VY. The word occurs also in Pref. to AV, ‘neither is it the plain-dealing Merchant that is unwilling to have the weights or the meteyard brought in place, but he that useth deceit.’ Coverdale has the similar forms ‘meteline’ (Jos 17°: 44) and ‘ meterod’ (Ezk 40* ° 415),
J. HASTINGS.
METHEG-AMMAH.—AV and RVm in 2S 8! *David took Metheg-ammah (77x97 39>) out of the hand of the Philistines.’ AVm has ‘the bridle of Ammah,’ RV text ‘ the bridle of the mother city.’ This last rendering is pronounced to be ‘ rubakie? by Driver (Zext of Sam.), who points out (see his references) that ox has the sense of mother city or capital in Phenician. ‘The bridle of the mother city’ would mean the authority of the metropolis or capital of the Philistines, namely Gath (so Ges.,
Keil, Stade). Budde [in SBOT] makes various objections to this, and leaves the expression blank in his Heb. text as irrecoverably corrupt. “he LXX reads τὴν ἀφωρισμένην, which may, according to Wellhausen, imply a reading aeun>. Wellh. himself (Sam. 174) emends to 7x7 n3 ‘Gath the mother city,’ comparing 1 Ch 18! pi) πὸ (‘Gath and her daughter towns’), which he argues may have arisen from the text he postulates in Samuel. Klostermann attempts to obtain from the two texts (of S and Ch) a> abyarny) na-nx ‘Gath and her border to the west.’ Thenius emends to 3n> moa ‘bridle of tribute,’ ¢e. ‘David laid the Philistines under tribute.’ Lohr despairs of re- covering either the meaning or the text. Cheyne (Expos. Times, Oct. 1899, p. 48) emends to 77 x-ny pn tino, ‘Ashdod, the city of the sea.’ Sayce (LHH 414n.) ayia that 2x7 255 is the Heb. transcription of the Bab. métég ammati (for métég ammati) =‘the highroad of the mainland’ of Pales- tine. The reference would thus be to the command of the highroad of trade which passed through Canaan from Asia to Egypt and Arabia; but the appearance of such distinctively Babylonian words in Hebrew of this date is extremely improbable. J. A. SELBIE. METHUSELAH (nbzan>),—A Sethite, the father of Lamech, Gn 57%, P (A Μαθουσάλα), 1 Ch 13 (B Μαθθουσάλα, A Μαθουσάλα), Lk 3537 (Ma@oved\a)= METHUSHAEL (which see) in J’s genealogy, 4%. The name n22:n> is interpreted by Holzinger as ‘man of the javelin’ (Mann des Geschosses), a fitting name for a time when the earth was full of violence. Ball (in SBOT), follow- ing Hommel (PSBA, March 1893), makes the name=‘man of Selah,’ where Selah may be a modification of Bab. Sarrahu, a title of Sin, the god of Ur Casdim. Methuselah would thus answer to Berosus’ ᾿Αμέμψινος = Amel-Sin, ‘Sin’s man.’ While Ball remarks that the form Methushael, *man of El,’ is less original than Methuselah ‘man of Selah,’ Sayce (in Expos. Times, May 1896, p. 367) suggests that Methushael, an exact tran- scription of the Bab. Mutu-sa-ili, has been in ‘the Sethite genealogy corrupted into Methuselah (per- haps for Mutu-3a-ilatt, ‘man or husband of the goddess’), which does not admit of an etymology.’ J. A. SELBIE. METHUSHAEL (bxy:nz).—A Cainite, the father of Lamech, Gn 438 (J) ; (A) Μαϑθουσαλά, which is read also for Methuselah (nbyin>) in P’s gene- alogy, 5"*. The interpretations of the name are various. Dillm. remarks that $xyin2 may have meant ‘suppliant or man of God’ (Ges. Thes. ;= Mutu-Sa-ili according to Lenormant, Origines de Uhistoire?, 262 f., ef. Rave in Expos. Times, May 1896, p. 367, May 1899, p. 353; Hommel, ZDMv? xxxil. 714), or ‘one who has been obtained by asking’ (Budde), but not ‘man of Sheol’ (Redslob). See, further, Spurrell, Notes on Genesis, ad loc.; Gray, Heb. Proper Names, 164f.; Budde, Ur- panes ΤΙ 129. J. A. SELBIE.
METRE.—See POETRY. MEUNIM.—See Maon. MEUZAL.—Ezk 27" AVm. See UZAL.
ME-ZAHAB (37: ‘> ‘ waters of gold’).—Father of Matred and grandfather of Mehetabel the wife of Hadar (Hadad), one of the kings of Edom, Gn 36" (A Metod8)=1 Ch 1” (LXX om.). The name J/é- zahab (cf. Mé-deba) is certainly, as Hommel (AH7 264n.) remarks, much more like that of a place than ofaperson. Holzinger (Gen. ad loc.) suggests that it is the same name which appears in a cor- rupted form in Dt 11 as 25) 4) Di-zahab. Hommel
MEZOBAITE
358
(lc.) makes the radical suggestion that ‘it is a question whether we ought not to restore Gn 36° as follows: ‘‘and his (Hadar’s) cities were Pa'ish (in MT Pa't, var. Pai, LXX Φογώρ), Me'eshet, Mehétab-el, Bath-Matred, and Mé-zahab.”’
MEZOBAITE.—One of David's heroes is called in 1Ch 117 ‘Jaasiel the Mezobaite’ (72877). ΑΒ Kittel (in 5.80 1717 remarks, the MT is ‘ certainly incorrect, but totally obscure.’ B has Μειναβειά, A Μεσωβιά, Luc. Μασαβιά.
MIBHAR.—In 1 Ch 11® one of David’s heroes appears as ‘Mibhar the son of Hagri’ (73 7922 5). The parallel passage 2 S 23% reads, ‘ of Zobah, Bani the Gadite’ ("137 +33 43%>), which is probably the correct text. While the LXX has, in 1 Ch 118, B Μεβαὰλ υἱὸς ‘Ayapel, A Μαβὰρ υἱὸς '"Αταραί, it reads in 2S 23% ἀπὸ δυνάμεως [1.6. 82¥D instead of 73¥D] υἱὸς Tadaaddel (B; A. . . Γαδδί). See Driver (Text of Sam. 284) and Kittel (SBOT on 1 Ch 1188),
MIBSAM (ov2>).—1. A son of Ishmael, Gn 2518 (A Maccdu)=1 Ch 1° (B Μασσά, A Μαβσάν). 2.A Simeonite, 1 Ch 4" (B Μαβασάμ, A Μαβασάν).
MIBZAR (7y20 ‘ fortification’). — A ‘duke’ of Edom, Gn 36 (Mafdp)=1 Ch 1% (B Matdp, A Mafcdp). If we take Mibzar as a place-name, Dillm. rejects decidedly Knobel’s identification with Sela or Petra, and, while pronouncing Hitzig’s view ‘more possible’ that Mibzar is the same as Bograh of ν. 3, he thinks it ‘most probable,’ in view of the words of the Onomasticon (ἔτι καὶ viv κώμη μεγίστη Μαβσαρὰ ἐπὶ τῆς Γαβαληνῆς, ὑπακούουσα τῇ Πέτρᾳ), that this identification must also be given up.