Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
•Son of Caleb the son of Hezron. (1 Chronicles 2:46)
•Son of Zimri and descendant of Saul. (1 Chronicles 8:36,37; 9:42,43)
Mozah
(fountain), one of the cities in the allotment of Benjamin, (Joshua 18:26) only, named between
hae-Cephirah and Rekem.
Muaz
(wrath), son of Ram, the first-born of Jerahmeel. (1 Chronicles 2:27)
Mulbury Trees
(Heb. becaim). Mention of these is made only in (2 Samuel 5:23,24) and 1Chr 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 5:23,24)
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 kings 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
(serpent), a Benjamite, and one of the fourteen descendants of Rachael 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
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 21:12,14; Leviticus 24:17,21;
1 Kings 2:5,6,31) 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; 14:7,11; 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 22:2,3)
Mushi
(yielding), the son of Merari the son of Kohath. (Exodus 6:19; Numbers 3:20; 1 Chronicles
6:19,47; 23:21,23; 24:26,30)
Music
•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 mentioned of music in the times after the deluge is in the narrative of Laban’s
interview with Jacob, (Genesis 32:27) 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
471
William Smith