follows :—
Ὁ the planet Jupiter approach,’ etc. etc. ete.,
Want ina samé ina manzalti-sunu tzzazzini
parakke-tunu dahdu inammaru,
*the gods in the heavens in their station remain, their shrines will see plenty.’ (WAL iii. 69, 85-36).
MEADOW 307
This comparison, however, is not without its diffi- culties, as the Assyr. word is for manzazti, from nazazu, ‘to stand,’ whence also manzazu, ‘station,’ ‘resting-place.’ This, of course, would disconnect mazzaréth and mazzaléth from the late singular form mazzal.* Other renderings of mazzaréth that may be noted are the Syriac (Peshitta) agalta, ‘the wain,’ or ‘the great bear’; ‘Lucifer, the morning star’ (Procopius of Gaza); ‘stars
generall , and ‘a northern constellation’ (Aben
zra and R. Levi ben Gershon), ete.
The Babylonian names of the twelve signs of the Zodiac are given in vol. i. p. 192 (footnote), and the inhabitants of that country were accus- tomed to observe them and to note the dates when the moon and the planets entered them, for the purpose of forecasting events, drawing up horo- scopes, etc. These people were therefore wont to see Mazzaroth “led. forth in their season,’ and the passage in Job where this word occurs would seem to point to the author of the book being as well acquainted as they with the wonders of the starry heavens. T. G. PINCHES.
MAZZEBAH.—See PILLAR. MAZZOTH.—See PASSOVER.
MEADOW.—This purely English word (Anglo- Saxon, Medu, Medewe) occurs in the AV only in Gn 41% 8 and Jg 20%.
14. In Gn 41*38 πὶ (LXX ἄχει), the word tr? ‘meadow’ is of Egyptian (demotic ayu) origin (ef. Jerome on Is 19’; Wiedemann, Sammlung altagyptischer Worter, p. 16; Ebers, gypten und die Bucher Mose’s, p. 338), and believed to mean the reed-grass (so RV) which in Lower Egypt borders the Nile and its branches, together with the marsh-lands, during floods.t As suggested, also, in the art. MEADOW in Smith’s DB, the word may denote the pasturage afforded by the growing crops during high Nile. But the pasturage of cattle was carried on extensively in Lower Egypt under the Old Empire. In modern Egypt cattle are fed in cultivated clover fields, for there are but few natural meadows of wild grass; but in ancient Egypt it was otherwise. As we know from numerous Egyptian tablets, cattle were fed on the stretches of marshy land in the Delta, whether beds of old rivers or water courses, or such extensive shallows as that of Lak. Menzaleh, now covered by brackish water, bus once forming to a large extent one of the most
roductive tracts in Egypt.t The dream of
haraoh, therefore, in which the fat cattle were seen to feed in the reed-grass by the river side was the natural suggestion to the mind during sleep of a custom which he may often have Mey oan = are
2. Jg ( yo2 πω ; B Μαρααγάβε, υσμῶν τῆς Γαβαά; Vulg. a aenentals urbis parte; AV
*It is worthy of note that the Assyr. intermediate form mazzarti has not yet been found, and that, if found, it would be singular, like manzalti. On the other hand, the plural, if regular, would be manzazati (l or r changing back toz before a vowel), and ought to have been borrowed by the Hebrews, not as mazzdroth or mazzaloth, but as mazzazéth, Both Heb. forms, therefore, if borrowed from Assyr., must have come from the Assyr. singular without regard to the original root of the word.
+ 3N& occurs also in Job 81) (LXX σάσυρος; AV, RV ‘rush,’ RVm ‘ papyrus’), and should be restored in Hos 18!5 (ΟΝ for O'nk (Oxf. Heb, Lex.), or read IN¥ O° 1.23 (Wellh. and Nowack})
* Meadows’ is introduced by RV also in Is 197 (AV ‘paper reeds’). The Heb. is ΠΥ, a ae. Ary. ; LXX (so also Syr.) has ax. It is just possible that they may have read or misread ning for ny. The LXX reads ἄχω also in Sir 4016 (AV ‘weed, RV ‘sedge’). The recently recovered Heb. text has MO), which is prob. a corruption (see Konig in Expos. Times, Aug. 1899, p. 618 f.). A
t Adolf Erman, gypten, translated as Life in Ancient Egypt by H. M. Ti » Pp. 488-444 (1594).
208 MEAH
‘meadows of Gibeah,’ RVm ‘ meadow of Geba,’ RV Maareh-geba). Much uncertainty attaches to the correct tr" of this passage. By alteration of the vowel-points adopted in MT, the word signifies ‘a cave’ (72>). So Studer, following the “Peshitta. This is a probable enough translation, as the position of Gibeah (which is the correct reading, not Geba), high up amongst the hills of Central Palestine, puts the idea of meadows in connexion therewith out of the question. On the other hand, caves amongst the limestone rocks are not in- frequent in Palestine. Of Gibeah (Tuleil el-F iil) Tristram says: ‘Dreary and desolate, scarce any ruins, save a confused mass of stones, which form a sort of cairn on the top [of the hill]. As we recall also the hideous dead of the men of Gibeah, the blighting doom seems to have settled over the spot? (Land of Israel, p. 171).
Another probable emendation, in the line of LXX (A) and Vulg., is “Ὁ aqyee ‘to the west of Gibeah.’ See MAAREH-GEBA. E. HULL.
MEAH.—See HAMMEAH.
MEAL.—1. A repast, the portion of food eaten at one time. The word is used only in the com- pound ‘Mealtime’ (Ru 2'4), where it is the tr. of