Most probably we should revert to a sugges- tion of Thomson (Land and Book, ch. xv.), who identified it with Musheirifeh or ‘Ain Meserfi, a site on the coast, S. of Ras en-Nakhurah or the Pedder of Tyre (Seetzen, ii. 109; Scholz, Reise,
54).
This position would agree much better than Zarephath with the only other passage in which the name occurs (Jos 13°). There the Zidonians, who are not yet dispossessed, are said to extend from Lebanon to Misrephoth-maim. We should scarcely expect Zarephath, a place which lay be- tween Tyre and Zidon, to be given as the S. point of the dominion of Zidon, while the Ladder of Tyre might well be so named. A. C. WELCH.
MITE.—See MONEY.
MITHKAH (apn>, Ματεκκά B, Μαθεκκά AF, Methca Vulg.).—One of the 12 stations following Hazeroth, Nu 33%”, See EXODUS AND JOURNEY TO CANAAN, vol. i. p. 805a, 8 iii.
MITHNITE (:3n>7). — ‘ Joshaphat the Mithnite’ appears in the catalogue of David’s officers in 1 Ch 115 (B ὁ Βαιθανεί, A ὁ Ma@@avi). This gentilic name
would imply the existence of a place called jno (however we may vocalize that word), which, how- ever, is nowhere mentioned in OT. Kittel (in SBOT, ad loc.) suggests that the LXX (A) and Vulg. (the latter has Mathanites) readings appear to have jp> in mind, in which case the gentiJic name would be vocalized ‘japa.
MITHRADATES.—4. (A Μιθραδάτης, B -ριδ-, AV Mithridates), 1 Es 2" (LXX 10) = MITHREDATH, Ezr 15, the treasurer of Cyrus king of Persia. 1 Es, by translating his title 13}: correctly with yato- φύλαξ, shows itself independent of the LXX of Ezr, which renders it as a proper name Τασβαρηνός. 2. (BA* Μιθραδ-, A*™4 Be> Μιθριδ-, AV Mithri- dates), 1 Es 2° (LXX 4%)=MITHREDATH, Ezr 4’, a
MITYLENE
Persian officer stationed in Samaria under Arta xerxes.
MITHREDATH (nzn>, Pers. =‘ given by Mithra, or the sun’; Μιθραδάτης ; 1 Es 2" Μιθριδάτης B, ν.}6 ΒΡ Α΄; Mithridates).—1. The Persian treasurer, whom Cyrus commanded to deliver to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah, the sacred vessels taken from the temple by Nebuchadrezzar (Ezr 15).
2. Apparently a Persian officer stationed in Samaria. Together with his colleagues he wrote to Artaxerxes (Longimanus) to hinder the rebuild- ing of the walls of Jerusalem (Ezr 47). The corre- spondence between the Samaritans and the Persian court probably took place in the interval between the missions of Ezra and of Nehemiah.
MITRE.—1. The word used in AV for n5}¥> (LXX μίτρα or κίδαρις), the official head-dress of the Heb. high priest (Ex 28: *7- 9 298 39°5- 81, Ly 89 164; ef. also Ezk 21%}. RVm has ‘turban,’ except in Ezk 21%, where AV has ‘diadem’ and RV ‘mitre,’ without marginal note. The head-dress of the ordinary priest was 7332 (AV bonnet, RV headtire). The mitre of the high priest was, like the headtire of the subordinate priests, of fine linen, and was made from a piece, said by the Rabbins to have been sixteen cubits long, rolled into a sort of turban. Hence its name, from 43 ‘ to wind.’ On the front of the mitre, just above the high priest’s forehead, was the sacred crown (see CROWN, 2). The precise shape of the mitre is, however, disputed. It is frequently represented as lower, rounder, fuller at the sides, and resting more lightly on the head than the headtire of the ordinary priests, which was shaped somewhat like a helmet (so Braunius, de Vest. Sacerd. Heb. lib. ii. cap. 21). On the other hand, Bahr (Symb. ii. p. 110) maintains that it was higher and longer, though perhaps, as Maimonides seems to imply, with the top bending over. The description ° dS oeenhae (Ant. τη. vii. 6, ‘The (high priest’s) hat was similar to that used by all the priests, but above it was sewn another embroidered with blue’) has given trouble to archeologists; and Philo (de Vit. Mos. iii. 11) seems to speak of a third part of the head-dress, besides mitre and crown, which he calls κίδαρις or diadem. The language of OT is, in fact, quite indefinite as to the shape of the mitre, and Philo and Josephus may either have misinterpreted its expressions, or have had in mind later embellish- ments. The mitre was as representative of the priestly dignity as the crown or diadem was of the royal. Hencein Ezk 21% ‘Remove the mitre; and take off the crown’ (RV), may signify the desola- tion of both priesthood and monarchy.
2. Another word (53) from the same root is in Zec 3° tr4 ‘mitre’ in AV and RV (RVm ‘turban or diadem’), and is applied, apparently as a syn- onym of the technical word described above, to the head-dress which the prophet saw placed on Joshua the high priest. It is also found in Job 29% (AV ‘diadem, RVm ‘ turban’) in a figurative descrip- tion of a righteous man arrayed in the garments of nobility ; in Is 3% (AV ‘hoods,’ RV ‘ turbans’) as an article of elaborate female attire (cf. μίτρα in Jth 168, Bar 5%); and in Is 62° Keré (AV and RV ‘diadem’) as a symbol of the honour which J” will place upon His people. See HEAD-DRESS.
G. T. PURVEs.
MITYLENE (Μιτυλήνη), or Mytilene (as usually spelt on coins, ef. Blass on Ac 114), the chief town of Lesbos, lies on the E. side of that island, about 10 or 12 miles from the coast of Asia. M. itself was originally built on a small island, and perhaps joined to Lesbos by a causeway which formed two excellent natural harbours, one on the N. and the other on the S. St. Paul on his return from his