which those standing by the sea of glass, who have "come off victorious from the beast, and from his image, and from the number of his name," sing to God's praise, "Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God, the Almighty," etc. (Revelation 15:2–4). The church having experienced a deliverance similar to that experienced by Israel at the Red Sea, but infinitely greater, the old song is recast, and its terms are readapted to express both victories, the lower and the higher, at once.

James Orr

Mosollamon

mo-sol'-a-mon.

See MOSOLLAMUS.

Mosollamus

mo-sol'-a-mus:

(1) the King James Version "Mosollam" (Mosollamos), one of the three "assessors" appointed to the two commissioners in the inquiry made about "strange wives" (1 Esdras 9:14) = "Meshullam" in Ezra 10:15.

(2) the King James Version "Mosollamon," one of those sent by Ezra to the captain Loddeus to obtain men who could execute the priest's office (1 Esdras 8:44 (Septuagint 43)) = "Meshullam" in Ezra 8:16 (Codex Vaticanus reads also Mesolabon, in 1 Esdras 8:44).

Most High, Most Holy

See GOD, NAMES OF.

Mote

mot (karphos): A minute piece of anything dry or light, as straw, chaff, a splinter of wood, that might enter the eye. Used by Jesus in Matthew 7:3 ff; Luke 6:41 f in contrast with "beam," to rebuke officiousness in correcting small faults of others, while cherishing greater ones of our own.

Moth

moth (`ash; compare Arabic `uththat, "moth"; colloquial, `itt; cac, "worm" (Isaiah 51:8); compare Arabic sus, "worm," especially an insect larva in flesh, wood or grain; ses, "moth" (Matthew 6:19,Matthew 6:20; Luke 12:33); setobrotos, "moth-eaten" (James 5:2)):

The moths constitute the larger division of the order Lepidoptera. Two of the points by which they are distinguished from butterflies are that they are generally nocturnal and that their antennae are not club-shaped. Further, the larva in many cases spins a cocoon for the protection of the pupa or chrysalis, which is never the case with butterflies. The Biblical references are to the clothes-moth, i.e. various species of the genus Tinea, tiny insects which lay their eggs in woolen clothes, upon which the larvae later feed. As the larva feeds it makes a cocoon of its silk together with fibers of the cloth on which it is feeding, so that the color of the cocoon depends upon the color of the fabric. The adult is only indirectly harmful, as it is only in the larval stage that the insect injures clothing. Therefore in Isaiah 51:8, "For the moth (`ash) shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm (cac) shall eat them like wool," both words must refer to the larva, the distich demanding such a word as cac to balance `ash in the first half. The word "moth" occurs 7 times in the Old Testament, in Job, Psalms, Isaiah and Hosea, always in figurative expressions, typifying either that which is destructive (Job 13:28; Psalms 39:11; Isaiah 50:9; Isaiah 51:8; Hosea 5:12) or that which is frail (Job 4:19; Job 27:18).

See INSECTS.

Alfred Ely Day

Mother

muth'-er ('em, "mother," "dam," "ancestress"; meter):

1. Her Position in the Old Testament:

In vain do we look in the Scriptures for traces of the low position which woman occupies in many eastern lands. A false impression has been created by her present position in the East, especially under Mohammedan rule. Her place as depicted in the Scriptures is a totally different one. Women there move on the same social plane with men. They often occupy leading public positions (Exodus 15:20; Judges 4:4; 2 Kings 22:14). The love of offspring was deeply imbedded in the heart of Hebrew women, and thus motherhood was highly respected. Among the patriarchs women, and especially mothers, occupy a prominent place. In Rebekah's marriage, her mother seems to have had equal voice with her father and Laban, her brother (Genesis 24:28,Genesis 24:50,Genesis 24:53,Genesis 24:55). Jacob "obeyed his father and his mother" (Genesis 28:7), and his mother evidently was his chief counselor. The Law places the child under obligation of honoring father and mother alike (Exodus 20:12). The child that strikes father or mother or curses either of them is punished by death (Exodus 21:15,Exodus 21:17). The same fate overtakes the habitually disobedient (Deuteronomy 21:18–21).

In one place in the Law, the mother is even placed before the father as the object of filial reverence (Leviticus 19:3). The Psalmist depicts deepest grief as that of one who mourneth for his mother (Psalms 35:14). In the entire Book of Proverbs the duty of reverence, love and obedience of sons to their mothers is unceasingly inculcated. The greatest comfort imaginable is that wherewith a mother comforts her son (Isaiah 66:13).

2. Position in the New Testament:

And what is true of the Old Testament is equally true of the New Testament. The same high type of womanhood, the same reverence for one's mother is in evidence in both books. The birth of Christ lifted motherhood to the highest possible plane and idealized it for all time. The last thing Jesus did on the Cross was to bestow His mother on John "the beloved" as his special inheritance. What woman is today, what she is in particular in her motherhood, she owes wholly to the position in which the Scriptures have placed her. Sometimes the stepmother is spoken of as the real mother (Genesis 37:10). Sometimes the grandmother or other female relative is thus spoken of (Genesis 3:20; 1 Kings 15:10).

Tropically the nation is spoken of as a mother and the people are her children (Isaiah 50:1; Jeremiah 50:12; Hosea 2:4; Hosea 4:5). Large cities also are "mothers" (2 Samuel 20:19; compare Ga 4:26; 2 Esdras 10:7), and Job even depicts the earth as such (Job 1:21).

Henry E. Dosker

Mother-In-Law

See RELATIONSHIPS, FAMILY.

Motion

mo'-shun: In 2 Esdras 6:14, the King James Version "motion" represents the Latin commotio, "commotion," "disturbance" (the Revised Version (British and American) has revised entirely here). In Romans 7:5, "the motions of sins, which were by the law," "motion" is used in the sense of "impulse," and "impulses" would probably give the best translation. But the Greek noun (pathemata) is hard to translate exactly, and the Revised Version (British and American) has preferred "passions," as in Galatians 5:24. Sanday (ICC) paraphrases "the impressions of sense, suggestive of sin, stimulated into perverse activity by their legal prohibition." See PASSION. "Motion" is found also in The Wisdom of Solomon 5:11 (the King James Version and the Revised Version margin) and The Wisdom of Solomon 7:24 (the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American)) in a modern sense.

Burton Scott Easton

Mound

mound.

See SIEGE, 4, (c).

Mount Ephraim

See EPHRAIM, MOUNT.

Mount Of Congregation, The

See CONGREGATION, MOUNT OF.

Mount Of Corruption

See OLIVES, MOUNT OF.

Mount Of Olives

See OLIVES, MOUNT OF; JERUSALEM.

Mount Of The Amalekites

("Hill-country of the Amalekites" (Judges 12:15)): The Amalekites are usually connected with the valley (Numbers 14:25; Judges 7:12), but appear from this passage to have had a settlement in the hill country of Ephraim.

See AMALEKITE.

Mount Of The Amorites

("Hill-country of the Amorites" (Deuteronomy 1:7,Deuteronomy 1:20,Deuteronomy 1:24; compare Numbers 13:29; Joshua 10:6, etc.)): The region intended is that afterward known as the hill country of Judah and Ephraim, but sometimes "Amorites" is used as a general designation for all the inhabitants of Canaan (Genesis 15:16; Joshua 24:8,Joshua 24:18, etc.).

See AMORITES.

Mount Of The Valley

Zereth-shahar is said to be situated in or on the "mount of the valley" (behar ha`emeq (Joshua 13:19)). Cheyne (EB, under the word) says "i.e. on one of the mountains East of the Jordan valley (compare Josephus 13 27), and not impossibly on that described at length in BJ, VII, vi, 1-3." To the Northwest of this mountain is Wady ec-Cara, wherein there may be a reminiscence of Zereth-shahar. There is no certainty.

Mount; Mountain

mount, moun'-tin.

See HILL, MOUNT, MOUNTAIN.

Mourning

morn'-ing.

See BURIAL; GRIEF.

Mouse; Mice

mous, mis (`akhbar; Septuagint mus, "mouse"; compare Arabic `akbar, "jerboa" not 'akbar, "greater"; compare also proper noun, `akhbor, "Achbor" (Genesis 36:38; 1 Chronicles 1:49; also 2 Kings 22:12,2 Kings 22:14; Jeremiah 26:22; Jeremiah 36:12)): The word occurs in the list of unclean "creeping things" (Leviticus 11:29), in the account of the golden mice and tumors (the King James Version and the American Revised Version margin "emerods") sent by the Philistines (1 Samuel 6:4–18), and in the phrase, "eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse" (Isaiah 66:17). The cosmopolitan housemouse, Mus musculus, is doubtless the species referred to. The jerboa or jumping mouse, Arabic yarbu, is eaten by the Arabs of the Syrian desert, Northeast of Damascus. Possibly allied to `akhbar is the Arabic `akbar (generally in plural, `akabir), used for the male of the jerboa.

Alfred Ely Day

Mouth

mowth (peh, chekh, garon (Psalms 149:6); Aramaic pum, tera (Daniel 3:26); stoma, 71 times, once logos, i.e. "word of mouth," "speech" (Acts 15:27); once we find the verb epistomizo, "to silence," "to stop the mouth" (Titus 1:11)):

1. Literal Sense:

In addition to frequent references to man and animals, "Their food was yet in their mouths" (Psalms 78:30); "And Yahweh opened the mouth of the ass" (Numbers 22:28); "Save me from the lion's mouth" (Psalms 22:21), etc., the term is often used in connection with inanimate things: mouth of a sack (Genesis 42:27); of the earth (Genesis 4:11; Numbers 26:10); of a well (Numbers 29:2,Numbers 29:3,Numbers 29:8,Numbers 29:10); of a cave (Joshua 10:18,Joshua 10:22,Joshua 10:27); of Sheol (Psalms 141:7); of the abyss (Jeremiah 48:28); of furnace (Aramaic tera`, Daniel 3:26); of idols (Psalms 115:5; Psalms 135:16,Psalms 135:17).

2. Figurative Sense:

(1) The "mouth" denotes language, speech, declaration (compare "lips," "tongue," which see): "By the mouth of" is "by means of," "on the declaration of" (Luke 1:70; Acts 1:16); "Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be slain at the mouth of witnesses" (Numbers 35:30; compare Deuteronomy 17:6; Matthew 18:16; Hebrews 10:28); "I will give you mouth and wisdom" (Luke 21:15); "fool's mouth" (Proverbs 18:7).

(2) "Mouth" also denotes "spokesman": "He shall be to thee a mouth" (Exodus 4:16).

Numerous are the idiomatic phrases which have, in part, been introduced into English by means of the language of the Bible. "To put into the mouth," if said of God, denotes Divine inspiration (Deuteronomy 18:18; Micah 3:5). "To have words put into the mouth" means to have instructions given (Deuteronomy 31:19; 2 Samuel 14:3; Jeremiah 1:9; Exodus 4:11–16). "The fruit of the mouth" (Proverbs 18:20) is synonymical with wisdom, the mature utterance of the wise. "To put one's mouth into the dust" is equivalent with humbling one's self (Lamentations 3:29; compare "to lay one's horn in the dust," Job 16:15). Silent submission is expressed by "laying the hand upon the mouth" (Judges 18:19; Job 29:9; Job 40:4; Micah 7:16); compare "to refrain the lips"; see LIP. "To open the mouth wide" against a person is to accuse him wildly and often wrongfully (Psalms 35:21; Isaiah 57:4), otherwise "to open one's mouth wide," "to have an enlarged mouth" means to have great confidence and joy in speaking or accepting good things (1 Samuel 2:1; Ezekiel 33:22; 2 Corinthians 6:11; Ephesians 6:19). "To gape upon one with the mouth" means to threaten a person (Job 16:10). Divine rebuke is expressed by the "rod of God's mouth" (Isaiah 11:4), and the Messiah declares "He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword" (Isaiah 49:2; compare Revelation 2:16; Revelation 19:15,Revelation 19:21). Great anguish, such as dying with thirst, is expressed by "the tongue cleaving to the roof of the mouth" (Hebrew chekh, Job 29:10; Psalms 137:6; compare 22:15).

H. L. E. Luering

Mowing; Mown Grass

mo'-ing, (gez, "a shearing," "cut grass"): In Psalms 72:6 the good king's rule is said to be "like rain upon the mown grass," to start the new growth (compare 2 Samuel 23:4; Hosea 6:3). "The king's mowings" (Amos 7:1) were the portion of the spring herbage taken as tribute by the kings of Israel to feed their horses (compare 1 Samuel 8:15 ff; 18:5). "After the king's mowings" would denote the time when everybody else might turn to reap their greenstuffs (BTP, II, 109). The term "mower" (qatsar, "to dock off," "shorten") in Psalms 129:7 the King James Version is rendered "reaper" in the Revised Version (British and American), and in James 5:4 the Revised Version (British and American) has "mow" for amao (the King James Version "reap").

See HARVEST; REAPING.

M. O. Evans

Moza

mo'-za (motsah):

(1) Son of Caleb and Ephah (1 Chronicles 2:46).

(2) A descendant of Saul (1 Chronicles 8:36,1 Chronicles 8:37; 1 Chronicles 9:42,1 Chronicles 9:43).

Mozah

mo'-za (ha-motsah; Codex Vaticanus Amoke; Codex Alexandrinus Amosa): A town in the territory of Benjamin named after Mizpeh and Chephirah (Joshua 18:26). It may be represented by the modern Beit Mizzeh, the heavy "ts" of the Hebrew letter (tsade) passing into the light "z" of the Arabic, a not unusual change. The name means "place of hard stone." The village lies to the North of Quloniyeh (possibly Emmaus), about 4 miles Northwest of Jerusalem.

Muffler

muf'-ler (re`alah): The name given to an article of woman's dress in Isaiah 3:19. It describes a veil more elaborate and costly than the ordinary. A cognate word in the sense of "veiled" is applied in the Mishna (Shabbath, vi.6) to Jewesses from Arabia.

See DRESS.

Mulberry; Trees

mul'-ber-i, (bekha'im; Septuagint apioi, "pear trees" (2 Samuel 5:23 f; 1Ch 14:14 f, margin "balsam-trees"; Ps 84:6, the King James Version "Baca," margin "mulberry trees," the Revised Version (British and American) "weeping," margin "balsam-trees"): According to Arabic writers the Baca tree is similar to the balsam (Balsamodendron opobalsamum), and grows near Mecca; no such tree is, however, known in Palestine. The name may, in Hebrew, have been applied to some species of ACACIA (which see). The idea of "weeping" implied in the root, both in Hebrew and Arabic, may be explained by the exudation of gum. "The sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees" has been explained to refer to the quivering of the leaves of poplars, but there is not much to support this view (see POPLAR). The translation "mulberry trees" is, however, even more improbable, as this tree, though very plentiful today, had not been introduced into Palestine in Old Testament times.

Mulberry (moron, (1 Macc 6:34)): The Syrians at Bathzacharias "to the end they might provoke the elephants to fight, they, shewed them the blood of grapes and mulberries." This reference must be to the deep red juice of the black mulberry (Morus nigra), the tut shami of Palestine, a variety cultivated all over the land' for its luscious, juicy fruit.

See SYCOMORE.

E. W. G. Masterman

Mulcted

mulk'-ted (`anash, "to be punished," "fined"): "The simple pass on, and are mulcted" (Proverbs 22:3 the Revised Version margin, the Revised Version (British and American) "suffer for it," the King James Version "are punished").

Mule

mul (peredh (1 Kings 10:25; 1 Kings 18:5; Ezra 2:66; Isaiah 66:20; Zechariah 14:15), the feminine pirdah (1 Kings 1:33,1 Kings 1:38,1 Kings 1:44), rekhesh, "swift steeds," the King James Version "mules" (Esther 8:10,Esther 8:14), 'achashteranim, "used in the king's service," the King James Version "camels," the Revised Version margin "mules" (Esther 8:10,Esther 8:14), yemim, "hot springs," the King James Version "mules" (Genesis 36:24); hemionos, "half-ass," "mule" (1 Esdras 5:43; Judith 15:11)): Mules are mentioned as riding animals for princes (2 Samuel 13:29; 2 Samuel 18:9; 1 Kings 1:33,1 Kings 1:38,1 Kings 1:44); in the tribute brought to Solomon (2 Chronicles 9:24); as beasts of burden (2 Kings 5:17; 1 Chronicles 12:40); horses and mules are obtained from the "house of Togarmah" in the distant north (Ezekiel 27:14). The injunction of Psalms 32:9, "Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding," need not be understood as singling out the horse and mule as more in need of guidance than the rest of the brute creation, but rather as offering familiar examples to contrast with man who should use his intelligence.

At the present day mules are used as pack animals and for drawing freight wagons, rarely for riding. One does not often see in Palestine mules as large and fine as are common in Europe and America. This may be because most of the mares and many of the donkeys are small.

Alfred Ely Day

Multitude; Mixed

mul'-ti-tud, mikst.

See MINGLED PEOPLE.

Munition

mu-nish'-un.

See SIEGE, 4, (b).

Muppim

mup'-im (muppim): A son of Benjamin (Genesis 46:21), elsewhere called "Shuppim" (1 Chronicles 7:12,1 Chronicles 7:15; 1 Chronicles 26:16), "Shephupham" (Numbers 26:39), and "Shephuphan". (1 Chronicles 8:5); compare separate articles on these names.