Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
eastern ridge of Lebanon, not far from Mahanaim, where David lay after escaping from the rebellion
of Absalom.—McClintock and Strong.)
Mizpah
and Miz’peh (a watch-tower), the name of several places in Palestine.
•The earliest of all, in order of the narrative, is the heap of stones piled up by Jacob and Laban,
(Genesis 31:48) on Mount Gilead, ver. (Genesis 31:25) to serve both as a witness to the covenant
then entered into and as a landmark of the boundary between them. ver. (Genesis 31:52) On this
natural watch-tower did the children of Israel assemble for the choice of a leader to resist the
children of Ammon. (Judges 10:17) There the fatal meeting took place between Jephthah and his
daughter on his return from the war. ch. (Judges 11:34) It seems most probable that the
“Mizpeh-gilead” which is mentioned here, and here only, is the same as the “ham-Mizpah” of the
other parts of the narrative; and both are probably identical with the Ramath-mizpeh and
Ramoth-gilead, so famous in the later history.
•A second Mizpeh, on the east of Jordan, was the Mizpeh-moab, where the king of that nation was
living when David committed his parents to his care. (1 Samuel 22:3)
•A third was “the land of Mizpeh,” or more accurately “of Mizpah,” the residence of the Hivites
who joined the northern confederacy against Israel, headed by Jabin king of Hazor. (Joshua 11:3)
No other mention is found of this district in the Bible, unless it be identical with—
•The valley of Mizpeh, to which the discomfited hosts of the same confederacy were chased by
Joshua, (Joshua 11:8) perhaps identical with the great country of Coele-Syria.
•Mizpeh, a city of Judah, (Joshua 15:38) in the district of the Shefelah or maritime lowland.
•Mizpeh, in Joshua and Samuel; elsewhere Mizpah, a “city” of Benjamin, not far from Jerusalem.
(Joshua 18:26; 1 Kings 15:22; 2 Chronicles 16:6; Nehemiah 3:7) It was one of the places fortified
by Asa against the incursions of the kings of northern Israel, (1 Kings 15:22; 2 Chronicles 16:6;
Jeremiah 41:10) and after the destruction of Jerusalem it became the residence of the superintendent
appointed by the king of Babylon, (Jeremiah 40:7) etc., and the scene of his murder and of the
romantic incidents connected with the name of Ishmael the son of Nethaniah. It was one of the
three holy cities which Samuel visited in turn as judge of the people, (1 Samuel 7:6,16) the other
two being Bethel and Gilgal. With the conquest of Jerusalem and the establishment there of the
ark, the sanctity of Mizpah, or at least its reputation, seems to have declined. From Mizpah the
city or the temple was visible. These conditions are satisfied by the position of Scopus, the broad
ridge which forms the continuation of the Mount of Olives to the north and cast, from which the
traveller gains, like Titus, his first view, and takes his last farewell, of the domes, walls and towers
of the holy city.
Mizpar
(number); properly Mispar, the same as Mispereth. (Ezra 2:2)
Mizpeh
[Mizpah]
Mizraim, Or Mizraim
(the two Egypts; red soil), the usual name of Egypt in the Old Testament the dual of Mazor,
which is less frequently employed. Mizraim first occurs in the account of the Hamites in (Genesis
10:1) ... In the use of the name Mizraim for Egypt there can be no doubt that the dual indicates the
two regions, upper and lower Egypt, into which the country has always been divided by nature as
well as by its inhabitants.
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William Smith