MORESHETH-GATH (n3 περ, κληρονομίας Γέθ) is mentioned only in Mic 1, in a group with Gath, Zaanan, Lachish, Achzib, Mareshah, and other towns of the Judahite-Philistine region. The daughter of Zion is advised to make a bridal speeding - gift (cf. 1 K 9156, Ex 18?) concerning Men eHERLe ORE Micah is himself a Morashtite, that is, a citizen of Moresheth (Mic 11, Jer 26"), which may or may not be the same place. Moresheth-gath may signify ‘she that takes possession τε Gath,’ or ‘that which Gath pos sesses,’ or simply as a proper name, ‘ Moresheth of Gath,’ with other possible variations. Or the word ‘ gath’ in the combination may be the com- mon noun ‘ winepress.’
In the Onomasticon, and in the Prologue of the Commentary of Jerome on Micah, Morasthi is said to be a village east of, and near by, Eleuther- opolis. There is no sufficient reason for disputing this, though the site has not been identified. Or again, when we note that the context is full of puns on the proper names that are mentioned (Ὁ 18 14> ete), we find it possible to regard
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ploseaett Gat as a play upon the proper name Mareshah, leading up to the statement, ‘I will a bring in to thee him that taketh possession, lady that inhabitest Mareshah’ (15), and so, virtually, as a mere variant of Mareshah. Well- hausen (Kl. Proph. ad loc.) takes ni as vocative, rendering, ‘Thou must let go Moresheth, O Gath,’ and this is favoured by Oxf. Heb. Lex. Nowack (ad loc.) thinks that neither this nor the usual construction gives a sense quite eupete to the context. W. J. BEECHER.
MORIAH, the land of (Gn 22%), or the mountain of (2 Ch 31) (7069, πρῦβα : in Gn, LXX εἰς τὴν γῆν τὴν ὑψηλήν [prob. a paraphr. of conspicuous: πὴ pox in 12%, and mp *3\>s in Dt 11*, are also rendered by LXX ἡ δρῦς ἡ ὑψηλή], Aq. Thy καταφανῆ (connecting the word falsely with 7x7; so Ag. Symm. for mo Dt 11%), Symm. τῆς ὀπτασίας," Vulg. visionis, Onk. (paraphrasing) sph yrx ‘land of worship,’ + Pesh. δον ‘of the Amorites’: in 2 Ch, Τὶ τοῦ Ἄμορεια, Luc. τῷ Αμορια, Vulg. in monte Moria, Pesh. as in Gn, Targ. (late) ‘the mountain of Moriah,’ but with a long Midrash about its being the place where Abraham and others worshipped).—What was originally denoted by this designation is very obscure. It is indeed evident that in 2 Ch 3! the Temple hill is referred to; but this does not settle the sense of the expression ‘land of Moriah’ in Gn 22?: the Chronicler may, in common with the later Jews, have supposed that that was the scene of the sacrifice of ΔΕ το, and borrowed the ex-
ression from Gn 22*—perhaps to suggest (Bau-
issin, Studien, ii. 252) that the spot was chosen already by J” in the patriarchal age. In Gn, how- ever, even supposing—what certainly seems to be implied from the terms of v.“—that the writer ee the sacrifice of Isaac on the Temple hill, he
oes not apply the name Moriah to it: ‘the land of M.’ is the name of the region into which Abra- ham is to go, and he is to offer Isaac on ‘ one of the mountains’ init. The mountain on which Isaac is to be offered does not even seem to be mentioned as a central or important one, from which, for instance, the region might have derived its name : it is merely ‘one’ of the mountains in a region which, so far as the terms of this verse go, might be co-extensive with a large part of Palestine. It is remarkable that, thou Ἢ it is here implied that it is well known to Abraham, the region is not men- tioned elsewhere in the OT. It is difficult, under the circumstances, not to doubt the originality of the text; and it must be admitted that—though it has the disadvantage of being the proclivis lectio, —the reading of Pesh. ‘of the Amorites’ (151° 48, Jos δ᾽ al.) has some claims to be considered the original one.
Heb. pr. names, when accompanied by the art., have the presumption of possessing, or at least of having once possessed, an appellative force : but the meaning of ΠΡ Ὁ is obscure ; and the etymologies that have been proposed are far from satisfac- tory. It is at least certain that it does not mean ‘shewn of Jah’ (which—cf. 17337>, 7;42—would be 7)87>), or ‘ vision of Jah’ (which would be 7:8 5), neither of which forms could pass into mio. For various ‘Midrashic’ explanations of the name, see
Brréshtth Rabba, ad loc. (p. 5681. in Wiinsche’s tr.), or Beer, Leben Abr. nach der Jiid. Sage, pp. 59, 177 f.
It is held by the Samaritans (see ZDPV vi. 198, vii. 133; and above, s.v.), that GERIZIM was the scene of the sacrifice of Isaac; and the same opinion has been advocated by some modern scholars. The
* The same interpretation is expressed by the reading of the Bam. text 7XDA, and by the Sam. Targ. ΠῚ Π ‘of vision’ (cf. Dt 1199 Sam. text x1D, Sam. Tang. 721N ‘of vision’).
Ὁ Of. Onk.’s rendering of v.14: ‘ And Abraham worshipped and prayed there in that place; he said before J”, “‘ Here shall the