Benjamin was now in peaceful possession of Michmash, and there is no further record of it until the time of the Assyrians’ threatened march on Jerusalem in the reign of king Hezekiah, spoken of by Isaiah (10%). Sennacherib is de- picted as coming along the northern road from Samaria against Jerusalem, along the backbone of the mountain chain; but instead of passing south from Bethel to Beeroth he turns aside to the eastern slopes towards Ai, and passin Migron (the precipice) lays up his baggage (A carriages) at Michmash, because they could go no farther in a southerly direction. See, further, Micron. The Philistines, when they brought their chariots to Michmash, came from the west. The host of Sennacherib then go on foot to Geba, where they make a lodgment. They arrive here over the rg or pass of Michmash, mentioned as the place where the Philistine garrison was encamped before Geba when Jonathan scaled the crag Bozez (1S 1333 144). The town Makaz (1 Καὶ 4°) is given by the LXX as Max(e)uds. See MAKAZ.
Ezra relates (2”, Neh 731) that one hundred and twenty-two men of Michmas came with Zerub- babel out of the Captivity unto Jerusalem and Judah.
When Bacchides returned to Antioch with his army from Juda, after having been so rudely repulsed by Jonathan Maccabeus, Michmash was made the seat of government, and Jonathan dwelt there, 1 Mac 9",
MICHRI
Eusebius and Jerome describe Machmas as a large village 9 miles distant from Jerusalem and not far from Ramah (Onomast. s. ‘Machmas’). In the Middle Ages the site of Michmash was removed to el-Bireh (Beeroth). Cf. Brocardus, c. 7; Quaresmius, ii. p. 786; Maundrell.
The Mishna describes Michmash as famous for its barley, giving rise to the Talmudic proverb ‘to bring barley to Michmash’ (Reland, Pa/. 897).
The great yoy west of Ai, which runs to Jericho as the Wady Kelt, becomes a narrow gorge, a great crack or fissure in the country. On the south side of this great chasm stands Jeba (Geba of Benjamin) on a rocky knoll, with caverns be- neath the town and arable land to the east. Looking across the valley, the stony hills and white chalky slopes present a desolate appear- ance ; and on the opposite side, considerably lower than Jeba, is the little village of Mukhmds (Mich- mash), on a sort of saddle backed by an open and fertile corn valley (Conder, Tent- Work in Palestine, ii. 112). With regard to the description of Michmash by Josephus, Conder states, ‘ Exactly such a natural fortress exists immediately east of the village of Michmash, and it is still called the fort by the peasantry. It is a ridge rising in thin rounded knolls above a perpendicular crag, ending in a narrow tongue to the east with clitis below, and having an open eller behind it, and a saddle towards the west on which Michmash itself is situated. Opposite this fortress to the south there is a crag of equal height, and iri impass- able: thus ta2 description of the Old Testament is fully borne out’ (1S 14. ‘The picture is unchanged simze the days when Jonathan looked over the white camping-ground of the Philistines, and Bozez must then have shone as brightly as it does now, in the full light of an Eastern sun. To any one looking over the valley it seems a most difficult feat to cross it, and, in the words of Josephus, ‘‘it was considered impossible not only to ascend to the camp on that quarter, but even to come near it”’ (Tent-Work in Pal. ii. 113). Mukhmfs is a small stone village. The water supply is from cisterns, with a well to each. On the north are rock-cut tombs. There are foundations and remains of former buildings in the village, and the iasonry of what appears to have been a church (SW vol. iii.).
LITERATURE.—Josephus, Ant. vi. vi. 2; Robinson, BRP%, i. 440ff.; Tristram, Land of Israel (Index); Conder, Tent-Work in Palestine (Index); Buh!, GAP 176; Guérin, Judee, iii. 63 ff.; G. A. Smith, HGHL'178 n. 1, 250, 291. C. WARREN.
MICHMETHAH (apo2n with art.).—The name of a place on the north border of Ephraim, to the east of Shechem, Jos 165 (B Ἱκασμών, A Μαχθώθ, Lue. εἰς ᾿Αχθώθ) 177 (where ‘nn wWxp of MT is represented in B by Δηλανάθ, A and Lue. ἀπὸ ᾿Ασὴρ Μαχθώθ). From the circumstance that the art. is
refixed, Siegfried-Stade suggest that ‘97 may not
6. a proper name, but an appellative. If so, its meaning must remain obscure, as the meaning of the root [nD2] is quite unknown. The name may perhaps exist in a corrupt form as Mukhnah, applying to the plain east of Shechem. The change may be compared with that which has certain (mod.
taken place in the case of Michmash Mukhmds), and the change of πὶ for m is not infrequent in Aramaic as compared with
Hebrew. ut Mukhnah may also stand for mahaneh ‘camp,’ a term applied in two cases (Mahanaim and Mahaneh-dan) to plains. Buhl (GAP 202) conjectures that Michmethah may be Khirbet kefr beita, between Sichem and Tana. C. R. CONDER.
MICHRI (4>2).—Eponym of a Benjamite family.
1Ch 9° (B Maxelp, A Moxopé, Luc. Μαχειρί).
MICHTAM
MIDIAN, MIDIANITES 365
MICHTAM.—See PsALms.
MIDDIN (772; B apparently Alvdy, A Maddy, Luc. Maddetv).—A town in the wilderness (midbar) of Judah, Jos 15%. The site has not been re- covered. If we might suppose }7> to be an early clerical error for 1, the site of Mird on the lateau S.W. of Jericho would be a likely one.