It is possible that we ought to understand the word in this second sense in Ps 42°, the reference being to Zion, ‘the little mountain,’ in contrast to the giant Hermon (so Smend, Wellhausen, Sieg- fried-Stade).§ The Psalm may be the expression of the feelings of an Israelite, who, when he has reached the northern boundary of the Holy Land on his way to exile, sends back his sighs to the temple-hill and its services. Of course this involves an alteration of the MT, but all that is necessary is to drop the Ὁ in “πο, which may easily have crept into the text by accidental repetition of the final letter of oyioq5. This would give the rendering, ‘I remember thee, thou little mountain, from the land of Jordan and the Hermons.’ Wellhausen- Furness (in PB), reading, as above, 7 instead of ππρ, tr. ‘ Therefore on thee do I think, thou diminu- tive mountain, above all the land of Jordan and of Hermon,’ i.e. Zion is the one spot in all Palestine (‘the land of the Jordan and of Hermon’) which is
* See note in Driver, Parallel Psalter, p. 464.
t In which case ‘ the little hill of Hermon’ of the Pr. Bk. may be materially correct, although as a transiation of ὈΛΟῚΠ WD Wo it is, of course, quite inaccurate.
{ ‘Isaiah’ elsewhere (10% 2917) uses 1y}> (a word confined to Book of Is) in this sense.
§ Cf. Ps 68156, where the Aigh mountains look askance at ‘the
mountain which God hath desired for his abode’ (0°78 729 3] \A3Y 2).
400 MIZPAH AND MIZPEH
MIZPAH AND MIZPEH
ever present to the Psalmist’s mind. Wellh. (in SBOT) remarks that the expression .yy¥> 7 ‘little mountain,’ for vy¥ 77, is very strange. Ἶ A. SELBIE
MIZPAH and MIZPEH.—A name of several places and towns in Palestine. In most cases it is spelt (in AV) Mizpah, but in severa] instances Mizpeh. The same variety of reading, 77s or 753d, occurs in the original. In three cases only is Mizpeh used with the definite article, viz. Mizpeh a town of Judah (Jos 15%), Mizpeh a town of Benjamin (Jos 18%), and ‘the watch-tower of the wilderness’ (2 Ch 20%). In the other cases the article is omitted, viz. ‘the Valley (bik'ah) of Mizpeh’ (Jos 115), Mizpeh of Gilead (Jg 11”), Mizpeh of Moab (1S 22%); but in these last two instances it would in any case be without the article, as it is followed by a word in the genitive.
Mizpeh (753) is derived from πρὶ to ak out, to view ; from the same root are derived the proper names Zephath (Jg 1”), Zephathah (2 Ch 14”), Ramathaim-zophim (1S 1’; an impossible name),* the field of Zophim(Nu23"). TheTargum translates both Mizpeh and Zophim by xm2o ‘ place of view,’ *watch-tower’(?).t Mizpeh is used to denote either a town (Jos 1533 18%, Jg 11%, 1 S 228) or a watch- tower (2 Ch 20%, Is 218). In the two cases where it is used to denote a watch-tower, it is translated so both in AV and RV, and by LXX τὴν σκοπιάν ; in the other cases the AV and RV render it as a apes name. 3 ἔ
᾿; tepah is always used with the article except in Hos δ΄. It is sit! only in connexion with the land of Mizpah, near Mount Hermon (Jos 11), the site of the heap of stones of witness on Mount Gilead, and the sanctuaries of J” in Benjamin and near Shiloh. It is possible, then, that Mizpah represents an aburigiial name connected with a sanctuary, and hence the play upon the word Mizpah, and its root zaphah (‘ to look out or view’), between Laban and Jacob (Gn 315).
The LXX gives a variety of readings for Mizpeh and Mizpah.
@ = (a) B Μασσώχ, A Μασσηφά. The valley of Mizpeh in the Lebanon (Jos 118). z. Town of Benjamin (Jos 1538), ¢) Β Μασσημά, A Marge. Town of Benjamin (Jos 18%). Μαί(σ)σνυφά. Town of Moab (1S 228), 6) B τὴν σχοπιάν, A τῆς σχοτιᾶς. Mizpehof Gilead Gg 1129), τὴν exemiay, The watch-tower (2 Ch 20%, Is 218),
(α) ἡ ὅρασις (‘that which is seen,’ ‘a vision’). The scene of the covenant between Jacob and Laban in
@)
met before the Lorp(. tana 3). Mizpah of Benjamin, where Gedaliah ruled Israel (2 K 2525 [Β Μασσηφάθ), Jer 406-15 411.10 (Gr. 47615 481.10)), Mizpah near Shiloh (Jg 211. δ. 8),
(@,) B Μασσνηφάθ, A Μασηφάτ, Μασσηφά. Mizpah of Ben- jamin, where Israel met before the Lorp (1 § 7516), = of Benjamin, where Gedaliah giled Israel
ασφί. wes of Benjamin, where Gedaliah had ruled Israel (Neh 319), z. Mizpah of Benjamin in time of Asa (2 Oh
ΟἹ ἡ σχοτιά. Mizpah of Gilead (Jg 1017). Mizpah of Benjamin in time of ae Asa (1 Καὶ 1522).
Josephus gives Μασφά (Ant. vi. iv. 8, vim. xii. 4) for Mizpah of Benjamin, Μασφαθή Cs Vv. vii. 9) and Μασαφθά (x. ix. 2) for Mizpah both of Benjamin and Gilead ; see also Ant. γι. ii. 1.
These differences of name may give some indica- tion of the views held by the LXX as to the location of the various Mizpehs and Mizpahs. The two in the Lebanon and the town of Judah have special names; the remainder, viz. Mizpah or
* See Comm. ad Joc. and art. RAMATHAIM-ZOPHIM.