There is but one site in the neighbourhood with any reminiscence of the ancient name to which these conditions could apply. This is e/-Murussus, about 5 miles N.W. of Beisdn, and 9 miles Εἰ. of Jezreel, on the northern slopes of the vale which runs down from Esdraelon to the Jordan, between Little Hermon and Gilboa. Built entirely of mud, the modern ὙΠΟ stands on rising ground, in the midst of plough land. For water it is dependent on the stream below, in Wady Yebla.
Another suggestion (Moore, Judges, 163) is that Meroz was a hamlet in the Sisera’s flight, ‘whose Israelitish suffered him to escape,’ thus proving traitors to their country’s cause, and earning the fierce re-
roaches of Deborah. Sisera fled ‘to the tent of
ael the wife of Heber the Kenite’ (Jg 417, who had pitched his tent by the terebinth of Betsa’anim by Kedesh. Identifying Kedesh with the ruined Kadish W. of the Sea of Galilee, and Betsa’anim with Khirbet Besstim (Conder, Tent-Work in Pal. 69; Smith, HGHL? 396), the direct road from the battlefield would have been round the base of Tabor, and across the head of Wdady esh-Sherrdr. But as this way was probably barred by the Israel- ites, whose army descended from Tabor, Sisera would most likely rush down the valley of Jezreel, skirting the southern terraces of Little Hermon. In his endeavours to elude pursuit he may easily have approached e/-Murussus before turning north- ward. Phas site, therefore, meets the requirements of either case ; and Moore is not justified in saying that all proposed identifications ‘may safely be dismissed ’ (Judges, p. 162).
Lireraturs.—Guérin, Galilée, j. 127; Smith, HGHL! pp. 896, 396 ; Conder, Tent-Work in Pal, pp. 58, 59; Robinson, BRP ik,
pp- 135, Ting of inhabitants
MESHA 349
356; SWP Mem. ii. 85; Moore, Judges, pp. 135, 162: Hender- son, Palestine, p. 107; Douglas, Judges, p. 38. W. EwInc.
MERRAN (Μερράν, Syr. πο, Vet. Lat. b Myrrhe).—Found only in Bar 3% ‘ the merchanta of Merran and Teman.’ Grotius identified it with πη, a town of Sidonia, Jos 13"; Hiivernick, with Moarrah, a Syrian city ; Fritzsche, with the sterile Arabian desert Mahrah ; and Keil, with Marane, a city placed by Pliny near the Red Sea, in the country of the Sabweans. It is decidedly preferable with Kneucker and Ball to suppose that there has been a misreading of 1 for 1 in the Semitic original from which our Greek text was taken, and that we should read ‘the merchants of Medan (or Midian) and Teman.’ The doubled p is no obstacle to this, since we have appa for my. In favour οἱ it we may cite Gn 3755, where Midianites are called ‘merchants,’ and Hab 3°-7, where Teman and Midian are named in connexion. J. T. MARSHALL.
MESALOTH (Mecoadd0, Μαισαλώθ), 1 Mac 9%.— Probably representing Προ ‘ steps’ or ‘ascents’ (7), referring to the plateau near Arbela, W. of the Sea of Galilee. C. R. CoNDER.
MESHA.—4. (xy) Son of Shaharaim, a Benja- minite, whom his wife Hodesh bare in the land of Moab (1 Ch 8°). LXX reads, A Mwod, B Mica; Vulg. Mosa. The two latter readings seem to have been based on an original πρῶ. 2. ("Ὁ Firstborn of Caleb (1 Ch 2”). He became the father of Ziph, possibly the founder of the Ziphites. LXX reads Mapiod, and the Vulg. Mesa; Kittel (in Haupt’s O7) follows the LXX, reading σφ, which he thinks is to be expected from the context.
3. Mesha (pvp, Mwod), a king of Moab, who was a sheep-master, and was tributary to Auab, king of Israel. Upon the death of the latter and the accession of his son Ahaziah, Mesha rebelled and refused to pay his annual tax of ‘an hundred thousand lambs and an hundred thousand rams with the wool’ (2 Καὶ 3*°5). The people of Mesha had fallen before the arms of David (2S 8°), and in all probability remained subjects of Solomon till the division of the kingdom. The infection of re- bellion at that period probably seized the Moabites, and they, in common with other extra-Israelitish subjects of the united kingdom, struck for in- dependence and secured it. The tenor of the record on the Moabite Stone (wh. see) favours this supposition. It also informs us that the subjection of Moab, which Mesha threw off, was due to the prowess and power of Omri, the founder of the 4th Dynasty of Israel. After forty years of yoke- bearing, Mesha’s god, Chemosh, delivered him from Israel, in the middle of the reign of Omri’s son. This appears to imply that the secession (2 K 1') occurred, not at the death of Ahab, but in the middle of his reign (see ‘Moabite Stone’ in art. MOAB), At any rate this rebellion cut off valuable revenues from Israel’s exchequer, and Jehoram, Ahab’s son, who came to the throne after the two years’ reign of his brother Ahaziah (1 K 9951, 2 K 117), aspired to re-conquer the rebels. With Jehoshaphat of Judah and his army, and the Edomites of Mt. Seir, Jehoram and Israel marched against the seceders. Upon the counsel of the prophet Elisha, the encamped armies dug trenches to catch the water necessary to slake thirst. Led on by an illusion (2 Καὶ 33:3), the Moabite army recklessly rushed into the enemies’ camp, only to be routed, cut to pieces, trodden down, and dismayed. The few escaped ones entered Kir-hareseth, and the combined armies destroyed the land with stones, stopped cisterns and fountains, felled the forests, and beleaguered the fortress. With 700 warriors the king of Moab attempted to break through