Other considerat\yns in support of this view may be briefly Indicated :—
MIDWIFE
(1) The poetical references to Sinai, Dt 332, Jg 54 5, Hab 38, imply that the writers regarded Sinai and Seir as contiguous.
(2) The geographical note (Dt 1) and the account of Elijah’s visit to Horeb (1 K 19—the only visit recorded in the OT outside the Pentateuch) supply no definite data for assigning a position to Sinai. The same may be said of Josephus’ account of Elijah (Ant. vu. xiii. 7) and of his other references to Sinai (11. xii. 1, ul. v. 1).
(8) The peninsula at the time of the Exodus was part of Egypt, or inhabited by Egyptian settlers. A journey due east (in the direction of the modern hajj route) would lead the Israelites most quickly to safety, whereas that to the traditional Sinai would bring them again into contact with their Egyptian enemies,
(4) Elim may be a variant of Elath or Eloth, and a place of this name is on the Gulf of Akabah. The encampment by the sea following suits this position very well.
(5) The absence of satisfactory identification of any of the stations on the road to or from Sinai. Of. Exopus AND JOURNEY TO CANAAN, §§ ii. iii., and separate articles.
The question as to the position of Sinai is discussed by Sayce, HCM p. 264 ff. St. Paul's reference, Gal 4%, to Sinai in Arabia is not conclusive as to the position of Sinai, for the boundary of Arabia towards the W., according to Herodotus, reaches to the canal dug by Necho and Darius, and includes part of the coast- line of the Mediterranean to the S. of Gaza (Herod. iii. 5, iv. 89). The LXX speak of Goshen as Γίσεμ 'Αραβίας. Arabia may then include territory as far west as the modern canal. See ARABIA, GOSUEN, SINAL A. T. CHAPMAN.
MIDIANITISH WOMAN (π'} 55), Nu 25°18, by name Cozbi, the daughter of Zur, was brought into the camp of Israel by Zimri the son of Salu. The parents of both were persons in high station. The people were weeping before the door of the tent of meeting (v.°, and from vvy.® ἢ it appears that a plague was raging among Israel at the time); and Phinehas, enraged at this profanation of the camp, thrust both of them through with a spear (‘javelin’ AV). His zeal was rewarded by the promise of an everlasting priesthood to him and to his seed after him (νν. 10.138), The plague was stayed after 24,000 had been slain.
This account (vy.*") belongs to P. According to Wellhausen (Comp. d. Hex. p. 114), it is placed here after the Balaam section because it was originally connected with an account of Balaam, in wh’+b he appears as the counsellor of Midian, advisin, them to tempt Israel by means of their daughters. This part of the narrative has been replaced by the account in vv.'® of Israel’s con- nexion with Moab, and joining themselves to Baal-peor (JE). Here the daughters of Moab make Israel to sin, stress is laid on sacrifice and worship to strange gods, and the ‘judges’ carry out the sentence. But Kuenen doubts whether, in joining the two accounts together, so interesting a detai would have been entirely suppressed, and is dis- posed to think that Balaam’s name did not occur in the original introduction to the story of the Midianitish woman. This is certain, that the two accounts in Nu 25 are from different sources, that they are incomplete, and that emendation must be conjectural. It is probable that νν. 1618 have been added by way of introduction to the account of Nu 31. For further details the writers above mentioned may be consulted, and Dillmann’s commentary on the chapter. A. T. CHAPMAN.
MIDRASH.—See COMMENTARY.
MIDWIFE (nbn, μαῖα, obstetrix. — Midwives must have been employed among the Hebrews from a comparatively early period (Gn 35'7 38%,
Ex 1°); but it would appear that Hebrew women usually had little difficulty in childbirth, and that such assistance was not always required (Ex 113). In some cases the necessary service was rendered by friends or relatives (1 S 4”), as is stili the custom in many parts of the East. From the fact that in Ex 1 only two Hebrew midwives are spoken of, it may perhaps be inferred that they were not a numerous class.
A word used in the narrative of Exodus has
MIGDAL-EDER
aren rise to some difficulty. onyx 'obnayim—a al form meaning apparently ‘ the double stone’ —occurs again only in Jer 18°, where it is applied to the ‘ potter’s wheel.’ In Ex 116 it can hardly denote anything but a special kind of stool used by women in labour. Gesenius (Zhesaurus, p. 17) doubted the early invention of such a contrivance, and interpreted the word of a stone bath in which the child was washed ; but the study of medicine had made considerable progress in Egypt in very early times ; birth-stools of various patterns have been employed in many parts of the world (Ploss, Das Werb?, ii. 35, 179 tf.) ; and at the present day in Egypt a chair of Pecuuay form, called the Kursee elwilddeh, is still in common use (Lane, Modern Egyptians® (1871), ii. 241).
The meaning of the names Shiphrah and Puah is quite uncertain ; whether they are of Hebrew or of Egyptian origin. The statement that ‘God made for these women houses’ (Ex 1*) must refer to their numerous or prosperous families, which were regarded as a reward for their upright and courageous conduct towards their Hebrew patients. H. A. WHITE.