The name Maon was given to several places in S. Palestine. Besides Maon near Petra, there was Maon near Hebron, Jos 15°, 1 § 23" 25? (Smith, HGHL 316), and [Beth]-baal-Meon on S.E. of Jordan, Nu 32% (perhaps pyo for py2 Nu 32%), Jos 1317, Jer 48%, Ezk 25°, 1 Ch 58, Moabite Stone, ll. 9, 30. See Gray, Heb. Prop. Names, 126f. Hommel (AHT 273.) makes the suggestion that these places were named after the ancient Arabic kingdom of Ma'‘in, and marked the extent of its northern frontier. G. A. CooKE.
MAR.—To ‘ mar’ (from Anglo-Sax. merran, root MAR, seen in Gr. μαραίνω, to waste) is to damage or disfigure. It is the opposite of to ‘make,’ in opposition to which it is used still and is frequent in Shakespeare. Thus Timon, Iv. ii. 41—
‘For bounty, that makes gods, does still mar men.’
It is used in AV of land spoiled by mice (1 ὃ 6°),t and by stones (2 Καὶ 3"), of a path or road destroyed (Job 30%, RVm ‘break up’), and of vine shoots spoilt by trampling down or plucking off (Nah 25). The potter’s clay-vessel was marred in the turning (Jer 185), and old wine-skins are marred by pouring
* Μιναῖοι can hardly be a transliteration. Gentilic names in -αἴοι are formed from place-names in -a, €.g. Σαβαῖοι, Γεῤῥαῖοι. Thus Μιναῖοι presupposes Μινά, which can hardly be a trans- literation of Ma’ ὅτι. 7 =
t χατοιχεῖ δὲ τὰ μέγιστα τέτταρα ἴθνη τὴν ἰσχάτην λεχθῶσαν χώραν, Μιναῖοι μὲν iv τῷ πρὸς τὴν Ερυθρὰν μέρει, πόλις δ' αὐτῶν ἡ μεγίστη Κάρνα % Κάρνανα ; οἷ. p. 776.
1 Of. Tindale’s tr. of Ex 8% ‘The londe was marred with flyes.
MARA
new wine into them (Mk 2”, ἀπολοῦνται, RV ‘perish’). Jeremiah’s girdle was marred by being put into a damp hole (137), an illustration of the way in which J” will disfigure the pride of Judah and Jerusalem (13°). The visage of the servant of the Lord ‘ was so marred more than any man.’ Cf. Milton, PZ iv. 116, ‘Which marred his borrowed visage,’ and better, Shaks. Jul. Cesar, πι. ii. 201— ‘Kind souls, what, weep you when you but behold
Our Cwsar’s vesture wounded? Look you here, Here is himself, marr’d, as you see, with traitors.’
The Israelites were forbidden to mar the corners of their beard (Lv 1977: it is Tindale’s tr. ‘ Ye shall not rounde the lockes of youre heedes, nether shalt thon marre the tuftes of thy beerde’). The next of kin was afraid that if he married Ruth he shoui-4 mar (the same Heb. as of the marring of the land by mice, and the taking down of Judah’s pride) his inheritance (Ru 4°). The full force of the word as used in AV will be seen from Ex 328 Tind. ‘the poeple which thou broughtest out of the lande of ivipte have marred all’; Jg 2" Cov. ‘ Nevertheles, whan the judge dyed, they turned backe, and marred all more then their fathers’ ; and Ruther- ford, Letters, No. xxx. ‘Madam, many eyes are upon you: and many would be glad your Ladyship should spill a Christian, and mar a good professor. Lord Jesus, mar their godless desires, and keep the conscience whole without a crack.’ J. HASTINGS.
MARA (x2> or ™> [so corrected by Keré]; B Πικρά, A Iexpla).—The name which Naomi claimed for herself: ‘Call me not Naomi (‘ pleasant’), call me Mara (i.e. bitter): for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me’ (Ru 1”). The Latin is able to retain the play upon the words by the use of Mara (id est amaram). H. A. REDPATH.
MARAH (77>).—The first station of the Israelites after crossing the sea, mentioned only Ex 15% and Nu 33°, from which passages it appears that it was distant three days’ journey from the place of crossing. The difficulty of locating the latter has been pointed out under Exopus, vol. i. p. 803. If we assume that the passage was in the neighbour- hood of Suez, then Wady Hawarah, about 15 to 16 hours’ camel-ride from ‘ the Wells of Moses’ (nearly opposite Suez on the E. side of the Gulf of Suez) on the route to the convent of St. Katharine (the traditional Sinai), is a suitable identification. Wady Amara, about 14 hour N. of this, or Wady Ghurundel, about 2 hours to the S., have also been suggested, though the last is generally con- sidered to be Elim. If, on leaving Egypt, the Israelites went by the present haj route towards "Akabah, then Marah must be somewhere on the plateau of the Tih (see Exopus, ii.). If a more northerly position (near the Bitter Lakes) be assumed for the passage, then the position of Marah would not be far from the ‘ Wells of Moses,’ and ‘Ain Ndba or Gharkadeh, about 1 hour to the N. of these wells, has been proposed. Brugsch’s theory would place Marah in the neighbourhood of the Bitter Lakes. In the present state of our knowledge no identification can be made with any degree of probability. Descriptions of some of these sites are to be found in Robinson and Palmer.
The LXX gives for Marah in Ex 15% Μιρρά twice, but renders the word on ita third occurrence by Πικρία, endeavouring to Indicate the meaning of the Hebrew word (cf. Thiersch, de Pent. Vers. Alex. 31ff.). In Nu 335-9 it adopts the form Πικρίαι. The manner in which the Vulg. employs amarus is worth quoting : ‘eo quod essent amara, unde et congruum loco nomen imposuit, vocans illum Mara, id est amaritudinem,’