policy, and charms of wealth and ing the wall of Jerusalem, under the luxury, decoyed nations into slavery direction of Nehemiah, Neb. iii. 7, 15. 19. (2.) A city in the mountains of Gilead, and near mount Hermon. This place was so called, because here, JaMITE. See FARTHING. But some cob having made a covenant with Lamake the mite much less than we ban, wished the Lord might watch behave there done, and 14 of them are tween them, that the one might never reckoned at little more than a far-pass it to hurt the other, Gen. xxxi. thing and one-fourth of a farthing of 49. Thus far it seems Joshua's troops English money, Mark xii. 16. pursued such of Jabin's army as fled MITRE. See BONNET. to the eastward, Josh. ix. 3, 8. Here MITYLENE, purity, cleansing was the city in which Jephthah dwelt, of the wine-press, the capital city of and where he mustered his army the island of Lesbos, in the east of the against the Ammonites, Judg. xi. 3, Mediterranean Sea, and about seven 11, 29, 34. Whether this be the Mizor eight miles from the continent of peh of Moab, where David for a while Lesser Asia. It was handsome in its sojourned, I cannot certainly say ; but form and buildings, but unwholesome I rather think Mizpeh of Moab was as to the air, when the south or south-farther south, as I know not how the west winds blew. It was famous for Moabites could have come by the Miz the birth of Pittacus the wise Grecian, peh of Gilead; though otherwise this Theophanes the historian, Alcæus situation would suit very well with its the poet, and Diophanes the rhetori-being in the land of the Hermonites, cian. Paul touched here, as he sailed and near the hill MIZAR, which stood from Corinth to Jerusalem, Acts xx. near Hermon, if it was not a part of 14. but we find no appearance of ait, 1 Sam. xxii. 3. Psal. xlii. 6. Christian church, except in the 5th, MIZRAIM, tribulations, who is 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries. It is now straitened, or blocked up, or MEZER, a place of little or no consequence. the son of Ham, and father of Ludim, MIX. See MINGLE. Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, PathMIZPAH, or MIZPEH, a watch-rusim, and Casluhim, from which last tower, speculation, judgment, cover-sprung the Philistines, and Caphtoing, (1.) A city of Judah, about 18 rim. These descendants of his, and the miles west of Jerusalem, in the large tribes called from their names, had no plain, Josh. xv. 38. but it seems to doubt their original residence in have been given to the Benjamites, Egypt; but some of them moved toJosh. xviii. 26. or perhaps that of Ben-wards the west; and as Casluhim seems jamin was a different place. Here the to have dwelt in the east of Egypt, his Hebrews held their meeting about the posterity partly settled in the southaffair of the Levite's concubine, who west of Canaan. Some learned men was basely murdered by the men of have imagined that these names endGibeah, Judg. xx. 1. Here Samuel dwelt, and the Hebrews, under his direction, observed a solemn fast, to obtain a deliverance from the Philistines, 1 Sam. vii. 5, 6. Here Saul was anointed to be king, 1 Sam. x. 17. Asa built a great part of it, with the stones he transported from Ramah, 1 Kings xv. 22. Here Gedaliah dwelt, and for MNASON, a diligent secker, bea short time ruled the remnant of the trothing, remembering, of whom Jews, Jer. xl. 41. Ezer and Shallum, mention is made, Acts xxi. 16. an rulers, and some other inhabitants of ancient disciple, a Jew by birth, this place, were very active in repair- and converted by Jesus Christ him ing in im, a plural termination in the Hebrew, must signify tribes, not particular persons; but we know not of sufficient reasons to support this inference, Gen. x. 6, 13, 14. The Arabs still call Egypt Mesr; and they called Memphis, and now cal! Grand Cairo, Mesr, from Misraim. self, and put into the rank of the se- vitude; such of them, at least of the soldiery, as he took prisoners, he measured them with lines to mark them for death or life, killing the half, if not two-thirds of them, 2 Sam. viii. 1, 2. Psal. lx. 8. venty disciples. Paul lodged in his house at Jerusalem, A. D. 58. MOAB, of a father, the son of Lot by his eldest daughter, was born about the same time as Isaac, in A. M. 2108. He and his posterity For about 150 years, they continudwelt in the land called by his name, ed subject to Israel, and Saraph a Jew eastward of the Dead Sea, and was one of their governors, and one about the river Arnon, with the Am- Ithmah a Moabite was one of David's monites on the north-east, and the mighties, 1 Chron. iv. 22. and xi. Midianites on the south-west of 46. Solomon married some Moabthem. They expelled the Emims, itish women, and established the and seized on their country. They worship of Chemosh their idol at had not been long a nation, when Jerusalem, 1 Kings xi. 1, 7, 33. they became idolaters, and wor- After the division of the Hebrew shipped Chemosh and Baal-peor, kingdom, the Moabites fell to the Numb. xxi. 29. and xxv. 1, 3. Si-share of the ten tribes, as their hon, king of the Amorites, took from territories were contiguous to the them all their territory northward of Reubenites; but after the death of the river Arnon. Not long after, Ahab, MESHA their king, a noted Balak the son of Zippor was king of sheep-master, refused to pay his Moab. He, but in vain, hired Ba- tribute. This occasioned a terrible laam to curse the Hebrews, who en-defeat of the Moabites by Joram, camped on his borders, Numb. xxi. king of Israel, and his allies, and -xxiv. To revenge this, no Moab-a furious ravage of their country, ite or Ammonite was allowed to 2 Kings iii. Not long after, or enter the Hebrew congregation of perhaps before, they entered into a the Lord to their 10th generation, league with the Edomites, AmalekDeut. xxii. 3-6. About A. M.ites, Ishmaelites, Philistines, Am2661, the Moabites under Eglon re-monites, Hagarenes, Ashurites, Geduced the Hebrews under their yoke, balites, and Tyrians, to destroy the and mightily oppressed them for 18 whole race of Israel; but their army years; but Ehud killed their king, that came against Jehoshaphat, was and his troops killed 10,000 of the miraculously destroyed, 2 Chron. xx. most valiant Moabites, and recovered Psal. Ixxxiii. to the Hebrews their liberty, Judg. Some time after, the Moabites seem iii. Some time after, Elimelech and to have invaded the land of Edom, Naomi, on account of a famine, left and burnt the bones of the king of it Canaan, and sojourned in the land of into lime, Amos ii. 1. About the Moab his sons Mahlon and Chilion time of Elisha's death, straggling married two Moabitish women, some bands of the Moabites ravaged the say of the royal family, Ruth i. country of the ten tribes, 2 Kings Saul successfully waged war with the xiii. 20. During the decline of the Moabites, 1 Sam. xiv. 47. When kingdom of the ten tribes, or after David was persecuted by Saul, he their begun captivity by Tiglathfled to the land of Moab, whence pileser, the Moabites seized on a Ruth his great-grandmother had great part of what pertained to the come, and committed his parents to Reubenites, if not more of the land the protection of the king of Moab, 1 of Gilead. The Assyrians, under Sam. xxii. 3, 4. Provoked with the Shalmaneser, ravaged their country, Moabites, possibly for the murder of and rendered it almost desolate, Isa. his parents, David, about 12 years xv. and xvi. and xxv. 10. Amos ii. after, terribly ravaged their country, 1, 2. They however recovered from and reduced them to the basest ser- this shock, and again became a flou : rishing nation. Their principal ci- live in sin, they shall certainly be ties were Nebo, Kirjathaim, Kir, for ever punished, Gal. vi. 7. Men Misgab, Heshbon, Madmen, Horo-mock God, when, in words or behanaim, Ar, Dibon, Aroer, Diblath, or viour, they jest at his being, his purBeth-diblathaim, Holon, Jahazah, poses, words, works, ordinances, miMephaath, Beth-gamul, Beth-meon, nisters, or people, Job xiii. 9. Wine Kerioth, Bozrah, Medeba, Elealeh, is a mocker, and strong drink is ragJazer, and Sibmah, the most of which ing it, if drank to excess, deceives had once pertained to the Hebrews. men, and renders them objects of deIt seems they early sided with the rision, unhappy and outrageous, Chaldeans, and bands of them har- Prov. xx. 1. assed the Jews under Jehoiakim; : MOCKERS, are such as habitually but as they formed a league with give themselves to scoff and jest at Zedekiah for shaking off the Chal-divine things, and to beguile men dean yoke, Nebuchadnezzar, about with deceitful words, Isa. xxviii. 22. 4 or 5 years after he had destroyed Jude 18. Jerusalem, invaded their country, MODERATE, to abate, to keep and reduced it to an almost desert, in due bounds. To moderate threatand carried multitudes of them cap-ening, is to restrain it within due tive into his eastern dominions, 2 bounds, Eph. vi. † 9. Our moderaKings xxiv. 2. Jer. xlviii. 9, 26. tion should be known to all men, beand xxv. 21. Ezek. xxv. Zeph. ii. cause the Lord is at hand: we should 8. I find no evidence that ever they exercise tenderness towards all men; much recovered from this overthrow. interpret their words and behaviour Some of their women were married in the best sense; use inferiors with to the Jews, who had come back to kindness and respect; and bear in their own land, and were put away juries, because the Lord observes our by Nehemiah's order, Neh. xviii. 23. conduct, and will quickly judge us, The poor remains of them were sub- and resent the injuries done to us, ject to the Persians and Greeks in Phil. iv. 5. their turns, and to the Jews under Alexander, Janneus, and Herod, and finally to the Romans. Long ago they lost their name as a nation, as 1 Tim. ii. 9. they incorporated with the Jews or MOISTURE, SAP, wetness, Luke Arabians; and their country is almost viii. 6. My moisture is turned into quite desolate, and is not properly the drought of summer; my body is subject to the Turks, but to the wild parched, and its natural moisture exArabs of Hejaz, Zeph. ii. 8, 9, 10. hausted; my soul is bereaved of Isa. xxv. 10. and xi. 14. Dan. xi. prosperity and comfort, by the im 41. but in Isa. xxv. 10. Moab may pressions and fears of thy wrath, be understood of the enemies of the Psal. xxxii. 4. church in general. MODEST, humble, chaste. Modest apparel, is such as become an humble, sober, and modest person, MOLE, a small four-footed aniMOCK, (1.) To deride, to laugh mal which ferrets in the earth, hath at, to ridicule, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16. its feet formed for digging; its eyes (2.) Merrily to make a jest; so fools very small, and hence believed by make a mock at sin, Prov. xiv. 9. the vulgar to be blind. It lives on (3.) To deceive one with words. roots, toads, and worms; but that Judg. xvi. 10, 13. (4.) To ravish the Hebrew Tinshameth signifies a or abuse a woman, Gen. xxxix. 17. mole, we dare not affirm, though the God mocks at men's fear, when with- Jewish rabbins, and the Chaldee paout pity, he brings his fearful strokes raphrases, so interpret it. Bochart of judgment upon them, Prov. i. 26. will have it to be a camelion; Castalio God is not mocked; he will not be a toad; and others a weazel. It is deceived or jested with. If men certain it was legally unclean, and that the same word is translated a Rabbah, and which weighed a taswan, Lev. xi. 30. with 18. To cast lent, 2 Sam. xii. 30. God very early idols to the moles and to the bats, is to prohibited the worship of Molech to leave them to ignorant and worldly his people, Lev. xviii. 21. and xx. 2, men, or rather to throw them away 3, 4. They, however, were often with the utmost contempt, Isa. ii. 20. guilty of it: they carried the taberMOLECH, a king, MOLOCH,nacle of their Molech in the worMILCOM, MALCHAM, the principal ship of the golden calf, which was a idol of the Ammonites: he had the kind of representation of the Egypface of an ox; his hands were stretch-tian Serapis, Acts vii. 43. Solomon ed out as if ready to receive pre-built a temple to Molech on the sents. He was hollow within, and mount of Olives, 1 Kings xi. 7. Ahaz, there the fire was placed to heat the Manasseh, and other Jews, burnt image, that it might burn the offer- their children in honour to this idol, ings. Fagius informs us, that the particularly in TOPHET, 2 Kings xvi. image of Molech was of brass, con- 3. and xxi. 3, 4. Jer. xix. 5, 6. trived with seven cells, or receptaMOMENT, a very short space of cles, probably representing the seven time in comparison of eternal duraplanets, the first for receiving an of- tion. God hides himself from, is fering of flour, the second of turtle angry with, and afflicts his people doves; the third for an ewe, the but for a moment, Isa. liv. 7, 8. Psa. fourth for a ram, the fifth for a calf; xxx. 5. 2 Cor. iv. 17. And the joy the sixth for an ox; the seventh for of hypocrites is but for a moment, is a child, who, being shut up in this quickly changed into eternal sorrow, cell, as in a furnace, was therein Job xx. 5. A lying tongue is but burnt to death, whilst the people for a moment, as truth will quickly danced about the idol, and used tim- be discovered to the liar's shame, brels, that the cries of the infant Prov. xii. 19. might not be heard. We have au- MONEY. The most ancient methority from the sacred writings to thod of trade was by barter, exchangbelieve that the Phenicians, Egyp-ing one thing for another: in after tians, and others in the neighbour- times, the more precious metals were hood of Judea, actually sacrificed used as the price in merchandize. their children to that grim idol, in The gold and silver, however, were some such horrid manner. Compare long weighed, not coined. Abra2 Chron. xxviii. 3. Jer. vii. 31. xxxii. ham weighed the four hundred she35. xix. 5. Psa. cvi. 37, 38. Ezek. kels which he gave for his buryingxvi. 20, 21. In all which places, to place, Gen. xxiii. 13, 16. Joseph pass through the fire, signifies the was sold for 20 shekels weight of silconsuming of the victim by fire. That ver, and his brethren carried back Molech was derived from the Egyp- to Egypt the same weight of money tians, and is the same as Remphan, that had been returned in their sacks, Chiun, or Serapis, and worshipped un- Gen. xxxvi. 28. and xliii. 21. Jeder the form of a bull, and with the remiah weighed the seventeen sheAnamelech and Adramelech, to kels of silver which he gave for his which the inhabitants of Sepharvaim cousin's field, Jer. xxxii. 10. Sheburnt their children, we believe to be kels and talents whereby money was certain; but whether he was the same estimated, were weights, not coins, with Saturn, to whom human sacrifi-2 Sam. xii. 30. and xiv. 26. We are ces were offered, or the Sun, we shall not certain of any coined money in not now determine. It is evident, Mo- the world till about A. M. 3460, lech was very early worshipped when Crasus king of Lydia coined among the Ammonites: and perhaps his Crasi, and Darius the Mede his it was the crown of Molech, not of the Darics, or Darkmons. Nor do we Ammonitish king, that David took at know of the Jews coining any till VOL. II. about 400 years after, when Antio-board, &c. have been coined for mochus Sidetes gave Simon the Mac-ney. To this day, the Chinese do cabee a privilege for that purpose. not coin, but cut and weigh their The Romans began to coin silver gold and silver for trade and in about A. M. 3735, and gold in A. M. some nations, they trade with shells 3797. The aucient Britons used and fruits instead of money.-Christ's rings or plates of iron for money. blessings are without money and withThe Lacedemonians used bars of out price; altogether free, neither iron. Anciently, and in straitened price, nor promise of price, being recircumstances, leather, wood, paste-quired from us, Isa. Iv. 1. The value and proportion of the Grecian coins. S. d. q. 1655 240 120 60 30 15 71| 5 2 Pentadrachm 3 2 3 Note 1. Of these, the Drachm, Didrachm, &c. were of silver; the rest, for the most part, of brass; the other parts, as Tridrachm, Triobolus, &c. were sometimes coined. Note 2. I have supposed, with the generality of Authors, that the Drachma and Denarius were equal, though there is reason to believe the Drachma was somewhat the weightier. The Grecian Gold Coin was, The golden Stater, weighing two Attic Drachms, or halfy of the silver Stater, and exchanging usually for 25 Attic Drachms of silver, in our money. According to our proportion of gold to silver 1. s. d. } 0 16 14 1 0 9 for} Stater Philippicus, and Stater Alexandrinus, of the same value Stater Daricus, according to Josephus, worth 50 Attic? Drachms, or Attic} 1 12 3 There was likewise the Stater Cyzicenus, exchanging for? 28 Attic Drachms, or 0 18 1 Stater Cresius, of the same value. |